Policy Study

25th Annual Highway Report: Structurally Deficient Bridges

The condition of the nation’s highway bridges in improved slightly.

Federal law mandates the uniform inspection of all bridges for structural and functional adequacy at least every two years; bridges rated “deficient” are eligible for federal repair dollars.

The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is the source of the bridge data below, although we use summaries provided in Better Roads (see appendix). Since the NBI contains some recent inspections and some as old as two years, the age of the “average” inspection is about one year old. So, a “December 2019” summary from the NBI would represent, on average, bridge condition as of 2018.

The condition of the nation’s highway bridges in 2019 improved slightly from 2018, the last time this assessment was completed. Of the 613,517 highway bridges reported, 46,771 (7.62%) were rated deficient for 2019 (Table 15, Percent of Structurally Deficient Bridges, 2019, Figure 11). This represents a 1.24%  improvement over 2018 when 54,254 of 612,408  (8.86%) were rated as deficient.

Three states reported less than 2% of their bridges to be structurally deficient: Texas, Nevada, and Arizona at 1.28%, 1.36%, and 1.81%, respectively.

One state reported more than 20% of its bridges as structurally deficient: Rhode Island at 23.08%. The majority of states (45) reported at least some improvement in the percentage of structurally deficient bridges between 2017 and 2019, with  Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas seeing the most improvement (5.9, 4.0, and 3.3 percentage points, respectively).

Of the five states that reported a higher percentage of deficient bridges, only one saw increases of more than one percentage point: Hawaii at 1.05% (from 5.81% to 6.86%).

Structurally Deficient Bridges — Percent Deficient (2019)
2019 RankStatePercent Structurally Deficient Bridges
1Texas1.28
2Nevada1.36
3Arizona1.81
4Utah2.16
5Vermont2.38
6Florida2.64
7Georgia3.32
8Delaware3.94
9Alabama4.27
10Tennessee4.32
11Arkansas4.56
12Washington4.61
13Virginia4.64
14Minnesota5
15Maryland5.11
16Oregon5.17
16Kansas5.17
18Colorado5.38
19Ohio5.57
20New Mexico5.79
21Indiana6.24
22Hawaii6.86
23Idaho7.03
24California7.04
25Kentucky7.07
26Connecticut7.21
27Wisconsin7.38
28Montana7.41
29New Jersey8.06
30Wyoming8.21
31South Carolina8.46
32Illinois8.48
33Missouri8.63
34Nebraska8.85
35New Hampshire8.98
36Massachusetts9.22
37Mississippi9.39
38Alaska9.74
39New York10.03
40North Carolina10.18
41Michigan10.65
42North Dakota10.77
43Oklahoma10.99
44Louisiana13.01
45Maine13.14
46Pennsylvania16.58
47South Dakota16.71
48Iowa19.38
49West Virginia19.87
50Rhode Island23.08
Average7.94
View national trends and state-by-state performances by category:
overall
Overall
total-disbursements-per-mile
Total Disbursements Per Mile
capital-bridge-disbursements-per-mile
Capital & Bridge Disbursements Per Mile
maintenance-disbursements-per-mile
Maintenance Disbursements Per Mile
administrative-disbursements-per-mile
Administrative Disbursements Per Mile
rural-interstate-percent-poor-condition
Rural Interstate Pavement Condition
rural-other-principal-arterial-percent-narrow-lanes
Rural Arterial Pavement Condition
urban-interstate-percent-poor-condition
Urban Interstate Pavement Condition
rural-other-principal-arterial-percent-poor-condition
Urban Arterial Pavement Condition
urbanized-area-congestion-peak-hours-spent-in-congestion-per-auto-commuter
Urbanized Area Congestion
bridges-percent-deficient
Structurally Deficient Bridges
fatality-rate-per-100-million-vehicle-miles-of-travel
Overall Fatality Rate
fatality-rate-per-100-million-vehicle-miles-of-travel
Rural Fatality Rate
fatality-rate-per-100-million-vehicle-miles-of-travel
Urban Fatality Rate