HARRISBURG – Following up on Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s promise to expand the information available on bridge conditions in Pennsylvania, PennDOT Secretary Allen D. Biehler, P.E., announced today that both the sufficiency and condition ratings for 54 steel deck truss bridges are now available on the PennDOT Web site.
“This list represents the first step toward providing additional data about Pennsylvania’s 25,000 state maintained bridges,” Biehler said. “In the coming weeks, we will add the data for the rest of our large bridge inventory.”
The posting contains a glossary of terms used in the bridge charts, a drawing of a steel truss bridge with components identified and the chart with individual bridge information, including the sufficiency rating and three condition rating numbers.
Sufficiency rating is a composite number rating on a scale from 0 to 100, with 0 being worst and 100 being best, and notes a bridge’s overall capability. Fifty-five percent of the rating is based on structural condition, 30 percent is based on the bridge’s ability to meet current traffic conditions and 15 percent is based on how essential the bridge is for public use. Sufficiency rating is used to determine eligibility for federal bridge funds.
The condition rating is on a scale of 0 to 9, with 0 being the worst and 9 being the best. A condition rating is assigned to each of three components: bridge deck, superstructure which holds up the deck and substructure — the foundation and piers that hold up the superstructure. A bridge is classified as structurally deficient and in need of repair when one or more of the three components receives a condition rating of 4 or lower.
“Our bridge engineers use these numbers to manage our system and help us decide on prioritizing bridge needs,” Biehler said. “The numbers should not be viewed as a measure of whether a bridge is safe or not. If a bridge is open, it is safe for travel.”
PennDOT inspects each bridge on its system at least every two years and more frequently if a bridge has serious deterioration. These routine inspections continue even as PennDOT re-inspects the 28 steel deck truss bridges it owns that are similar in design to the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed in Minnesota on Aug. 1. PennDOT has requested that the owners of the 26 other steel deck truss bridges begin to inspect the condition of those bridges.
Despite record investments over the past four years, nearly 6,000 of Pennsylvania’s 25,000 state-owned bridges are considered “structurally deficient,” meaning they are in need of some level of repair. Approximately 800 bridges have weight or lane restrictions and 54 are closed.
Last year, PennDOT invested an unprecedented $558 million in 894 bridge projects statewide with $133 million being spent on bridge preservation and the remaining $425 million devoted to rehabilitating and replacing structurally deficient bridges.
If unaffected by recently proposed federal legislation, the transportation funding bill signed by Rendell last month is expected to provide an additional $532 million per year over the next 10 years to repair Pennsylvania bridges and roads.