Pursuit's Take
Over 600,000 bridges carry the nation’s passenger car, bus and commercial vehicle traffic over waterways, highways, and railways. Large bridges are typically located on heavily used highways and some are in need of repair or replacement, which can be resource intensive. In addition, the nation’s surface transportation system is under growing strain and funding it is on GAO’s High Risk list.
The condition of the nation’s “large bridges”—defined as those that make up the top 1 percent of bridges in deck area (the surface area that carries vehicles)—has improved since 2007, based on GAO analysis of federal bridge data. From 2007 through 2016, the percentage of deck area on those bridges that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) identified as structurally deficient (i.e., one or more components of the bridge is in poor condition) declined from 11.2 to 7.5 percent.
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