Here Are All The Crumbling Bridges In Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — There are 308 structurally deficient bridges in Connecticut. Among the most heavily traveled: a Yankee Doodle Bridge in Norwalk, which sees 145,000 crossings every single day.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, published its annual bridge report Monday. The group ranked Connecticut the 26th worst in the nation for percent of structurally deficient bridges.

Here’s what they found for Connecticut:

• Total bridges: 4,270
• Structurally deficient bridges: 308
• Percent of bridges that are structurally deficient: 7.2
• Number of bridges in need of repair: 421
• Cost to repair those bridges: $1.6 billion

The top five most-traveled structurally deficient bridges in Connecticut carry more than 678,000 crossings per day combined. They also include a bridge on I-95 over Metro North in New Haven County, An I-91 bridge over North Front St and Quinnipiac River in New Haven County, the I-91 bridge over Amtrak Railroad in New Haven County and the I-95 bridge over Byram River in Fairfield County.

Other bridges in CT that made the list include: Interstate-95 over Route 33 in Fairfield County, I-95 & I-95 Ramps over MNRR & Local Roads in Fairfield County, Interstate-84 over Market Street & I-91 NB in Hartford County, Interstate-84 over Mad River in New Haven County, Interstate-84 WB over Amtrak RR & Local Roads in Hartford County, Interstate-95 over US Route 1 in New Haven County, Interstate-84 EB over Amtrak RR & Local Roads in Hartford County, Interstate-84 EB over Broad St, I-84 Ramp 191 in Hartford County.

Other bridges on the list include: Route 15 over Saugatuck River in Fairfield County, Interstate-84 East over New Park Av, Amtrak, Sr504 in Hartford County, Interstate-95 over Route 161 in New London County, Interstate-84 EB over Amtrak; Local Rds; Parking in Hartford County, Interstate-84 WB over Amtrak; Local Rds; Parking in Hartford County, Interstate-84 WB over Rte 8, Naugatuck River in New Haven County, Interstate-84 EB over I-84 WB, Rte 8, Naugatuck Rv in New Haven County.

And these bridges also made the list: Route 8 over Housatonic River, Rt 110 in Fairfield County, I-291 & King St. over Podunk River in Hartford County, Interstate 95 North over Thames Rv, RR, Local Roads in New London County, Interstate-84 EB over Route 15 in Hartford County, and Route 9 over P&W Railroad & Union St in Middlesex County.

Of all the structurally deficient bridges 45 are on urban interstate and 19 are on an urban freeway/expressway. There are also 53 rural local bridges that are structurally deficient.

Gov. Ned Lamont has proposed tolling as a way to pay for bridge upgrades and other infrastructure improvements.

The 2019 bridge report found there are more than 47,000 bridges rated “structurally deficient” and in urgent need of repairs. Americans cross these bridges — which were built an average of 62 years ago — 178 million times a day.

“If placed end-to-end, they would stretch nearly 1,100 miles — the distance between Chicago and Houston,” the report stated.

While that number may sound like a lot, the total number of structurally deficient bridges has fallen by about 1 percentage point since 2014 to 7.6 percent. And it would take decades to repair them all.

“At this rate, it would take over 80 years to make the significant repairs needed on these structures,” the report stated.

Some of the notable bridges deemed structurally deficient include:

• New York’s Brooklyn Bridge
• Memorial Bridge connecting Washington, D.C. with Arlington, Virginia
• San Mateo-Hayward bridge crossing California’s San Francisco Bay – the longest bridge in the state.
• Robert S. Maestri Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana
• Albemarle Sound Bridge and the Lindsay C. Warren Bridge crossing the Alligator River in North Carolina
• Florida’s Pensacola Bay Bridge
• Vicksburg Bridge in Mississippi
• Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge in Washington state

Rhode Island had the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges at 23 percent. West Virginia, Iowa, South Dakota and Pennsylvania rounded out the top five.

According to the Federal Highway Administration’s website, the definition of structurally deficient was changed in 2018. The new definition limits the classification to bridges where one key structural element, such as the deck, superstructure, substructure or culverts, was rated in poor or worse condition. All of the data above, including those for previous years, uses the new definition.

Dr. Alison Premo Black, the organization’s chief economist who conducted the analysis, called the report “no April Fool’s joke.”

“America’s bridge network is outdated, underfunded and in urgent need of modernization,” said Black. “State and local government just haven’t been given the necessary resources to get the job done.”

The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group encourages strong federal investment in transportation infrastructure.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.