More than 1,250 Ohio bridges in ‘poor’ condition
Every day, 61,022 westbound drivers leaving Columbus cross the Scioto River using an Interstate 70 bridge.
The condition of that high-traffic bridge? Poor, according to June 2023 bridge condition data from the Federal Highway Administration.
Poor bridge conditions aren’t exclusive to highways; almost every bridge connecting German Village to downtown Columbus — Front Street, High Street, Third Street, and Fourth Street — is considered in poor condition. The only exception is the Grant Avenue bridge.
These are just a few of the 1,251 bridges or culverts in Ohio that are in poor condition, according to the most recent data from FHWA. There are a total of 26,960 bridges and culverts in Ohio, the second-most in the United States behind Texas.
After a steady decline in poor condition bridges, there was an uptick in the number of poor bridges in Ohio, increasing from 1,223 in 2019 to 1,251 in 2023, according to data from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
FHWA’s bridge condition data is a “snapshot” of a community or state’s bridge infrastructure, ARTBA Chief Economist Alison Black said.
“I think it really shines a spotlight on some of the challenges that areas may have as well as the progress that’s been made in many areas in terms of those bridge conditions,” Black said.
The Front Street bridge is currently closed for reconstruction, and the other bridges over I-70 are set for reconstruction in the next few years as part of ODOT’s Downtown Ramp Up project.
In the meantime, thousands of motorists continue to travel these structures every day, according to data from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
One of these motorists, Michelle Johnson, a business manager at Katzinger’s Delicatessen, crosses the Third Street bridge as part of three of her five weekly commutes to work, she said.
And while she’s on the bridge, her mind is only on a few things.
“(I think) I really want to get off of it, and I can’t wait until they rebuild it,” she said.
On a national scale, the number of bridges in poor condition has been on a downward trend in recent years, Black said.
“It’s a slow process. It takes a while. So that is good news,” she said.
While the number of bridges in poor condition in the U.S. continues to dwindle, a significant challenge remains; around one in three bridges in the country need repairs, Black said.
In Ohio, it will cost more than $3 billion for the state to repair its 3,183 bridges that need it.
“There’s certainly a lot of work that needs to be done, and although we’ve seen more resources put towards bridge projects, it is something that does take time for the work to be completed,” Black said.
Ohio is 13th in the nation for the number of poor-condition bridges it has. In terms of percentage of poor bridges out of Ohio’s entire bridge inventory, the state is ranked 38th with 5% of its bridges classified as poor.
What do these bridge terms mean?
There are three main components of a bridge that determine its overall condition: superstructure, substructure and deck.
A bridge’s superstructure is what the road sits on; usually concrete, steel beams or a combination of the two. The substructure is what holds the superstructure up; supports, piers or abutments. A bridge is like a capital letter “T,” the superstructure is the horizontal line at the top of the letter and the substructure is the vertical line supporting it.
A deck, meanwhile, is the surface of a bridge. Normally, this means a paved road, but it could also be railroad tracks, wood, or any other material suitable for crossing.
Culverts are also included in the National Bridge Inventory. These structures are tunnels dug into the ground to allow water to pass beneath them.
The FHWA also uses a few engineering terms to describe damage to bridges, namely section loss, spalling and scour.
Section loss is when a main piece of a bridge’s structure, like a pier or a support beam, loses some of its “cross-sectional area” due to decay or damage. Spalling is when a chunk of concrete breaks off, leaving it pitted and less structurally sound. Scour is when erosion, usually from water, wears away the ground surrounding the foundation of a bridge.
How are Ohio’s bridges maintained?
Federal law requires the Ohio Department of Transportation to inspect every bridge on a public roadway once every two years, but they often manage to inspect most of the state’s bridges annually, Bruning said.
“Some of the better condition bridges, fairly new bridges, we do go back to the federal standard of every two years because, honestly, it’s quite a bit of work to inspect every bridge on an annual basis,” he said.
The only public bridges ODOT does not have to inspect are those owned by the federal government.
Once an inspection finds an issue with a public bridge, maintenance teams from county governments, township governments, cities or ODOT conduct repairs depending on where the bridge is located.
In the past, bridges in rural areas or on small local road networks often faced the most hurdles in getting repairs because of the high cost of fixing bridges, but that trend has started to be reversed, Black said.
“I think we’re starting to see more local areas, and this is actually something we see in Ohio, there are a number of county and local ballot initiatives to try and raise local transportation funds to address some of these issues,” she said.
Some of the most common damage bridges incur is when concrete chips away to reveal rebar underneath. While this may look concerning, it doesn’t signal any structural damage to the bridge.
“The bulk of the structural integrity is actually inside the rebar. The concrete that you would see outside the rebar is simply protecting that. So I think sometimes someone might look at a bridge and say, ‘Oh, that looks like it’s in really bad shape,’” he said.
A bridge in poor condition isn’t unsafe either, Bruning said.
“I never even think twice when I drive across a bridge in Ohio. It’s just not something that I’m worried about because I know how much goes into keeping those bridges in good shape,” he said.