Philly Area Bridges Third Worst in Nation

About 20 percent of bridges in the Philadelphia area are deficient, according to a study released Wednesday by Transportation for America. Although that does not mean one in five bridges is unsafe, what the study does note is improvement is needed.

Pennsylvania faired worst of all states, with six metropolitan areas possessing a high percentage of deficient bridges. Pittsburgh tops that list with 30 percent of area bridges rated deficient—higher even than the state average of 26.5 percent.

That is not to say Philadelphia got off easy. While Pittsburgh ranked No. 1 in terms of deficient bridges in metro areas with more than 2 million people, Philadelphia was third nationwide at 20 percent, right behind San Francisco. 

Regionally, various bridges on the area's major highways—like I-76, I-95 and I-476—were marked as deficient.

In Delaware County itself 77 bridges were labeled deficient, including the following for Haverford Township:

• Manoa Road over Cobbs Creek (built: 1929)
• Gilmore Road over Naylors Run (built: 1946)

Additionally, PennDOT has marked many local areas for bridge replacement or renovations, according to the PennDOT TIP Visualization map, including Manoa Road.

"It is important to note that these numbers would be worse without the intensive bridge repair program implemented by Pennsylvania in the last several years, including a quadrupling of state funding for bridge repairs," according to the study.

To put the nation's shoddy bridge conditions in perspective, the study juxtaposed the number of nationwide (approximately 14,000) with deficient bridges (18,239). Furthermore, those fast-food joints serve 64 million customers daily, while the bridges service 210 million people everyday.

Confirming the study's figures, PennDOT spokesperson Eugene Blaum said the state was aware of deficient bridges and is always working on renovations.

"In Pennsylvania, bridge construction expenditures (including bridges built, rebuilt, or preserved) has more than tripled since 2002. Also, the number of bridges built or rebuilt has also tripled over the same time period," he wrote in an email Thursday to Patch.

Currently, approximately 80 bridges in the five-county Philadelphia area are under construction, he said. Statewide, he said there are "5,000 structurally deficient bridges, 42 are closed and 669 are weight-restricted."

It is important to note, he and the study's writers said, that "deficient" does not equate to "unsafe."

"(S)tructurally deficient means that the bridge has deterioration to one or more of its major components. Although deterioration is present, a structurally deficient bridge is safe. If not, the bridge would be closed," he said.

Cataloging bridges nationwide, the Washington, DC-based Transportation for America analyzed the National Bridge Inventory Data, and worked in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.