PennDOT Eyes Bridge Weight Restrictions

The Pennsylvania General Assembly’s failure to pass a transportation package means the state will move forward in assessing 1,120 bridges that may have to have new or additional weight restrictions, according to Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch.

“Pennsylvania’s transportation funding crisis has been decades in the making and short-term infusions of additional funds have come and gone. After 16 years of inadequate funding, we are left with nearly 10,000 miles of substandard roads and 4,000 structurally deficient bridges,” Schoch wrote in an opinion piece published Sunday in the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

The bridges, the names of which are posted on the Department of Transportation’s website, are aged spans in need of upgrade or repairs, said PennDOT spokesman Steve Chizmar.

Click here for a list of the bridges. (PennDOT website; 32-pp. PDF)

Schoch wrote that the state’s public transportation system is failing, and substandard roads will grow to 16,000 miles in four years with current funding.

Because PennDOT cannot count on funding to carry out the necessary work, each bridge will have to be inspected a second time to determine if weight restrictions are necessary in order to keep the bridges from further deterioration, Chizmar said.

“What we’re going to do is try to preserve these,” he said, adding that the state does not want to have to close bridges.

Pennsylvania will begin posting weight restrictions on some of the bridges before the end of this year, he said.

According to PennDOT, the commonwealth leads the nation in the number of bridges classified as “structurally deficient,” with a majority more than 50 years old.

The legislature will return to session in the fall and is expected to take up the transportation funding debate again.