Area Bridges on List of 'Structurally Deficient'

A federal study of bridge statistics released this week found 406 Connecticut bridges are “structurally deficient” — that is, needing significant repair, according to an article in the Greenwich Times.

That number includes several sections of Interstate 95 that carry more than 100,000 people each day, the article says, as well as numerous spots along Routes 10, 179, 44 and Interstate 84. About 5.27 million vehicles travel over the state's deficient bridges every day.

Fortunately in East Hampton and Portland there are no bridges on this deficiency list, but there are some in surrounding towns.

According to T4America.org, a pair of bridges on Johnsonville Road and Route 609 in East Haddam are both listed as structurally deficient.

In Middletown, West Lake Drive Road, .3 miles south of Route 217 is rated as deficient, as well as bridges on West Street, Main Street Extension and River Road. The Main Street Extension bridge, which connections to Route 17, carries 10,500 cars per day and it was last inspected in November 2010.

The list includes federal, state and locally maintained bridges and was released in a report Wednesday by the advocacy group Transportation for America after a review of the federal National Bridge Inventory.

The term “structurally deficient” doesn’t mean the bridge is in imminent danger, transportation officials say, rather, that an element of the bridge was given a rating of “poor” or worse, including the deck, superstructure underpinning the roadway deck or the substructure, including piers, columns and crossbars, according the article.

Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Nursick said the rating is cause for concern and is taken seriously by the state agency.

“None of our bridges is unsafe. Period,” Nursick told the New Haven Register. Currently, Nursick said, there are more than 20 bridge projects being worked on with a total cost of more than $1 billion.

The number of bridges with the structurally deficient rating — about 10 percent — has increased 4.1 percent since 2011, the article says, something Nursick attributes to the bridges increasing age. The average age of bridges in the state is now 52 years. 

State bridges are inspected biannually, with those found to have issues are inspected more frequently.

Of the 407 deficient bridges in the state, 193 are maintained by towns, the article says. The state has recently increased funding to the Local Bridge Program, which currently is working on School Ground Road Bridge in Branford.

But as bridges are aging and those in need of maintenance increase, federal funding from the federal government has decreased, putting more of the burden on states to fund repairs, Transportation for American communications director David Goldberg told the Greenwich Time. 

To access an interactive database of stat bridges, click here.