Bridges in R.I., Mass. are still among worst

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The United States overall boasts slightly fewer deficient and functionally obsolete bridges in 2013 than in recent years, but Rhode Island and Massachusetts structures still rank among the nation’s worst, according to a new report.
Released last month, the Better Roads 2013 Bridge Inventory found that 51 percent of Rhode Island’s bridges were structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. That figure ranked behind only the District of Columbia, which saw a combined rate of 57 percent.
Massachusetts ranked fifth in the nation at 38 percent.
States reporting the fewest number of deficient bridges are California (6 percent), Arizona, Utah and Nevada (tied at 11 percent), and Minnesota and Wyoming (tied at 13 percent).
Overall, states transportation officials say 19.4 percent of their total bridge inventory is classified as deficient in some way, a number that has incrementally decreased since 2009, when 21.6 percent of the total federal and state bridge inventory was reported as substandard. •

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