Bridge Safety

New York State is home to more than 17,000 highway bridges, about 44 percent of them owned by the State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), roughly 50 percent owned by municipalities, and the rest owned by state and local authorities.

The public should be more aware of the safety standards and the status of the bridges throughout the 39th district and beyond. I feel that not enough information is made available to the general public regarding bridges that may be neglected. The incident in Minnesota where a major bridge collapsed with unsuspecting traffic plunged to their deaths has raised everyone’s concern, but not enough has been done to dispel any perceived dangers.

NYSDOT is responsible for making sure all the highway bridges in the state are inspected following state and federal mandates. NYSDOT inspects its own highway bridges, as well as highway bridges owned by localities, railroads and commissions that do not collect tolls. Those tolling authorities are responsible for their own inspections.

NYSDOT’s bridge inspection program meets or exceeds federal requirements and consistently receives high marks in annual Federal Highway Administration management reviews. Trouble is, not enough information is at our fingertips, especially for those of us without internet service.

Bridge structure safety is rated from 1 to 7: seven being new. So when a bridge is rated at level 5, it is scheduled for replacement or renovation to bring the standard back to 6 or 7. I would ask my colleagues in Albany to place a rating number on all bridges in New York State to indicate what inspection status it received.

This would be no more difficult than placing weight limit postings at each bridge as we do now.