6 Structurally Deficient Bridges In Anne Arundel Highlighted By New Report

ANNAPOLIS, MD — A new report from a road contractors’ lobbying group lists 43,578 bridges across the country that are “structurally deficient” and in danger of collapsing.

The write-up is from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. It is based on data downloaded Jan. 3.

The report said there are 253 structurally deficient crossings in Maryland. That's about 4.6 percent of the state's 5,446 bridges.

A bridge is classified as structurally deficient if the deck, superstructure or substructure are in poor condition. It could also dip to this rating if the culvert below it is in bad shape, according to government definitions.

The crossings below are some of the structurally deficient bridges in Anne Arundel County, the report said. Click on each bridge's location to see it on Google Maps.

The report did not name every structurally deficient bridge in the county. It only gave an overview of Maryland's eight congressional districts and named the 25 most traveled structurally deficient bridges in each area.

Anne Arundel County is split between Congressional Districts 2, 3, 4 and 5. The bridges above were the only ones to make the lists of the 25 most traveled structurally deficient bridges in their respective districts.

There could be more bridges in need of work, but these were the only ones identified specifically.

None of these structures are large crossings. Most are small roads where a stream trickles below through an opening called a culvert. Some of these waterways are so small that drivers might not notice they are passing over one.

The Harwood crossing over Stocketts Run and the Hanover road over Deep Run are the two that look the most like true bridges. Neither street has painted lines or more than 775 crossings per day, however.

These six sections of road all see less than 7,000 vehicles daily. In comparison, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tallied about 75,000 crossings per day in 2019.

The most traveled of the structurally deficient crossings listed in Anne Arundel County is a culvert on Maryland Route 450, also known as Defense Highway.

That Davidsonville road was undergoing minor rehabilitation as of March 2021, according to a report from the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration.

The U. S. Department of Transportation in January targeted about 15,000 crumbling bridges for repair. This five-year, $27 billion initiative is the largest dedicated bridge investment in American history since the interstate highway system was authorized in the 1950s.

"The Maryland Department of Transportation is reviewing the guidelines on the Bridge Investment announced as part of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)," MDOT Spokesperson Erin Henson told Patch in an email. "As with other elements of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), MDOT and all of its agencies are waiting to learn exactly how much funding will be appropriated in all categories and what the parameters are on how we are able to spend the different types of funding that IIJA will provide."

The condition of the nation’s infrastructure was illustrated with a Pittsburgh bridge collapse in January. That fracture happened the same day that President Joe Biden visited the area to tout his $1 trillion infrastructure program and dedicated funding to fix bridges.

This is the eighth year that the road and bridge contractors group has compiled the inventory of crumbling bridges. It’s based on reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation by the agency’s state counterparts for inclusion in the National Bridge Inventory.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association is a lobbying group. Its 28 political action committees gave more than $2.6 million to political candidates in 2019 and 2020. That included about $518,270 to Democrats and $2.15 million to Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.org.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Patch Field Editor Colleen Martin contributed reporting to this story.