JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – In light of the bridge collapse in Pittsburgh last month, the condition of bridges has become a topic of concern for Pennsylvanians. According to PennDOT, 23 out of 308 bridges in Jefferson County are rated poor.
(Pictured above: One of the bridges rated poor is the Interstate 80 North Fork bridge in Jefferson County.)
This includes 15 bridges the state transportation agency is responsible for maintaining and eight in the care of local municipalities.
PennDOT is responsible for inspecting about 25,000 state-owned bridges across the state.
In PennDOT’s District 10, which includes Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana, and Jefferson Counties, there are a total of 2,004 bridges. Out of that, 188 state-owned and 68 locally owned bridges are listed in poor condition.
According to PennDOT, a bridge in poor condition indicates at least one of the three parts of the bridge the agency inspects is rated as poor. The parts of a bridge PennDOT inspects and rates are the deck, or the roadway, the superstructure, or the portion of the bridge that supports the deck and connects the substructure, and the substructure, the portion of the bridge that supports the superstructure and distributes a bridge’s weight to the ground.
“Each one gets assigned their rating, and if any of these three gets assigned a poor rating, the bridge gets that rating. The bridge gets the lowest rating out of the three scores,” said PennDOT District 10 Community Relations Coordinator Christina Gibbs.
“We’re trying to make it very clear that just because a bridge has the rating of poor, it is by no means a failing bridge.”
The schedule of inspection for bridges varies. Every bridge needs to be inspected at least once every two years.
“It can be anywhere up to two years for a bridge that is in good condition down to six months or less if it has a poor rating or something’s been shown that it needs to be done more frequently. There’s a wide range of time in there of how often those bridges get inspected,” said Gibbs
After inspection, PennDOT’s structural engineers determine the weight capacity of any particular bridge and compare it with previous capacities to see if anything has changed.
“We will then either make immediate repairs to the bridge, take temporary actions, for example, shoring the weakened sections, restricting traffic from critical areas or posting a weight restriction, to keep the bridge open until repairs can be made, or close the bridge until repairs can be made,” said Gibbs.
In Jefferson County, the eastbound North Fork bridge in Brookville is also rated in poor condition, and both I-80 North Fork Bridges are part of the Major P3 Bridge Initiative, which is seeking to address funding shortfalls by having tolling pay for the bridges’ repairs. The bridge replacements are proposed to begin in 2024 and would last three to four years with the cost being an estimated $165 million to $185 million.
Gibbs said the P3 Project is still proposed, and it is not a certainty the bridges will be tolled and replaced.
“At this point, all bridges are listed in a candidate status,” she said. “So, if something were to occur that would require one to be taking off a bridge, it’s still completely feasible.”
She said these specific bridges were chosen for tolling because to try to replace them through normal means would be too much for PennDOT’s already strained budget.
“When they went through, they were looking at things like district budgets, overall funding capacities, bridge structures, traffic flow, they looked at quite a few bridges across the state and when it comes down to it, these are bridges that are very expensive to fix so to try to do it within normal, budgetary means is most likely just not going to be feasible or would at least be very taking on a district budget,” she said.
There is also money coming from the federal front to fix bridges in the Commonwealth. As part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Pennsylvania is expected to receive around $1.6 billion for bridge repairs on the 3,353 bridges in poor condition in the state.
In nearby Clarion County, the westbound Interstate 80 Canoe Creek bridge in Beaver Township is rated in poor condition. It and its counterpart eastbound bridge are part of the statewide P3 Program, as well.
The proposed bridge replacement project would have construction take approximately four years as the bridges are replaced. It could begin as early as 2023 and is estimated to cost between $90 million to $105 million.
List of bridges rated poor in Jefferson County (Click to enlarge image)
State-owned:
Locally owned:
List of bridges rated poor in Clarion County (Click to enlarge image)
State-owned:
Locally-owned:
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