Late inspections of bridges put travelers at risk

Bill Dedman Investigative reporter • Profile • E-mail

PICKAWAY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — At 8:25 every weekday morning, Jim and Judy Little stand on their front porch to make sure their granddaughter, Shelby, gets safely on the school bus that takes her to her elementary school. Then they watch as the bus drives across a bridge that, at the beginning of the school year, was more than a year late for its safety inspection.

After 13 people died in August when a freeway bridge fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, governors across the nation rushed to calm fears. Using almost identical language, states assured the public that bridges are safe, because federal regulations require inspection of "every bridge at least once every two years."

In fact, at least 17,000 bridges in the U.S. went more than two years between safety inspections, according to federal records analyzed by msnbc.com. These newly released records from the National Bridge Inventory include inspections through 2006. Although Congress in 1971 ordered rigorous standards for inspecting bridges every 24 months, the records reveal a system in which the buck is passed down from federal to state to local governments, without penalty for those that fail to protect the public.

Bridges reported past two years since their last inspection include the obscure, crossing the Dangerous River in Alaska and Bayou Funny Louis in Louisiana, and the heavily traveled, carrying traffic on Interstate 5 in Los Angeles and Cicero Avenue in Chicago.

Fame is no guarantee of an on-time inspection. San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge is being checked now, nearly a year behind schedule.

The bridges reported missing a two-year inspection include 1,411 on interstate highways. That's three out of every hundred freeway bridges.

Take a drive across America on Interstate 40 from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C., and you'll cross 2,563 bridges — including at least 167 that went more than two years between checkups.

Bridges can slip years beyond their due date, such as a Minnesota bridge crossing the Mississippi at Sauk Rapids, just an hour upriver from the one that fell. When msnbc.com asked why the 65-year-old bridge went four years without an inspection, state officials said it had been scheduled to be replaced, but when the demolition was delayed no one put it back on the inspection list. It checked out in satisfactory condition the week after the Minneapolis collapse, and was closed in October when a new bridge opened.

All told, an estimated 107 million cars and trucks per day cross rivers, streams, highways and railroad tracks on bridges that missed their two-year inspection. That works out to about 1,200 trips per second.

You can check the inspection dates and condition ratings of more than 100,000 heavily traveled bridges using our interactive map.

Wide variation among the states
The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis reminded Americans that aging bridges are at risk. One out of four bridges in the nation is labeled as deficient or obsolete. In the new records including inspections through 2006, 25.0 percent of bridges are labeled as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, a slight improvement from 25.4 percent in the previous year, according to msnbc.com's analysis. These bridges are not necessarily unsafe, but a deficient bridge needs significant attention, and an obsolete one doesn't meet current design standards.

But without the billions needed to fix all the bridges, a driver can only hope that at least all the bridges are being inspected regularly.

The records, however, show that 2,728 bridges that had already been labeled as deficient or obsolete went more than two years since their inspection.

Some reassurance is found in the records. The great majority of the nation's 592,000 vehicular bridges — 97 percent of the total — were inspected within two years, according to the new records. That is, the bridges met the federal standard when msnbc.com gave states the benefit of the doubt, assuming that every bridge was inspected immediately after the inspection records were collected. That's why we say "at least" 17,203 missed the two-year inspection. Read more here about the records and msnbc.com's method of analyzing them.

Still, it's little comfort that most bridges are inspected on time, if you cross one of the overdue bridges on your way to work or the grocery store.

Nearly half the states make it look easy. Four states — Delaware, Georgia, Nevada and Tennessee — were perfect, reporting that they inspected every bridge within two years. Another 19 states managed to report fewer than 1 percent of their bridges sliding beyond two years.

"No bridge should ever be late," said Ben Rabun, assistant to the chief engineer at the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Other states fell far behind. The worst rates, not counting bridges owned by federal agencies, were in:

• Hawaii, where at least 46.5 percent of all bridges went beyond two years;
• Rhode Island, 27.5 percent;
• Arizona, 26.7 percent;
• New Mexico, 17.4 percent;
• West Virginia, 12.2 percent;
• Illinois, 11.5 percent, and
• the District of Columbia, 11.5 percent;

'There's no penalty'
Although federal regulations assign to states the responsibility to make sure bridges are inspected on time, an official at the Federal Highway Administration said it has been at least 15 years since it has used the only disciplinary power it has: withholding highway funds for late inspections. (The official was allowed by the agency to speak only if his name was not published.)

