Bridge Safety News Report

An interesting article about bridge safety and conditions in Minnesota was published by http://www.twincities.com/ under the title "Minnesota's eyes are on I-35W bridge, but look again
Across state, lesser-known spans deteriorate, wait for replacement" By Jason Hoppin.

A few interesting quotes:

"When the 2008 legislative session convenes, lawmakers are expected to debate funding for the I-35W rebuild and the timeline for finishing the Wakota Bridge between South St. Paul and Newport. But how legislators address these lesser-known bridges is likely to say much more about how serious the Capitol is about fixing Minnesota's ailing infrastructure. "

"With over 200 bridges, even if they have a 50-year life, we need to replace four or five a year," Forsberg said. "We clearly are not meeting our needs."

"Sufficiency ratings are based on a complicated formula to determine a bridge's relative worth as a piece of infrastructure. Structures are ranked on a scale of 0-100. The breakdown of the factors used in computing the ratings:
-- 55 percent: bridge condition
-- 30 percent: serviceability and obsolescence
-- 15 percent: essentiality to the public "

Unfortunately bridge condition, the most important parameter, is only evaluated by visual inspection and in some cases through an engineering analysis on paper. Real and quantitative data from the bridge would obviously improve re reliability of the rating and in many cases improve it.