PennDOT prepares for battle with aging bridges

By Jaime North
The Daily Item

September 19, 2008 06:32 am

— HERNDON -- Time has caught up to nearly 25 percent of the state's 25,000 bridges, including 88 in the Valley, where decades of aging has shown through with cracking decks, chipped parapets and rusted beams.
In recent years, the state Department of Transportation has battled the effects of time and limited funding to keep deteriorating bridges from becoming structurally deficient, at which point significant repairs are needed.
With the help of a $350 million bond issue approved two months ago, PennDOT officials are hoping to make up for lost time and fix more than 1,140 bridges across the state -- nearly 100 bridges in the region -- within the next three years, according to Rick Mason, PennDOT spokesman.
In fact, Mason said Thursday that work will begin this month to repair a 70-year-old bridge over Mahanoy Creek near Schuyler Road in Jackson Township, Northumberland County. It will be one of four local bridges and 411 in the state to be repaired through PennDOT's new accelerated bridge program this year.
"The challenge is that the state has such a huge network of roads and bridges," Mason said. "We never had enough resources to do what we wanted to do. It was difficult to get ahead without having to use a lot of money.
"We would deal with seven or eight bridges off our (structurally deficient) list, then we would get eight or nine more added on. It's been a moving target, which has been extremely difficult to deal with it."
Mason said the bond issue is a blessing considering neighboring states have received much more support in transportation funding.
"We have more state-owned roads and bridges than New York, New Jersey and the New England states combined," he said. "We have 40,000 miles of highway and 20,000 bridges, and for every $1 they get in transportation funds, we get 50 cents. That's the way it's been, but now we have more of an emphasis to improve our bridges."
According to Paul King, a PennDOT structure control engineer, just because a bridge gets listed as structurally deficient doesn't mean it's unsafe. The delineation simply means the bridge needs repairs beyond routine maintenance, he said.
Much of the deterioration comes from the normal wear and tear of aging, vehicle traffic and chloride from anti-icing material applied to roads and bridges by PennDOT road crews, according to King.
"The average life of a bridge is about 50 years," he said. "We've taken measures recently to expand the life expectancy by being more proactive in preventive maintenance (patching, overlaying and other work), but the reality is we're seeing the effects of weather and years of use."
In addition to the Jackson Township bridge, Mason said PennDOT plans to repair two bridges in Snyder County (one crossing Mahantango Creek in Chapman Township and the other over Middle Creek in Beaver Township) and a bridge crossing Bull Run in East Buffalo Township, Union County.
It would take an estimated $11 billion to fix all 6,002 structurally deficient bridges in the state, according to Mason.
"Our No. 1 concern is safety," he said. "Here in the district, we've had an aggressive bridge program where we inspect bridges every two years. When a bridge shows some signs of wear, we then inspect it every year.
"We typically have funding to address 40 bridges in our region. With the accelerated bridge program, we will add 34 more this year."
n E-mail comments to jnorth@dailyitem.com.

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