Visual inspection not enough to ensure safety of bridges
Rhode Island currently ranks near the bottom for structurally deficient bridges and deficient bridge deck area. This is slow progress, especially in view of the full mandate and power granted to state Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti, who now enters year nine of his 10-Year Plan − one committed to righting the wrongs of infrastructure past. By all indications, that plan is well behind schedule as 170 bridges remain in “poor condition.”
In early December, a potentially catastrophic flaw was discovered on the perennially reconstructed Washington Bridge, which was built in 1968. Aside from the impacts on businesses and commuters statewide, the most glaring concern arose from missing a critical structural failure on the scheduled visual inspection of that bridge − first thought to be inspected within two months of the flaw's “surprise” discovery and later found to have been inspected as far back as July. Of further concern should be the fact that a young engineer, unrelated to the scheduled visual inspection protocol, found the flaw by happenstance.
These facts should call into question the effectiveness of the DOT's sole reliance on a visual inspection program − one which remains subjective, highly variable and prone to human error. This is unacceptable in terms of its cost, inconvenience and, most importantly, potential loss of life. In medical terms, the Washington Bridge is apparently our sickest patient, yet we are assessing its condition with a stethoscope while efficient, affordable and Federal Highway Administration-approved MRI-type infrastructure condition assessment technology is available to us.
The road to curing Rhode Island's ailing infrastructure is through objective structural condition data, not a flawed and subjective methodology whose sheer ineffectiveness played out before our very eyes.
The RhodeWorks program was sold and passed, above all, on a mandate of safety. Yet, many years later, the near unthinkable nearly occurred. It is now time for the governor and General Assembly leadership to mandate, as part of its forensic study and upcoming joint oversight hearing of the Washington Bridge failure, adequate funding for deploying advanced bridge condition assessment technologies, e.g., sensors.
Mr. Alviti prides himself and gains great capital from transparency and unprecedented agency progress under his leadership. It is time for him to embrace the judicious use of advanced condition assessment technologies to support his agency in meeting the demands of managing our aging infrastructure, to ensure the efficient deployment of scant resources and, above all, to protect the traveling public.
Chris Maxwell is president and CEO of the Rhode Island Trucking Association.