In Oklahoma: We are worst in the nation

Oklahoma continues to lead the nation in the number of structurally deficient bridges, but none on the state highway system are unsafe or in danger of imminent collapse, including Oklahoma City's aging Crosstown Expressway bridge, state highway officials said Thursday.

Nearly 6,300 bridges are structurally deficient in Oklahoma, which means the bridges aren't meant to carry today's loads, federal data show. Of those, 989 bridges are on Oklahoma's state highway system. Such bridges are under greater scrutiny after Wednesday's bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

"We feel the bridges in Oklahoma are safe to travel on,” John Fuller, chief engineer for the Oklahoma Transportation Department, said Thursday. "If they ever get to the condition where we know they are not safe to travel on, then we have and we would close them.

"We devote a lot of effort in the state of Oklahoma to stay apprised of the condition of our bridges,” he said.

Oklahoma has led the nation in the number of structurally deficient bridges since at least 2000, Federal Highway Administration figures show. Pennsylvania is No. 2 with 5,582.

The total includes bridges maintained by a number of different agencies within state limits, such as state government, counties and municipalities.

Nearly 27 percent of Oklahoma's 23,460 bridges are structurally deficient. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Iowa and South Dakota are the only other states with 20 percent or more of their bridges considered structurally deficient.

Oklahoma transportation officials called a news conference Thursday to discuss the condition of Oklahoma's bridges because of intense public scrutiny after Wednesday's deadly bridge collapse.

That bridge also was considered structurally deficient.

More than 50 news reporters jammed the lobby of the state Transportation Department building for the news briefing, and dozens of department employees leaned over the balcony above to hear what was said.

Many of the questions focused on Oklahoma City's aging Interstate 40 Crosstown bridge, which has a federal highway sufficiency rating of 49 on a 100-point scale — one point lower than the 50-point rating of the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed.

Despite the similar rating, state bridge engineer Bob Rusch said Oklahoma transportation officials don't consider the bridge unsafe.

"It's not the same type of bridge,” Rusch said. "It doesn't have the same attributes.”

Rusch said there is no bridge on the Oklahoma state highway system that he is afraid to drive across, including Oklahoma City's Crosstown bridge.

"We've already replaced the bridge I liked the least — the U.S. 59 bridge over the Arkansas River,” he said.

"If I received a call in the middle of the night, I wouldn't expect it to be the Crosstown. I would have expected it to be that one,” he said of the bridge south of Sallisaw, replaced about four years ago.

A lot of factors make up the sufficiency rating of a bridge and some of those factors relate to safety and some don't, he said.

It's not that state engineers aren't concerned about the Crosstown bridge. They are, and that's why they have scheduled it for replacement, said David Streb, director of engineering.

The department "dedicates an extreme amount of effort” to inspecting and maintaining the bridge, Streb said.

Critical components of the bridge are inspected every six months, instead of every two years as required by the federal government, he said.

"As soon as we get from one end to the other, we start again,” Streb said, adding that the department spends about $1 million a year on the bridge to keep it operational.

"If for one minute we think it's not going to be safe, we will close it,” he said.

Streb said officials did close the bridge for awhile in 1989 to make repairs after a crack was discovered in one of its beams.

Officials said the public can be confident that the highway department will do what needs to be done.

But the Crosstown bridge is far from Oklahoma's only bridge concern.

•There are now 127 bridges on the state highway system that are considered so structurally deficient that the state has had to place load limits on vehicles that can cross them to ensure safety.

•Sixteen of those bridges have load limits of 15 tons or less, which means they are not safe for a fully loaded school bus.

Fuller said the state Legislature is aware of the problem and has begun appropriating additional money to the department to address concerns.

•More than 480 bridges are scheduled to be replaced during the next eight years at an estimated cost of $1 billion, officials said.

•More than 200 additional bridges are scheduled to be refurbished during that time, they said.

Oklahoma Turnpike Authority officials also talked about the condition of their bridges Thursday.

Bridges on the state's toll road system are inspected three times over every two-year period, a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority said.

The Turnpike Authority has 789 bridges in its system, which includes 10 turnpikes covering about 600 miles.

The authority's consulting engineer inspects each bridge once every two years and the authority's maintenance department inspects them every year, authority spokesman Jack Damrill said.

"We fortunately haven't had any incidences,” he said. "We never had a bridge collapse.” The inspections have shown up minor problems, but no serious flaws, he said.

The oldest bridges in the system are about 50 years old and are on the system's oldest turnpikes, such as the Turner Turnpike, the system's first, which was opened in 1953. Oldest sections of the John Kilpatrick Turnpike in Oklahoma City and the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa are about 15 years old.

The bridges are designed to last between 50 and 75 years, Damrill said.

Regular maintenance occurs on the bridges and some of the older bridges have been redecked or repaired during the years, he said. Regular resurfacing work is occurring on several bridges.

Several turnpike bridges cross bodies of water. The bigger bridges are near Tulsa — one on the Will Rogers Turnpike that crosses the Arkansas River and another on the Creek Turnpike that crosses the Arkansas River, Damrill said.

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, who helped write the six-year highway bill that was approved by Congress in 2005, said the condition of this nation's bridges is "something that needs to be talked about.”

"The conditions of our bridges is very serious,” he said.

Inhofe helped secure more than $3 billion in authorized spending for Oklahoma's roads and bridges in the six-year bill. He got $110 million for the Crosstown Expressway project in Oklahoma City; other members of the Oklahoma delegation got another $20 million. Not all of that money has been appropriated yet.

Inhofe, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which wrote the highway bill, said he doesn't think the panel should necessarily hold hearings on the collapse. He said it was his understanding that the bridge already was being worked on.

"This happened because it was structurally deficient,” he said. "And now we've just lost lives. I just don't want that to happen in Oklahoma.”

Contributing: Chris Casteel, Brian Sargent, John Greiner and Michael McNutt, Staff Writers