Tennessee: State ranks in top tier of bridge structures

As the anniversary of last year’s Interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis nears, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely are touting some of the Volunteer State’s “best” ratings for bridge repair and maintenance.

“When it comes to keeping our bridges safe, the Tennessee Department of Transportation is leading the nation,” Gov. Bredesen said in a bridge safety video released Monday during a Nashville news conference on the historic Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge.

With 19,519 bridges in the state, bridge safety always has been a top priority, Gov. Bredesen said.

Still, state officials don’t think their efforts mean there is no room for improvement.

After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, TDOT officials requested a peer review of the state’s inspection and maintenance program.

Department spokeswoman Julie Oaks said the review brought eight recommendations and 12 commendations. She said the department now plans more training for bridge inspectors, an update of the state’s bridge load evaluation process and sonar scans for underwater bridge checkups.

Ms. Oaks said state officials are pleased to have the sixth-smallest percentage of bridges needing structural repair or replacement, especially since the state has the 10th largest number of bridges in the nation.

In Hamilton County, 14 state-maintained bridges remain structurally deficient, as are another 10 locally maintained spans, according to state figures released Monday. In the surrounding 10 counties, another 10 state-maintained bridges are classified as structurally deficient, along with another 28 local-maintained spans.

The state released the numbers and lists of structurally deficient bridges in each county in conjunction with a national report that says the nation’s bridges are safe, but one in four needs to be modernized or repaired — at an estimated cost of at least $140 billion.

The national report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, a safety and trade group, said escalating repair costs are of special concern.

“States simply cannot keep up with bridge maintenance,” the national report warns, adding that 73 percent of U.S. road traffic — and 90 percent of truck traffic — travels over state-owned bridges.

In Tennessee as of Jan. 31, only 2.4 percent of interstate bridges were deficient, while 4.7 percent of all bridges on state roads were classified as structurally deficient, according to the state figures.

That is the sixth-lowest percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the nation, according to Federal Highway Administration data submitted to the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure just after the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

Ms. Oaks said the average age of a bridge in Tennessee is 35.7 years, compared with an average bridge age of 43 nationwide.

In the video, Gov. Bredesen also touted Tennessee’s bridge maintenance funding.

“When it comes to funding our bridge program, Tennessee tops the nation in the amount of available federal funds spent on the bridge program,” he said. “TDOT has dedicated more than $130 million since July 2007 to repair and replace many of Tennessee bridges. ... even in the face of declining federal revenue, major cost increases and aging transportation infrastructure.”