DALLAS -- State and local transportation departments lack the funding needed to adequately maintain and upgrade the aging population of highway bridges, the federal Government Accountability Office said after surveying transportation officials from 24 states and the District of Columbia.
"Officials from a majority of the states and local agencies we interviewed cited inadequate funding as a challenge for their bridge programs," said GAO, which provides auditing, evaluation and investigative services for Congress.
The findings are contained in a GAO report on how well the Federal Highway Administration monitors the effectiveness of federal transportation spending.
The nation's 612,000 roadway bridges are critical elements of the surface transportation system, but the entire system is under growing strain, GAO said in the report to the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.
The interstate highway construction boom that began in the 1950s and extended into the 1970s has resulted in an average bridge age of 45 years while the expected service life of a span is only 50 years, said Mark Goldstein, director of physical infrastructure issues at GAO and principal author of the bridge report.
"State DOT officials stated that aging bridges require more costly maintenance and repairs and many need to be replaced," Goldstein said. "For many of these states, the challenge of maintaining aging bridges is intertwined with the challenge of inadequate funds."
The number of structurally deficient bridges decreased to 10% in 2015 from 13% in 2006 as federal funding obligated to bridge projects stayed relatively stable at $6 billion to $7 billion per year, GAO said in the report.
Total bridge funding, which includes state and local spending, totaled about $17.5 billion in 2012 from $11.5 billion in 2006, according to the report.
Transportation officials from 14 states said inadequate funding is a challenge, with officials from 13 states reporting that aging bridges are a challenge, Goldstein said.
"California DOT officials stated that many of their bridges were built in the 1960s and 1970s, and as a result bridge replacements will soon be needed at a faster rate than they can manage," the report said. "Massachusetts DOT officials only fund the most urgent priorities and do not have the luxury of planning far into the future because their bridge funds are limited." it said.
State transportation departments are not the only ones concerned about the lack of funding for bridge projects. Seattle officials said the state distributes about $35 million per year of federal road funding to local governments, but the city's highest priority bridge has a replacement cost of $350 million.
"Given the gap in funding for large projects, officials said they will be forced to close large bridges that are deemed unsafe if they are unable to raise the funds needed to repair them," Goldstein said.
The FHWA said earlier this year that there are 58,500 structurally deficient road bridges in the U.S, or almost 10% of the total inventory.
It would take almost 21 years to replace those bridges at current federal and state funding levels, the American Road & Transportation Builders Association said in its analysis of the FHWA data.
Almost all of the 250 most heavily traveled yet structurally deficient bridges are on urban highways and nearly 85% were built before the 1970s, FHWA said.
Pennsylvania officials told GAO that the state is tackling the lack of funding with a public-private partnership that will replace 558 aging bridges, primarily on smaller state highways in rural areas, over three years.
The state is partnering with the Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners investment consortium on its Rapid Bridge Replacement Project. The private investors will finance, design, build, and maintain the spans for 25 years after the projects are completed, according to state officials.
