Bridging the gap; Lack of funding clouds future for state’s bridges
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Deficient bridges in Rock and Walworth counties
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This is a bridge on Dorner Road that is listed among deficient bridges in Rock County.
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Julie Widholm with Wisconsin DNR takes photographs of the waterway under a deficient bridge on Dorner Road. She said the DNR has to make sure that the DOT plan for proposed bridge changes protects the waterway.
Nearly one in 12 Wisconsin bridges is considered “structurally deficient,” including 46 in Rock and Walworth counties, according to state records.
A bridge is labeled deficient based on inspections of various parts of the structure. Most deficiencies are not serious, but some officials worry that a lack of federal funding will allow small problems to grow quickly.
That’s not the case, said Tom Lorfeld, engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Lorfeld acknowledged Wisconsin has a backlog of deficient bridges, but the risk to drivers is almost microscopic, he said.
“Deficient bridges are seldom in danger of failure in any way,” he said. “Even if one were to experience a problem, it would typically be a repairable, usually foreseeable problem, and almost never catastrophic failure.”
Transportation for America, a national coalition working to funnel money back into road repair, created a website detailing the location and condition of bridges nationwide.
David Goldberg, the organization’s spokesman, agreed most deficient bridges don’t pose immediate risks—it’s the future he’s worried about.
The average U.S. bridge is 42 years old. There’s an unwritten rule that bridges are generally built with a 50-year lifespan, forcing many people to consider what the paved landscape will look like a decade from now, he said.
“I don’t think you should be concerned for your safety in the near term,” Goldberg said. “You should be concerned not that you’ll fall into a river or highway below but that the deterioration, if it’s not handled quickly, can accelerate rather rapidly. Then one day you’re stuck in traffic because only one lane can get across the bridge.”
Inspectors are supposed to examine bridges every two years. When a bridge scores a 4 or lower on a 10-point inspection scale, it is categorized as structurally deficient.
The state can take various measures to protect those bridges and drivers, including weight limits or lane closures, Goldberg said. A small, 82-year-old bridge northwest of Orfordville scored deficient on its superstructure, and signs warn trucks weighing more than 8 tons not to cross it.
The bridge on Old Highway 11 built in 1940 over Bass Creek doesn’t include any signs, despite scoring deficient on the three major inspection areas. The bridge has scabs of blacktop plugging potholes, but the state believes it poses no danger to the 450 cars that use it daily.
Such bridges are spread all across the state, including 29 in Rock County and 17 in Walworth County. One of every 12 bridges in Wisconsin is likely to be deficient, but the state still ranks 15th when compared with the condition of bridges in other states, according to a study drafted by Transportation for America.
“We typically rank in the top 10 of states with the lowest percentage of deficient bridges,” Lorfeld said.
“Insufficient funding is the primary reason for our list of deficient bridges,” he said. “Manpower is not an issue. If we had the money, we could relatively quickly get all our bridges out of deficient status.”
An additional 17 bridges in Rock County are considered “functionally obsolete,” though they almost never pose risk to drivers, he said. Bridges are functionally obsolete when engineering standards change over time, kicking older bridges out of compliance even though nothing might be wrong with them.
Something needs to be done, Goldberg said. He argues signs and temporary shutdowns are just Band-Aids covering a more serious problem.
A report released in May by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute estimates it would take $677.5 million over the next 10 years to address repairs for state-owned bridges. That doesn’t include dozens of county- and town-owned bridges in Rock and Walworth counties that are in disrepair.
Regardless of what happens in Madison, it’s still difficult to determine whether the problem could be fixed.
The Interstate highway system, which includes three deficient bridges in Rock County, is 90 percent federally funded. That number slips to 80 percent for state highways.
Goldberg’s biggest fear isn’t necessarily the condition of bridges but what will happen if funding continues to decline.
“In fiscal terms, it’s a death spiral,” he said. “Things are not looking terribly promising. There is this budget-cutting fever at the moment, and even though there is a pretty broad consensus that transportation is important, Congress hasn’t been terribly supportive.”
He said federal lawmakers are discussing a two-year stopgap that would continue funding at current levels. The hope is by 2013, the economy will be in better shape to withstand an increase in transportation maintenance funds, he said.
Jun 29, 2011 at 2:34 p.m.
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They've been saying peak oil is imminent for the last thirty years and yet we keep increasing production. I agree it's theoretically likely, but it certainly hasn't happened yet.
Jun 29, 2011 at 6:40 a.m.
