State’s rural roads, bridges rank among nation’s poorest

Oklahoma’s rural roads and bridges rank among the 10 worst in the nation, according to a new report released by TRIP, a national transportation research group.

TRIP researchers said 16 percent of Oklahoma’s rural bridges are structurally deficient, the seventh-highest rate in the nation.

And 22 percent of Oklahoma’s rural roads are in poor condition, the 10th worst rate in the nation, the report said.

“These numbers should be alarming to all Oklahomans and serve as a reminder to the Oklahoma Legislature to adequately fund the Oklahoma Department of Transportation,” said Chuck Mai, vice president, public affairs, for Oklahoma AAA.

Gene Wallace, executive director of the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma, agreed that funding is an issue.

“It takes investment to correct it, especially on bridges,” Wallace said.

Many of Oklahoma’s bridges were built before 1930 and were constructed to meet the needs of Model A-type automobiles and wagons out in rural areas, he said.

“The weight of vehicles has certainly increased

and it has raised the number of inadequate bridges that we’ve got out there,” he said.

Wallace said county commissioners are making progress in addressing the problem and every county now has a five-year plan for improving roads and bridges.

Counties have spent something like $900 million improving roads and bridges over the last 12 years, he said.

“It’s quite a bit, but the needs are probably $3 billion or $4 billion,” Wallace said.

“In our opinion, if you want to have a progressive growing state, you’ve got to have an infrastructure to carry the traffic,” Wallace said. “We’ve lost funding, like three years in a row, that have delayed some of these projects.”

Poor bridge and road conditions contribute to traffic accidents.

The rate of fatality accidents on Oklahoma’s rural roads is more than double the rate of such accidents on Interstates and nonrural roads, the report said.

There were 2.21 fatality accidents per 100 million vehicle miles of travel on Oklahoma’s rural roads, compared with a 0.91 rate on Oklahoma’s other roads, the researchers said. Oklahoma ranked 22nd in the nation for its rate of fatality accidents on rural roads.

Responsibility for building and maintaining roads in Oklahoma is divided among the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, cities and counties.

The state Transportation Department is responsible for 12,265 centerline miles of highways and about 6,800 bridges, while cities and counties maintain more than 97,000 miles of roads and 16,000 bridges.

Cody Boyd, spokesman for the state Transportation Department, said his agency has been “very up front about the deteriorated pavement conditions on Oklahoma highways.”

“Thanks to increased state funding in the last decade, ODOT has undertaken a very aggressive bridge program and reduced the number of structurally deficient highway bridges from 1,168 in 2004 down to 251 in 2016, with all remaining structurally deficient bridges programmed in the Eightyear Construction Work Plan,” he said.

With many state bridges in improved condition, the state is now beginning to focus more on pavement issues, he said.

“Oklahoma didn’t get into this situation overnight, and it cannot be fixed overnight,” he said.