More than 1,200 bridges in Fort Worth area need to be replaced, road group says

More than 7,000 bridges in the Fort Worth area need to be repaired, including 1,250 that should be replaced, according to a recent report from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

The proposed repairs total almost $5 billion.

“The cost to repair data is submitted by states and collected by the Federal Highway Administration,” said John Schneidawind, the association vice president of public affairs. “We use that to estimate the cost to repair each structure where the inspection report indicates work needs to be done.”

The association considers bridges to be structurally deficient if one or more of their key structures is rated in poor or worse condition by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory database.

Despite bridges being deemed structurally deficient, drivers shouldn’t worry about using them, though they might not be safe to use in the future.

“Structurally deficient bridges are not unsafe, but do need to be fixed and are considered to be in poor condition.” Schneidawind said. “If there are safety concerns about a bridge, the state or local government will take steps to reduce traffic or weight on the structure.”

President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan, released Wednesday, could address some of Texas’ infrastructure issues, including bridges.

“It will fix the 10 most economically significant bridges in the country in need of reconstruction,” the plan read, but didn’t detail which bridges. “It also will repair the worst 10,000 smaller bridges, providing critical linkages to communities.”

Republicans and Democrats were divided about the plan.

“The congresswoman’s goal is to work on bipartisan solutions that would make a real difference for Texans but unfortunately the administration put forth a trillion dollar partisan proposal that does little to accomplish this and instead raises taxes and leaves Texans subsidizing projects from San Francisco to New York,” said Andrea Coker, a spokesperson for Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas.

But Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, said the plan “will make the lives of these folks easier by improving the forms of transportation that they travel on by making historic investments in our nation’s infrastructure, all while creating good-paying jobs for Americans that have been hurt by the pandemic.”

Despite the differing political opinions, Biden’s plan “will accelerate a long overdue conversation about how to modernize our roads, bridges, public transit and other infrastructure systems,” ARTBA President and CEO Dave Bauer said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 5:19 PM.