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I see nobody wants to explain where all the billions in stimulus money earmarked for infrastructure repair projects went. Funny.
Jun 29, 2011 at 1:10 a.m.
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Yuck it up. I wonder if the 9+ percent of Janesville residents without a job thought that was funny? 2012 is coming...
Jun 29, 2011 at 1:04 a.m.
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"Shovel-ready was not as ... uh .. shovel-ready as we expected."
Jun 28, 2011 at 10:56 p.m.
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Why would the rail project be a good idea? Again , please try to educate yourself, I will provide you soe light reading if you can handle it;
http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2009/08/10/whe...
http://thexofffiles.blogspot.com/2006/03...
This one talks about how Tommy Thompson was a HUGE advocate for this project and key in getting the funding here.
http://www.wkow.com/global/story.asp?s=1...
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/c...
The las one is great, the Mayor of Watertown echoes my sentiments of the lack of forward thinking and the lack of giving a crap about smaller community commerce. How towns like Watertown would benefit from this kind of project.
republicans seem to want highway expansions statewide. Thats great , 26 to four lanes and bypass Milton. I am sure that will be a great asset to the small business owners there. I thought repubs cared about small business? guess not!
Jun 28, 2011 at 10:35 p.m.
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BTW ever heard of peak oil? Its not some wild eyed theory, its here and going to get worse. Especially with China and India putting further stress on the market with their populations will be putting on the market.
Read about peak oil:http://www.peakoil.net/
I would also suggest reading about it on Exxon mobils website, its all there. Keep driving your car/truck/SUV, so will I, but the days of unaffordable gas are not too far away if not already here.
Jun 28, 2011 at 10:31 p.m.
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keep repairing roads. Great! Of course thats costing taxpayers NOTHING at all right? If I am not mistaken there was 20 years worth of operating costs built in , so the "5 million" in up keep is kind of moot to me. That being said, you can drive your car, will you still drive it when gas is 4,5,6,7,10 dollars a gallon? Are you under the impression that gasoline will be affordable in say 10 years? What about 20?
I would tend to agree that ridership would not be enough at first to support the rail, but I also believe that over time with rising fuel prices I believe that a rail line could and most likely would become something that may be quite an asset. My opinion is that the money was already allocated, why send it back? Of course the good Governator didnt want THAT rail project, he wanted the one that would have directed a contract the way of a major campaign contributor that got caught funneling donations into his campaign. So its not this rail project , its THAT one. Maybe if these people had any kind of forward thinking at all I could understand, but its all about scratching the backs of those who scratched yours, right? Cut education, build roads. Like I said , mortage the future for percieved savings today, penny smart pound foolish.
BTW when did I say anything about those construction jobs being union? I could care less if they are union or not! 5,000+ construction jobs are great whether union or non union. Some of you need to get off that as if its the cornerstone of every argument, it just is getting silly.
Jun 28, 2011 at 12:55 p.m.
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The high speed rail project was a stupid idea then, and it's still a stupid idea now. Initial estimates put the cost of maintaining it at $5 million a year. Seriously, you honestly think we have enough people who commute between Madison and Milwaukee on a regular basis to make something like that viable? Even those that would would use the HSR on a whim, have to deal with the reality that the attractions in the two cities are not concentrated at all. The cost/time benefits would be completely lost once one started to factor in bus/cab expense.......Thanks, but no thanks--I'll drive my car........
Jun 28, 2011 at 11:26 a.m.
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fearandrhetoric4dummies - Commuter train would have been a nice idea for very few and cost the taxpayers millions. Jobs in the long run, minimal. Nice idea for those who are tired of spending money on gas? Was the train going to allow them to travel abroad? No. To repair roads there are used by millions more, the jobs would be major. Funny how we have this problem but could only use the money for a train and not current repairs. Also funny how Doyle stole from the transportation fund.
Jun 28, 2011 at 11:19 a.m.
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It is interesting that Mr. Lorfeld says that "... Wisconsin has a backlog of deficient bridges, but the risk to drivers is almost microscopic,...". and “Deficient bridges are seldom in danger of failure in any way,” he said. “Even if one were to experience a problem, it would typically be a repairable, usually foreseeable problem, and almost never catastrophic failure.”
REALLY?
The Town of Delavan Borg Road bridge shown in this article as #14 in Walworth County, has had two closures in the last two year because of holes in the concrete deck and the bridge is presently posted for a maximum load of 14 tons. Which prohibits Fire trucks from the nearby Fire Station from crossing this bridge.
