Federal data show Louisiana has more than 1,800 bridges that need repairs. Federal Highway Administration statistics from 2014 indicate the state has nearly 13,000 bridges, and 1,837 of them are structurally deficient, according to a United States Public Interest Research Group report.
The findings come as Louisiana grapples with a $12 billion backlog in deferred road and bridge maintenance, Gannett Louisiana reports. And state and federal gas taxes, which provide money for transportation infrastructure, are flat and failing to keep up with inflation.
John Olivieri, the US PIRG’s national campaign director for 21st Century Transportation, says hard FHA data highlights the state’s spending priorities.
“It’s not just the numbers are increasing. It’s just that there’s such a staggering amount in the first place,” he says.
Structurally deficient bridges have at least one component that needs repairs or replacement. The designation doesn’t mean a bridge is unsafe.
Such bridges are “more prone to safety issues in the future,” Olivieri says. “They become more expensive to fix in the future.”
Louisiana has a history of spending money on interstates instead of paying to maintain existing roadways and bridges, State Sen. Robert Adley says, adding he and other legislators are trying to figure out how to restore money that has been diverted to state police and other areas back into the fund for roads and bridges.
Louisiana has put $1.8 billion into bridge repair and about $7 billion in road improvements since January 2008, says Lauren Lee, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation and Development.
“The state appears to favor building new and wider highways at the expense of repair and maintenance,” Olivieri says in a statement.
Read the full story, and see a list of the 10 most-traveled bridges in the state that have been deemed structurally deficient.
