About 14 percent -- or 1,827 structures -- of Louisiana bridges are considered "structurally deficient". About 10.5 percent of bridges across the United States are given the same designation, according to GOVERNING.
The federal government declares a bridge "structurally deficient" when it is in need of major repairs, but that doesn't necessarily mean the bridge is dangerous or shouldn't be used. Officials just have to monitor it more closely and often recommend that heavy trucks or other loads don't cross them, according to Vock.
Still, Louisiana is one of just a handful of states that hasn't made progress toward decreasing the number of "structurally deficient" bridges in its catalog over the past seven years, according to GOVERNING.
Only nine states -- including Louisiana -- have seen their number of "structurally deficient" bridges go up since the 2007 collapse of an interstate bridge in Minneapolis, which many state officials saw as a wake up call.
Julia O'Donoghue is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at email@example.com or on Twitter at @jsodonoghue. Please consider following us on Facebook at NOLA.com and NOLA.com-Baton Rouge.