Within the next eight years about 15 percent of the state's 6,700 highway bridges will turn the ripe old age of 80. It's a milestone that few will celebrate since spans built in 1927 were not designed to carry the vehicle weights put on them today.
Those 1,000 bridges and more should be on a planned replacement calendar. Right now, that calendar is full with a backlog of $2.6 billion in projects for bridges alone, the director of the state Department of Transportation told legislators last week. That list grows longer every year, according to a report in The Journal Record newspaper.
Gary Ridley spoke to an interim legislative study session on the state's transportation system. That study request came long before the Minnesota bridge collapse.
Mr. Ridley told lawmakers his engineers are keeping a close watch on 63 bridges that have been determined to be "fracture critical," meaning they do not have safety redundancies built in.
Transportation officials will be in Norman this week to discuss the interstate work that is now on the department's eight-year plan. The interstate will be widened from the U.S. 77 interchange south to Main Street. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at the Holiday Inn, 1000 Interstate Drive.
Norman's Main Street bridge was often referred to as a poster bridge for the department's plan to seek replacement funds. It is on the replacement list but continued lack of state and federal funding pushes it down further on the priority list.
The nation's highway trust fund no longer has the money to bail out state projects. An increase in the federal gasoline tax may be in order to bail out the fund.
