Texas Bridges
Officials to examine Texas bridges | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News
Texas officials expressed confidence in the state’s bridge inspection program Thursday but promised a quick response to the federal government’s call to immediately inspect all bridges similar to the Minneapolis span that collapsed into the Mississippi River.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters signed off on an advisory that was sent by the Federal Highway Administration urging state transportation departments to conduct inspections of bridges similar to the collapsed steel-deck truss bridge. Officials said there are about 700 such bridges.
Chris Lippincott, a governmental liaison for the Texas Department of Transportation, said late Thursday that there are more than 30 such bridges on major state highways in Texas, and probably more on city and county roads.
You can find the Texas bridge report here. It is a whopping 93 pages but worth a look through. In September, 2006, Texas had 49,829 bridges and 77% are in good or better condition but 2,125 were designated structurally deficient and 7,802 were classified as structurally obsolete. It is an interesting report and worth the time to at least skim it.
