Which states have the most failing bridges?

By Stacker

Published April 2, 2024 11:41 PM

Jeff Swensen // Getty Images

Which states have the most failing bridges?

Bus and flipped car visible on Fern Hollow Bridge collapse near Pittsburgh, PA

The tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has brought the issue of infrastructure safety to the forefront of national media attention.

When a bridge fails, it puts lives at risk, dramatically affects traffic and commutes, and disrupts the supply chain. Though the cause of this collapse was unrelated to the condition of the bridge, there are bridges across the country that are in poor condition and may present a safety risk to those who use them.

For example, the National Transportation Safety Board determined in February that maintenance and oversight failures were behind a 2022 bridge collapse in Pittsburgh that injured 10 people.

Despite multiple maintenance and repair recommendations, a critical plate was allowed to corrode and fracture over time, leading to the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsing on the morning of January 28 and falling about 100 feet into Frick Park.

Fortunately, no one was killed in that collapse. But bridge failures can lead to incredibly high death tolls, as in 1967, when 1,460 feet of the Silver Bridge spanning between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, fell into the Ohio River and 46 people died.

Additionally, poor or failing bridges can lack important traffic safety features, increasing the risk of car accidents or injuries to motorists, even if they do not collapse.

So to better understand the condition of bridges across the United States, Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian Law analyzed records of more than 600,000 bridges throughout the country, in order to determine which states have the most bridges that are in need of repair or replacement, as graded by engineers and inspectors. The data is current as of Jan. 23, 2023, and therefore does not account for the recent tragedy at the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which collapsed on March 26 after a container ship lost power and collided with one of the bridge’s concrete columns.

BluIz60 // Shutterstock

Key findings

Road closed sign in front of bridge construction in Atlanta, GA

10.8% of bridges nationwide are rated in poor condition.
Four states have less than 5% of their bridges in poor condition, led by Texas — which has the 26th-highest number of poor-condition bridges, but more than twice as many total bridges as any other state.
Iowa has the most bridges in poor condition, with over 5,000, but the highest rate is in South Carolina, the only state where more than 1 in 4 bridges are poorly rated.

Which state has the worst bridges in the country?

Below, the states are ranked by the highest percentage of all bridges that are in poor structural condition.

51. Texas

Total bridges: 56,313
Bridges in poor condition: 1,087 (1.9%)
Closed bridges: 79 (0.14%)

50. Arizona

Total bridges: 8,544
Bridges in poor condition: 169 (2.0%)
Closed bridges: 1 (0.01%)

49. Delaware

Total bridges: 874
Bridges in poor condition: 18 (2.1%)
Closed bridges: 0 (0.00%)

48. Nevada

Total bridges: 2,090
Bridges in poor condition: 85 (4.1%)
Closed bridges: 1 (0.05%)

47. Minnesota

Total bridges: 13,502
Bridges in poor condition: 714 (5.3%)
Closed bridges: 33 (0.24%)

46. Washington D.C.

Total bridges: 252
Bridges in poor condition: 14 (5.6%)
Closed bridges: 0 (0.00%)

45. Connecticut

Total bridges: 4,362
Bridges in poor condition: 245 (5.6%)
Closed bridges: 8 (0.18%)

44. Maryland

Total bridges: 5,473
Bridges in poor condition: 312 (5.7%)
Closed bridges: 10 (0.18%)

43. Florida

Total bridges: 12,881
Bridges in poor condition: 753 (5.8%)
Closed bridges: 17 (0.13%)

42. New Mexico

Total bridges: 4,037
Bridges in poor condition: 242 (6.0%)
Closed bridges: 13 (0.32%)

41. Virginia

Total bridges: 14,068
Bridges in poor condition: 858 (6.1%)
Closed bridges: 27 (0.19%)

40. Ohio

Total bridges: 26,960
Bridges in poor condition: 1,741 (6.5%)
Closed bridges: 7 (0.03%)

39. Wyoming

Total bridges: 3,131
Bridges in poor condition: 212 (6.8%)
Closed bridges: 3 (0.10%)

38. Tennessee

Total bridges: 20,373
Bridges in poor condition: 1,385 (6.8%)
Closed bridges: 52 (0.26%)

37. Indiana

Total bridges: 19,381
Bridges in poor condition: 1,457 (7.5%)
Closed bridges: 60 (0.31%)

36. Colorado

Total bridges: 8,954
Bridges in poor condition: 712 (8.0%)
Closed bridges: 1 (0.01%)

35. Wisconsin

Total bridges: 14,412
Bridges in poor condition: 1,153 (8.0%)
Closed bridges: 19 (0.13%)

34. New Jersey

Total bridges: 6,820
Bridges in poor condition: 560 (8.2%)
Closed bridges: 14 (0.21%)

33. Alabama

Total bridges: 16,176
Bridges in poor condition: 1,364 (8.4%)
Closed bridges: 200 (1.24%)

32. Georgia

Total bridges: 15,058
Bridges in poor condition: 1,281 (8.5%)
Closed bridges: 43 (0.29%)