BY THE NUMBERS       Which states fell behind? States vary widely in the share of bridges reported going more than 24 months since their last inspection. Msnbc.com analyzed the latest National Bridge Inventory, which includes inspections through 2006. Rank State Bridges Bridges past 24 months Pct. past 24 months 1 Hawaii 1,089 506 46.5% 2 Rhode Island 723 199 27.5% 3 Arizona 6,937 1,853 26.7% 4 New Mexico 3,647 636 17.4% 5 West Virginia 6,888 844 12.2% 6 Illinois 25,746 2,973 11.5% 7 D.C. 208 24 11.5% 8 Alaska 988 80 8.1% 9 Colorado 8,022 576 7.2% 10 North Carolina 17,723 746 4.2% 11 South Dakota 5,807 235 4.0% 12 Montana 4,318 164 3.8% 13 Maine 2,323 86 3.7% 14 California 23,658 857 3.6% 15 New Hampshire 2,417 78 3.2% 16 Kansas 25,258 693 2.7% 17 Connecticut 3,982 107 2.7% 18 Washington 7,032 186 2.6% 19 Indiana 18,266 479 2.6% 20 Oklahoma 22,759 449 2.0% 21 Louisiana 12,683 243 1.9% 22 Ohio 27,570 527 1.9% 23 Utah 2,704 47 1.7% 24 New Jersey 6,190 105 1.7% 25 Arkansas 12,322 196 1.6% 26 Texas 49,733 743 1.5% 27 Pennsylvania 21,876 243 1.1% 28 South Carolina 9,150 83 0.9% 29 Wyoming 2,766 17 0.6% 30 Iowa 24,092 99 0.4% 31 Alabama 15,484 41 0.3% 32 Nebraska 15,266 40 0.3% 33 Michigan 10,601 26 0.2% 34 Maryland 4,939 9 0.2% 35 Vermont 2,657 4 0.2% 36 Mississippi 16,384 19 0.1% 37 Oregon 6,623 7 0.1% 38 Florida 11,477 11 0.1% 39 North Dakota 4,349 4 0.1% 40 Minnesota 13,115 11 0.1% 41 Missouri 23,694 19 0.1% 42 Wisconsin 13,677 4 0.0% 43 Idaho 3,597 1 0.0% 44 Massachusetts 4,924 1 0.0% 45 Virginia 12,912 1 0.0% 46 New York 17,193 1 0.0% 47 Delaware 841 0 0.0% 47 Georgia 14,303 0 0.0% 47 Nevada 1,636 0 0.0% 47 Tennessee 19,568 0 0.0% N/A Kentucky 13,509 N/A N/A N/A Federal bridges 8,332 2,940 35.3% Notes: Kentucky did not submit its records. Bridges owned by federal agencies are not included in state figures. Source: Msnbc.com analysis of National Bridge Inventory through 2006, as reported by states in April 2007. Methodology: How msnbc.com studied bridge inspections More: Other state-by-state results

Besides, the official said, withholding money might be counter-productive, making it harder for local governments to afford the inspections.

In Ohio, "As far as I know, there's no penalty," said Robert E. Parker, the county engineer elected by the voters of Pickaway County,
Ohio, just south of Columbus. Parker explained that he postponed the inspections of 76
bridges, including the one crossed each weekday by Shelby's school bus, saving about $200 per bridge.

Parker has a financial incentive to delay inspections. Because the money to inspect bridges comes from the same pot as the money to fix them, he said, he scrimps on inspections so he'll have a bit more for repairs.

"Nobody is saying we aren't going to get federal highway funds or state highway funds," Parker said, "so that's why we do it the way we do it."

His 76 bridges blew past a 12-month inspection deadline under Ohio law, the toughest law in the nation, then missed the federal 24-month deadline. Finally he paid a consultant to inspect the bridges after about 29 months each. One of the bridges is 107 years old and known to be vulnerable.

The Littles send Shelby, a fifth-grader, on the bus over a 25-year-old steel bridge crossing Scippo Creek, which is prone to flooding when debris backs up at the bridge. The bridge was inspected in mid-September 2007, 29 months after its last inspection, Parker said. He would not provide the results of that inspection, but its previous report shows it to be "satisfactory," one step below "good."

"The county is trying to save $200 instead of inspecting it?" Jim Little asked incredulously, just after putting Shelby on the bus with 30 other children.

"It scares you."

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