A report released this week from Transportation for America says that 11 percent of the nation's highway bridges are deficient. Without the funds to repair or rebuild the bridges, motorists will continue to travel on bridges that are just getting older and more unsafe. According to the report, in another ten years, one in four bridges will be 65 years old or older. Today, almost 50 percent of bridges of that age are structurally deficient.
Well the report offers detailed information, Transportation for America also released an infographic to help visualize the numbers. Here are some of the interesting facts from the infographic.
- There are about 260 million trips taken over these deficient bridges daily, with more than 180,000 trips taken every minute of every day. In comparison, McDonalds servers 68 million daily, worldwide while Americans take 260 million trips on deficient bridges daily.
- There are over 1,500 miles of structurally deficient bridges in the U.S.
- If all the structurally deficient U.S. bridges were placed end to end, you could drive from Washington, D.C. to Denver
- Average age of bridges: 43 years; average designed lifespan: 53 years; average age of deficient bridges: 65 years
- 15 states have had their number of structurally deficient bridges increase since 2011
- Just 10% of structurally deficient bridges are eligible for repair under the largest highway program