What will happen if a fire occurs on the "wrong side" of this bridge?
p.s. to the author Mr. Hoffman
the Average daily traffic on Borg Road is 1,500, not 115,
and the current sufficiency rating for the Borg Road bridge is 47.4, not 64.9
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/localgov/hi...
Jun 28, 2011 at 11:01 a.m.
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Maybe if we had built them right in the first place we wouldnt have such a problem. Roads in europe last decades, our roads go to hell in 2 years. We also throw money at dumb stuff and ignore the imprtant things... Typical USA.
Jun 28, 2011 at 9:58 a.m.
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Fear, the construction jobs to repair or replace these bridges would have all been high paying union jobs.... or at least union scale pay. As for the railway project, it wasn't that long ago when there were trains from Janesville to Milwaukee and Chicago. If I remember correctly, nobody rode them. That's why they are no longer here. Why spend all that money on trains nobody will ride? And it still doesn't answer my question....... where did all the the billions earmarked specifically for infrastructure repair go? Wasn't that Obama's big selling point on allocating all of that money?
Jun 28, 2011 at 9:27 a.m.
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Umm ya I think there was a commuter train project planned for madison milwaukee. That would have employed thousands of people. Just not the walmart type jobs that Mr Walker likes to claim. With gas prices never going to go down I would suspect that a commuter train might have been a nice idea for people that might get tired of paying for overpriced fuel that is breaking pocketbooks far and wide.
Penny smart , pound foolish. Sounds like Scott Walkers next campaign slogan.
Jun 28, 2011 at 8:59 a.m.
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Good point unclesmoothie. That was the biggest joke of the century.
Jun 28, 2011 at 7:10 a.m.
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Didn't Obama cough up nearly a trillion bucks for infrastructure projects such as this? Where did all that money go?
Jun 28, 2011 at 5:53 a.m.
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The counties can't maintain the bridges they have, but continue to allow subdivision roads to be proliferate needlessly in fields and woods and thereafter assume the expense of responsibility for their care and maintenance?
Jun 27, 2011 at 11:31 p.m.
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If you want to see the future of Wisconsin roads just visit Milwaukee county. I wouldn't drive anything other than a rental on those less than third-world roads. And if you want to go downtown you may need to rent a 4x4, unless you enjoy bottoming out.
Jun 27, 2011 at 10:07 p.m.
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Don't forget the two wood bridges in the county.
Jun 27, 2011 at 8 p.m.
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If you read the story and not just comment on the headline, you would see that; Lorfeld acknowledged Wisconsin has a backlog of deficient bridges, but the risk to drivers is almost microscopic, he said.
“Deficient bridges are seldom in danger of failure in any way,” he said. “Even if one were to experience a problem, it would typically be a repairable, usually foreseeable problem, and almost never catastrophic failure.”
Lorfeld also said;
“We typically rank in the top 10 of states with the lowest percentage of deficient bridges,”
I think what we have here is something rarely seen in Government (from either side) and that is planning for the future, however that said, being that these bridges will be in need of repair in the future they need to start saving money in other places so they will have the funds to do the repairs/ replacements when that time comes.
Gas taxes need to stay right where they are at or lower with the current cost of fuel and the governments refusal to open up our oil reserves that they are saving for "emergencies" and when gas is as expensive as it is right now coupled with unemployment being as high as it is, and not just here, it's still high nation wide, that is what I consider an "EMERGENCY" it's time to give us a little relief at the pumps, or is the current administration being content with these prices and riding them until it's closer to 2012 when they try to stay employed themselves, and only then will we see lower prices in the attempt to get us to forget the four years of complete misery we have just struggled through.
Sorry if I got away from the topic, but the bridges are not in danger of collapsing unlike the current economic status of our country!
Jun 27, 2011 at 6:46 p.m.
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Well, according to this movie I watched, we'll all have flying cars by 2015. We'll also have flux capacitors in case something goes wrong as well.
Jun 27, 2011 at 5:18 p.m.
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We could handle this if we would only get over this "thing" people have that apparently rich people cannot have their taxes raised. This sort of boring, maintenance spending is exactly what gets shortchanged when we make handing out tax cuts the focus of our politics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTzMqm2Tw...
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Rich people who like not paying taxes LOVE IT when we pit roads against teachers.
Jun 27, 2011 at 4:44 p.m.
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I think that the tobbacco fund was raided as well was it not? maybe blaming one party or another shouldnt be the rule of the day. I am certainly happy giving teachers raises. I also would like to see a tollway. To pay for infrastructure projects that are long overdue. Pitting roads against teachers? Who wins that political argument?
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