You probably drive or ride across a structurally deficient bridge everyday and don’t know it. Fortunately the group Transportation for America has mapped all the deathtraps for you so you can have yet another thing to worry about.
U.S. states, ranked by percentage of deficient bridges top 10 is below, the full list is here.
| State | Rank | Total # of bridges | # of deficient bridges | Percent deficient | Average daily traffic on all bridges | Average daily traffic on deficient bridges | % of daily bridge traffic on deficient bridges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Total | 599,996 | 68,842 | 11.50% | 4,388,951,391 | 282,672,680 | 6.40% | |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | 22,271 | 5,906 | 26.50% | 129,881,848 | 22,773,880 | 17.50% |
| Oklahoma | 2 | 23,680 | 5,212 | 22.00% | 67,907,691 | 7,459,023 | 11.00% |
| Iowa | 3 | 24,722 | 5,371 | 21.70% | 32,277,265 | 2,324,224 | 7.20% |
| Rhode Island | 4 | 754 | 163 | 21.60% | 15,864,727 | 3,000,502 | 18.90% |
| South Dakota | 5 | 5,890 | 1,193 | 20.30% | 6,848,545 | 314,902 | 4.60% |
| Nebraska | 6 | 15,372 | 2,795 | 18.20% | 21,997,416 | 713,302 | 3.20% |
| Missouri | 7 | 23,945 | 4,071 | 17.00% | 84,592,901 | 5,946,151 | 7.00% |
| West Virginia | 8 | 5,734 | 957 | 16.70% | 23,752,737 | 2,648,822 | 11.20% |
| North Dakota | 9 | 4,410 | 710 | 16.10% | 4,741,813 | 112,165 | 2.40% |
| Mississippi | 10 | 17,063 | 2,650 | 15.50% | 45,859,595 | 1,442,365 | 3.10% |
The good news is that for only $70B we can fix most of these bridges. The full report can be found here (PDF).
Happy driving!
Source SFGate / Image TFA
