Nearly 10% of the country’s bridges are structurally deficient, according to a new report.
There were 58,495 structurally deficient bridges in the U.S. last year, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) reported Thursday.
This classification does not mean the bridges are in immediate danger of falling down, but they do require repairs and potential safeguards such as weight limits. More than 61,000 bridges were labelled structurally deficient in 2014, so the most recent count is a slight improvement.
“I think it is something to still be concerned about, just because of the sheer number of bridges classified as structurally deficient,” Alison Black, ARTBA’s chief economist, told USA Today. “It’s just such a big problem.”
Placed end-to-end, the deficient bridges would span from New York to Miami, the ARTBA calculated.