After Baltimore Bridge Collapse, A Question: How Safe Are NH Bridges?

NEW HAMPSHIRE — The catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last week is raising questions in New Hampshire and elsewhere about the overall safety of bridges.

A federal Transportation Department report last year broke down the condition of the 2,537 in New Hampshire. Of the total number of bridges, 1,322 are in good condition, 1,022 are in fair condition, and 193 are in poor condition.

Those bridges include 726 that are part of the National Highway System and are eligible for federal infrastructure money. Of the bridges in the federal highway system, 419 are in good condition, 281 are in fair condition, and 26 are in poor condition.

Overall, more than 42,400 of the nation’s roughly 621,500 bridges are rated in poor condition. Of those, about 4,450 of nearly 147,000 bridges in the federal highway system are rated as poor.

Another report using federal data and released by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association found 1 in 3 bridges in the United States should be repaired or replaced.

New Hampshire has identified needed repairs on 2,484 bridges, up from the 2,449 bridges that needed work in 2019. Of the 2,537 bridges in the state, 193, or 7.6 percent, are classified as structurally deficient, meaning one of the key elements is in poor or worse condition.

New Hampshire ranks 18th place in structurally deficient bridges in that report. The 10 states with the most structurally deficient bridges are:

1. West Virginia, 20 percent
2. Iowa, 19 percent
3. South Dakota, 17 percent
4. Rhode Island, 15 percent
5. Maine, 15 percent
6. Pennsylvania, 13 percent
7. Puerto Rico, 13 percent
8. Louisiana, 12 percent
9. Michigan, 11 percent
10. North Dakota, 11 percent

Read Baltimore Patch’s complete coverage of the bridge collapse:

• Bridge Collapses After Cargo Ship Hits It
• ‘I Didn’t Think It Was Real’: Residents React
• Photos: A Search For Survivors After Bridge Collapse