Here Are The Crumbling Bridges In New Jersey’s 10th District

There are 69 bridges in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that are “structurally deficient,” according to a recent study.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, published its annual bridge report Monday. Here's what they found in New Jersey's 10th District (see the full list of bridges and methodology here):

• Total bridges: 1,090
• Structurally deficient bridges: 69
• Percent of bridges that are structurally deficient: 6.3%
• Number of bridges in need of repair: 426
• Cost to repair those bridges: $2.9 billion

New Jersey's 10th Congressional District – which encompasses parts of Essex, Hudson, and Union counties – includes the following municipalities: Bloomfield, East Orange, Glen Ridge, Irvington, Maplewood, Montclair, Newark, Orange, South Orange, West Orange, Bayonne, Jersey City, Hillside, Linden, Rahway, Roselle, Roselle Park and Union Township.

Some of the 10th District bridges cited in the report include:

• NJ 495 over US 1&9, Paterson Plank Rd (Hudson County) - 154,150 daily crossings
• NJ Rt 3 over Northern Sec. & Ramp A (Hudson County) - 113,235 daily crossings
• I-280 over Brod & State St 8 Uni Av (Essex County) - 87,160 daily crossings
• I-78 WB over Quarry Rd. (Union County) - 84,500 daily crossings
• Sprgfld & Clnt Ave over Garden State Parkway (Essex County) - 76,500 daily crossings
• NJ 139 over Frmr.Erie Lackawanna RR (Hudson County) - 72,733 daily crossings

NATIONAL STATISTICS

The 2019 report found there are more than 47,000 bridges rated “structurally deficient” and in urgent need of repairs. U.S. residents 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 may 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.

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 Fool’s 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.

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