SHORT SPANS: YEAR 2006 ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE FEDERAL BRIDGE PROGRAM

During state fiscal year (FY) 2006 (ending Aug. 31, 2006), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) currently projects that it will let to contract projects under the Federal Bridge Program to replace or rehabilitate some 314 structurally deficient or functionally obsolete (collectively referred to as deficient) bridges located on the public highways, roads and streets across the state. As shown in Table 1, the cumulative cost of the bridgework amounts to approximately $382.9 million. Also shown in Table 1 is the breakdown of the bridgework between on- and off-state highway systems.
Table 2 provides information on the off-state system bridgework on county roads and city streets for the five-year, 2002-2006 periods. The off system work for FY 2006 involved the remedy of 154 deficient bridges at a cost of $51.7 million. This dollar-amount of work was more than the previous year and well above the yearly average for the five-year period.
In Table 3, the FY 2006 off-system bridge program work is further broken down by county roads and city streets.
Since 1979, when the federal-aid, off-state system bridge program was authorized by the 1978 Federal-Aid Highway Act, some 2,161 deficient bridges on county roads and city streets across the state have been replaced or rehabilitated under the program at a cost of approximately $550 million.
Most of the projects that were originally authorized for construction under the FY 2006 federal bridge program that were not let to contract construction during fiscal year 2006 will be carried over and combined with newly added projects into a new 2007 program.
The Equivalent Match Program (EMP) initiated by TxDOT in 2000 to assist local governments in paying the required 10 percent of the cost of federal off-system bridge projects is having great success. TxDOT covers the 10 percent local contribution provided that the local government spends an equal amount of money upgrading other deficient bridges in the area.
In FY 2005, local governments improved an additional 223 structures as part of this program. Local governments interested in the EMP program should contact their local TxDOT District
By Michael O’Toole, P.E., Director of Project Development, Bridge Division, TxDOT