More than 1,100 Bridges in Texas Need Structural Repair, New DOT Analysis Reports

An analysis of the recently-released 2014 U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) National Bridge Inventory database finds that 61,000 structurally deficient bridges exist across the nation and are still in need of significant repair.

For Texans, it is a problem that hits close to home.

The analysis of the federal government data, conducted by American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) Chief Economist Dr. Alison Premo Black, shows cars, trucks and school buses cross Texas’s 1,127 structurally compromised bridges 2.5 million times every day.  Not surprisingly, the most heavily traveled are on the Interstate Highway System, which carries the bulk of truck traffic and passenger vehicles.

The bridge problem could get a whole lot worse soon, Black warns.  The federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is the source of 52 percent of highway and bridge capital investments made annually by state governments.

The HTF has suffered five revenue shortfalls between 2008 and 2014, and has been bailed out with nearly $65 billion in revenues from the General Fund just to preserve existing investment levels.  The latest extension of federal highway and transit funding through the HTF expires on May 31, absent congressional action.

Nearly a dozen states so far have canceled or delayed road and bridge projects because of the continued uncertainty over the trust fund situation.  ARTBA expects that number to increase as the deadline nears.

“State and local governments are doing the best they can to address these significant challenges, given limited resources,” Black says.  Bridge investments have been growing in recent years, Black says, but it has come at the expense of highway and pavement spending, which has dropped over 20 percent in the last five years.

Category: General Update