Massachusetts Has Nearly 500 'Structurally Deficient' Bridges

There are nearly 500 structurally deficient bridges in Massachusetts, including 60 on the state's busy urban interstates, according to a recent nationwide report. Among the most heavily traveled: the Interstate 93 bridge over Route 24 in Randolph, with more than 200,000 crossings each day.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, published its annual bridge report Monday. The group ranked Massachusetts 16th-worst in the nation with more than 9 percent of its bridges structurally deficient. The report also said that an overwhelming 91 percent of the state's bridges are at least in need of some form of repair.

Here’s what the group found:

• Total bridges in Massachusetts: 5,215
• Structurally deficient bridges: 481
• Percent of bridges that are structurally deficient: 9.2
• Total number of bridges in need of repair: 4,768
• Cost to repair those bridges: $9.5 billion

The 2019 national bridge report found there are more than 47,000 bridges rated “structurally deficient” and in urgent need of repairs. Americans cross these bridges — which were built an average of 62 years ago — 178 million times a day.

"If placed end-to-end, they would stretch nearly 1,100 miles — the distance between Chicago and Houston," the report stated.

While that number might sound like a lot, the total number of structurally deficient bridges has fallen by about 1 percentage point since 2014 to 7.6 percent. And it would take decades to repair them all.

"At this rate, it would take over 80 years to make the significant repairs needed on these structures," the report stated.

Some of the notable bridges deemed structurally deficient include:

• New York’s Brooklyn Bridge
• Memorial Bridge connecting Washington, D.C. with Arlington, Virginia
• San Mateo-Hayward bridge crossing California’s San Francisco Bay – the longest bridge in the state.
• Robert S. Maestri Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana
• Albemarle Sound Bridge and the Lindsay C. Warren Bridge crossing the Alligator River in North Carolina
• Florida’s Pensacola Bay Bridge
• Vicksburg Bridge in Mississippi
• Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge in Washington state

Rhode Island had the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges at 23 percent. West Virginia, Iowa, South Dakota and Pennsylvania rounded out the top five.

According to the Federal Highway Administration’s website, the definition of structurally deficient was changed in 2018. The new definition limits the classification to bridges where one key structural element, such as the deck, superstructure, substructure or culverts, was rated in poor or worse condition. All of the data above, including those for previous years, uses the new definition.

Dr. Alison Premo Black, the organization’s chief economist who conducted the analysis, called the report “no April Fools' joke.”

"America’s bridge network is outdated, underfunded and in urgent need of modernization," said Black. "State and local government just haven’t been given the necessary resources to get the job done."

The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group encourages strong federal investment in transportation infrastructure.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.