HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — Have you noticed neglected bridges when driving around the seven cities? The issue isn't unique to our region: despite a push to bolster the U.S. infrastructure, millions of Americans drive over bridges in need of major repairs every day.
Bad bridges: a nationwide problem
Some 14,000 bridges identified in a Scripps News analysis have been rated in poor condition for at least a decade. Altogether, they carry more than 46 million commuters every day.
The list of bridges in need of repair — or even replacement — spans the entire country.
There's the nearly 100-year-old Magnolia Bridge in Seattle that was damaged by an earthquake in 2001. Now with faded concrete, cracks and other damage, thousands of commuters still pass over this bridge every day.
Outside Denver, a neglected bridge passing over six lanes of U.S. Route 85 has spindly cracks covering the bottom of its concrete deck.
And In Massachusetts, it will take $4 billion to replace the ailing Sagamore and Bourne bridges that connect Cape Cod with surrounding communities. A 2019 study concluded that improvements were needed but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns and maintains the bridges, learned it will not be awarded funding in the first round of the bipartisan infrastructure law that was passed in 2021. At this time, all potential repair options are conceptual and no final plan is in place.
Kent Harries is a structural engineering professor at the University of Pittsburgh and he says the list of bridges in disrepair is only getting longer.
"We've been neglecting our infrastructure pretty much since we built it," he told Scripps News.
Current state of neglected bridges in Hampton Roads
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) reports there are nearly 700 bridges in poor condition across the Commonwealth, making up about 3-percent of all bridges.
The Laskin Road Bridge is among them, although the bridge is in the process of being replaced.
The report notes that a poor condition rating does not mean a bridge is unsafe, but that it needs upgrades and rehabilitation.
If a bridge is deemed to be unsafe, it would be closed and repaired immediately, according to the State of the Structures and Bridges report.
Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner (D-Virginia) have said Virginia is getting more than $530 million over the next five years thanks to the infrastructure bill to try and address bridges that are in poor condition.
