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5 states with most structurally deficient bridges
Federal Highway Administration rundown spans bridges from South Dakota to Rhode Island Centennial Bridge between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois. (Photo: Flickr/eric wittman)
The 600,000 bridges in the U.S., and the roads they connect, are crucial to the nation’s transportation network. They carry about 3 trillion vehicle miles of travel annually, accounting for about 85% of the total value of freight shipped in the U.S.
However, more than 46,000 bridges are structurally deficient, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and some may be dangerous for truckers. Structural deficiency doesn’t necessarily mean all of these bridges are unsafe, but it does mean that the FHWA rated the condition of at least one of their key elements deck, superstructure, substructure or culverts as poor.