TxDOT Releases List of State

After a review of state and federal regulations governing the release of infrastructure data, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) recently released a list of the state’s 2,024 structurally deficient bridges. TxDOT’s decision was reached after examining rules that strictly limit the release of bridge information collected for federal reports and additional homeland security constraints on the publication of data regarding the state’s critical infrastructure.
TxDOT’s records indicate that 4 percent of the state’s bridges are listed as structurally deficient. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reports that in 2006, 12 percent of the nation’s bridges were identified as structurally deficient. TxDOT’s program to inspect all 50,000 of the state’s bridges and rehabilitate and replace bridges that require improvement has yielded the following results: In 2002, Texas was home to 2,928 structurally deficient bridges. The current figure is a 31 percent reduction in structurally deficient bridges.
The term “structurally deficient” is a technical term that has been used in news accounts and public discussions to describe a bridge that is unsafe or presents an imminent danger to the driving public. It is a term used by the Federal Highway Administration to classify and prioritize bridges for federal funding. Structurally deficient bridges receive priority for limited rehabilitation on replacement funds from the federal government. Bridges that are unsafe or present an imminent public danger are closed to traffic.
Of the state’s bridges classified as “structurally deficient,” 445 are on the state highway system and 1,579 are off-system structures. Some 282 bridges classified as structurally deficient are currently under contract to be rehabilitated or replaced. Another 1,303 bridges classified as structurally deficient are under development as part of the state’s Unified Transportation Plan. The state’s remaining 439 bridges classified as structurally deficient are not currently scheduled for rehabilitation or replacement, and no funding has been identified for them.
To see if any of the bridges in your county are on the state’s list of structurally deficient bridges, go to the department’s Web site at www.txdot.gov.