MoDOT: State Bridges Safe Despite Study's Poor Ranking, Budget Cuts

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Transportation focuses on bridges to keep highways safe.

President Obama recently called for billions to be spent on infrastructure in the United States. He addressed the issue in his State of the Union Address.

Transportation for America, a national organization that represents everyday transportation users, has ranked Missouri's bridges seventh worst in the nation in a 2009-2010 study.

"We do inspections on them at least every other year," says MoDOT District Engineer Becky Baltz. "Some of them are more frequent."

Whether you're driving over them or under them, thousands of cars travel on Missouri's bridges daily.

"Even though we have a lot of bridges and some are deteriorating, they're all safe structures," Baltz says. "If they weren't, we would close the bridge."

MoDOT recently completed its Safe and Sound bridge program in which 804 bridges were replaced or rehabilitated.

"On some of them, we had to replace the entire structure," Baltz adds. "On other bridges, we had to replace the deck or driving surface essentially of the bridge. We have a big system with lots of bridges, so it's a struggle for us at our funding levels."

Baltz says MoDOT's construction program is declining to about $700 million a year. A few years ago it was closer to $1.2 or $1.4 billion.

"So it has changed the way we are approaching projects," adds Baltz.

Transportation for America's study rated states according to their decks, substructures and superstructures. The study focused on finding states with the most structurally deficient bridges.

"It doesn't mean the bridge is in danger of falling down," says David Goldberg, Transportation for America's communications director. "But it means it's in need of monitoring and possibly urgent repair."

"We keep up on maintenance very regularly," Baltz says. "We make sure the bridges are safe for people to travel on them."

MoDOT handles around 10,000 bridges across the state.

The bridge at Battlefield and Highway 65 in Springfield is scheduled for replacement. The northbound U.S. 65 bridge over Lake Springfield is also scheduled to be widened and replaced in 2015.