Saw this on an NJ.com article, which shows which states have the worst percent of deficient bridges and which ones have the best percent. Rhode Island comes in as most deficient, while Minnesota comes in as most un-deficient(?).
You can see the table here from the original article: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/more_than_1_in_3_nj_bridges_deficient_as_federal_and_state_officials_seek_money_to_fix_them.html#incart_river
I'm not surprised with Rhode Island's ranking, as anyone familiar with our roads is keenly aware. Granted, there's been slow repairs made to them (if not outright replaced), but the emphasis is on slow. Near me is a short bridge to Seekonk and it has had weight limits on it for a while - since the bridge collapse in Minnesota that made national headlines, in fact. Yet between that and our unique driving style we manage OK. Which still astonishes me.
New Jersey has a major funding problem right now, so we can barely rehabilitate any of our bridges or roads. However, given just how much traffic uses our bridges every day, I'm surprised that they are still standing.
Other than a few spectacular bridge issues (let's say a certain Rt. 1 bridge in North Jersey under construction right now), most of NJ's bridges aren't going to fall down anytime soon, which is the structurally deficient category. Indeed - when you look at the percent of bridge in that category, only about 9.4% of our bridges are structurally deficient, which is better or relatively on pay compared to many of the states ranked lower in that chart.
NJ's main issue is with functionally obsolete overpasses, which generally means they can't handle the load of traffic, or have issues such as lack of shoulders and such. NJ will NEVER rank well in that category, unless we discontinue funding of NJ Transit, sidewalks, and other non-road & bridge related work. Even if a bridge would be worked on that should be widened, it's going to be in close quarters to nearby residents and businesses, none of which generally want a bridge widened even closer to their property.
Any figure that includes functionally obsolete bridges is bullshit.
Quote from: NE2 on February 24, 2015, 01:41:11 PM
Any figure that includes functionally obsolete bridges is bullshit.
There's a link to the data in the article. Download it and rework it to your heart's content.