31. Alaska

Total bridges: 1,675
Bridges in poor condition: 154 (9.2%)
Closed bridges: 12 (0.72%)

30. California

Total bridges: 25,818
Bridges in poor condition: 2,390 (9.3%)
Closed bridges: 33 (0.13%)

29. Illinois

Total bridges: 26,873
Bridges in poor condition: 2,596 (9.7%)
Closed bridges: 85 (0.32%)

28. North Carolina

Total bridges: 18,817
Bridges in poor condition: 1,822 (9.7%)
Closed bridges: 40 (0.21%)

27. Idaho

Total bridges: 4,588
Bridges in poor condition: 453 (9.9%)
Closed bridges: 2 (0.04%)

26. Kentucky

Total bridges: 14,493
Bridges in poor condition: 1,453 (10.0%)
Closed bridges: 60 (0.41%)

25. Massachusetts

Total bridges: 5,281
Bridges in poor condition: 549 (10.4%)
Closed bridges: 16 (0.30%)

24. Utah

Total bridges: 3,109
Bridges in poor condition: 332 (10.7%)
Closed bridges: 1 (0.03%)

23. New York

Total bridges: 17,573
Bridges in poor condition: 1,898 (10.8%)
Closed bridges: 80 (0.46%)

22. Vermont

Total bridges: 2,856
Bridges in poor condition: 322 (11.3%)
Closed bridges: 13 (0.46%)

21. New Hampshire

Total bridges: 2,537
Bridges in poor condition: 287 (11.3%)
Closed bridges: 13 (0.51%)

20. Mississippi

Total bridges: 17,573
Bridges in poor condition: 1,897 (11.3%)
Closed bridges: 246 (1.47%)

19. Michigan

Total bridges: 11,341
Bridges in poor condition: 1,331 (11.7%)
Closed bridges: 53 (0.47%)

18. Washington

Total bridges: 8,421
Bridges in poor condition: 1,022 (12.1%)
Closed bridges: 6 (0.07%)

17. Montana

Total bridges: 5,218
Bridges in poor condition: 636 (12.2%)
Closed bridges: 11 (0.21%)

16. Oklahoma

Total bridges: 22,872
Bridges in poor condition: 2,805 (12.3%)
Closed bridges: 141 (0.62%)

15. Maine

Total bridges: 2,521
Bridges in poor condition: 353 (14.0%)
Closed bridges: 5 (0.20%)

14. Pennsylvania

Total bridges: 23,257
Bridges in poor condition: 3,269 (14.1%)
Closed bridges: 183 (0.79%)

13. Arkansas

Total bridges: 12,962
Bridges in poor condition: 1,893 (14.6%)
Closed bridges: 28 (0.22%)

12. Missouri

Total bridges: 24,617
Bridges in poor condition: 3,988 (16.2%)
Closed bridges: 196 (0.80%)

11. Louisiana

Total bridges: 12,717
Bridges in poor condition: 2,145 (16.9%)
Closed bridges: 139 (1.09%)

10. Oregon

Total bridges: 8,292
Bridges in poor condition: 1,499 (18.1%)
Closed bridges: 6 (0.07%)

9. Rhode Island

Total bridges: 782
Bridges in poor condition: 146 (18.7%)
Closed bridges: 5 (0.64%)

8. West Virginia

Total bridges: 7,323
Bridges in poor condition: 1,386 (18.9%)
Closed bridges: 19 (0.26%)

7. South Dakota

Total bridges: 5,889
Bridges in poor condition: 1,116 (19.8%)
Closed bridges: 63 (1.07%)

6. Hawaii

Total bridges: 1,190
Bridges in poor condition: 228 (19.2%)
Closed bridges: 3 (0.25%)

5. Nebraska

Total bridges: 15,348
Bridges in poor condition: 3,038 (19.8%)
Closed bridges: 179 (1.17%)

4. Kansas

Total bridges: 24,907
Bridges in poor condition: 4,975 (20%)
Closed bridges: 1 (0.004%)

3. North Dakota

Total bridges: 4,280
Bridges in poor condition: 875 (20.4%)
Closed bridges: 70 (1.64%)

2. Iowa

Total bridges: 23,720
Bridges in poor condition: 5,039 (21.2%)
Closed bridges: 375 (1.58%)

1. South Carolina

Total bridges: 9,481
Bridges in poor condition: 2,642 (27.9%)
Closed bridges: 58 (0.61%)

Data source and methodology

Data for this analysis comes from the 2023 National Bridge Inventory, an annual survey conducted by the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Bridges and Structures.

Data on nearly 620,000 bridges in the United States was downloaded to determine the percentage of bridges in each state that were deemed to be in poor structural condition (including those that have been closed for rehabilitation or replacement).

Each open bridge is rated on a scale from 2-9, with 9 as the best possible rating, while closed bridges receive a 0. A bridge is classified as being in poor condition if it receives a rating of 4 (“meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as is”) or below.

This story was produced by Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian Law and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.

Article Topic Follows: National-World

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