How Safe Are The Bridges Near You?
Posted on Wednesday, 11 of November , 2009 at 1:23 pm
WARREN COUNTY—With the closing of the Lake Champlain bridge due to structural deficiencies, there has been an heightened awareness of bridge safety.
A disturbing 41% of the bridges in Warren County are structurally deficient by New York State standards, according to data released Tuesday by the state Department of Transportation.
Fifty-five of the 134 bridges in Warren County have a condition rating of less than 5.
According to DOT, the two most deficient bridges in the county with ratings of less than 2.5 are both in the Town of Warrensburg spanning the Schroon River, one a mile northwest of the Northway Exit 24, County Route 10 to River Road with a rating of 2.070 and the other on Milton St. with a rating of 2.492. https://www.nysdot.gov/main/bridgedata
NYSDOT defines a deficient bridge as one with a State condition rating less than 5.0. A deficient condition rating indicates deterioration at a level that requires corrective maintenance or rehabilitation to restore the bridge to its fully functional, non-deficient condition. It does not mean that the bridge is unsafe.
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Bridges are considered “structurally deficient,” according to the Federal Highway Administration, if the condition rating of one of its major components is less than 5, the bridge has inadequate load capacity, or repeated bridge flooding causes traffic delays. The fact that a bridge is “structurally deficient” does not imply that it is unsafe or likely to collapse.
Based upon data submitted to the FHWA in April 2009, about 12 percent of the highway bridges in New York State are classified, under the broad federal standards, as structurally deficient and about 25 percent are classified as functionally obsolete. Those classifications do not mean the bridges are unsafe, rather that they would require repairs or modifications to restore their condition or improve their functionality. Again, if a bridge is deemed unsafe, it is closed to traffic. These statistics help highlight bridges that should be considered for further review, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation or replacement.
All publicly owned highway bridges receive a general inspection at least once every two years. Bridges are inspected annually if they meet certain condition deficiency criteria or are posted for limited load weights.
New York State is home to more than 17,000 highway bridges, about 44 percent of them owned by the State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), roughly 50 percent owned by municipalities, and the rest owned by state and local authorities (such as the State Thruway Authority), commissions (such as the Capital District State Park Commission), and railroads (such as CSX Corporation, Inc.).
During an inspection in New York State, a bridge inspector is required to evaluate, assign a condition score, and document the conditions of up to 47 bridge elements. These include the ratings collected for 25 components of each span of each bridge, in addition to general components common to all bridges and bridge approaches.
Information collected during the inspection process is also used to analyze the bridge’s capacity to carry vehicular loads. Bridges having inadequate capacity to safely carry legal loads are “load-posted,” which caps the weight of vehicles allowed on the bridges.
An unsafe highway bridge is one that cannot reliably carry the loads it was posted for, or poses danger to the vehicular and pedestrian traffic it carries or travels below it.
In addition to being subjected to regular condition inspections, all bridges are analyzed for their capacity to carry vehicular loads. Critical measurements needed to support these analyses are recorded during the bridge inspection process. Bridges that cannot safely carry heavy vehicles, such as some tractor trailers, are posted with weight limits. Based upon inspection and load capacity analysis, any bridge deemed unsafe gets closed
NYSDOT also has a permitting program for vehicles carrying extra large or heavy loads. Staff evaluates the ability of highways and bridges to accommodate those loads and issues vehicle permits and selects travel routes for those vehicles based upon those detailed evaluations. 11-11-09
Category: Environment, Government, New York State, Warren County
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