There are over 100,000 dangerous but heavily traveled bridges in America, 56,000 of them “structurally deficient,” and some of the worst are in Washington where little progress is being made on President Trump’s campaign promise to spend $1 trillion on new infrastructure.
Every state in the nation has structurally deficient bridges, according to the report from the Auto Insurance Center, based in data from American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
It is especially dire in Washington, D.C., New York and Massachusetts, said the report provided to Secrets. The highlights:
— Despite having America’s busiest structurally deficient bridges, D.C. has fewer proposed bridge replacements than any other state.
— With 23,000 daily crossings, Massachusetts has the 2nd busiest structurally deficient bridges.
— In only 7 states, more than 10 percent of bridges were built in the last 10 years.
— 64 percent of D.C.’s bridges are functionally obsolete, more than any other state.
— 1 in 4 New York bridges are functionally obsolete.
Trump has promised action on his infrastructure plan, but other agenda items are up first. He told reporters last week that he wants to build new bridges, roads and airports as fast as China.
“What China’s done is incredible,” the president told conservative journalists. “We’re like a Third World nation,” he added of U.S. transportation.
“We build a bridge and it’s like a miracle in this country,” he added.
True that, said the report. Most major states rank at the bottom of a list of states that have built bridges in the last 10 years.
The report put a price tag of $1.6 trillion just to fix the bridges in the nation.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
