Too many U.S. bridges are in state of disrepair

As President Donald J. Trump spends all his time running for re-election in 2020 and thus pursues issues that he believes will resonate with the voters, he may want to consider this recently publicized factoid: It will take more than 80 years to fix all 47,000 bridges in the U.S. that are in crucial need of repairs.

But why should Republican Trump, who has made building a wall along the U.S. and Mexico border the foundation of his campaign, care about the crumbling bridges he will never see, let alone travel on?

The answer lies in his 2016 presidential campaign platform in which he pledged to make the nation’s deteriorating roads, bridges, water systems, airports and railroads a priority.

In his address to Congress in 2017, 2018 and this year, the president talked about Republicans and Democrats coming together to address America’s ailing infrastructure.

To date, there has been no substantive progress on forging a bipartisan plan to fund the construction, reconstruction, upgrades and repairs of the nation’s transportation system.

Last year, Trump unveiled a $1.5 trillion initiative, but there was a major wrinkle that has stopped the plan in its tracks: Trump wanted state and local governments to come up with 80 percent matches for federal funding for road and bridge repairs.

There are other impediments: He believed the federal government’s portion of the cost should be financed by a 25-cent increase in the gas tax. It now stands at 18.4 cents.

And, he wanted the private sector to invest billions of dollars in the infrastructure initiative – without saying what he was willing to give the private companies to lure them into a partnership.

47,052 BRIDGES in poor shape

Thus, while the White House and Congress try to find common ground, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association has issued a dire warning – again.

In its Deficient Bridge report, the association found:

47,052 bridges of the 616,087 in the country are “structurally deficient” and need urgent repair.

235,020 bridges need some repair.

Americans cross structurally deficient bridges 178 million times a day.

The average age of a structurally deficient bridge is 62 years.

Those hair-raising findings are enough to force Americans to reassess their transportation choices.

But it shouldn’t be that way.

As Ohio’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, said last week, “The latest report underscores the importance of investing in bridge repair. Ohioans travel over bridges every day to get to work or take their kids to school. They deserve a meaningful commitment and investment from the federal government to make sure these bridges are as safe as possible.”

Brown has a long legislative history of addressing the nation’s infrastructure challenges.

Last year, the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, joined Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., ranking member of the Finance Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a member of the Environment and Public Works committee, in introducing a bill aimed at repairing bridges of all sizes in urban and rural areas and at requiring all projects to use American-made steel and iron for projects funded by the legislation.

It would have created a competitive grant program with an investment of $75 billion over 10 years for bridge-repair programs. The federal dollars were designed to leverage additional investment from state and local entities.

As for the ARTBA contention that it will take more than 80 years to complete the repairs of the nation’s bridges, Alison Black, chief economist, told CNN: “We’ve seen bridge construction activity slow down the last few years after increasing significantly over the last 10 years.” Black added that some states are focusing on improving pavement conditions instead of bridge repair.

The Federal Highway Administration doesn’t share the association’s sense of urgency. A spokesman told CNN that bridge conditions in the U.S. have steadily improved over the years due to ongoing bridge-safety efforts led by the federal agency and state transportation departments.

However, there is an important issue that Sen. Brown and other members of Congress should explore: The Federal Highway Administration has narrowed the definition of what it means for a bridge to be structurally deficient.

According to the ARTBA, 6,500 bridges would have been tagged structurally deficient before adoption of the new definition.

The bottom line is that the White House and Congress had better act quickly to address the nation’s infrastructure problems. The next bridge collapse could be around the corner.