The study – based on a 2009 Federal Highway Administration report – found that among the country’s 600,000 bridges, 72,000 are rated structurally deficient, meaning that the bridge has one or more major defects in its support structure or deck, and 18,000 are fracture critical, meaning that if one portion of the bridge fails, there is no back-up component to compensate. Together, early 8,000 of the sites were rated under both categories.

LePatner estimates that the repair cost for just 2,000 of the most dangerous bridges is estimated at between $30 and $60 billion. But the report comes at a time when state agencies and the federal government are struggling to balance budgets and approve legislation supporting infrastructure projects.

Recently, Congress passed a transportation bill –also known as MAP-21- which reauthorizes the federal aid highway program, eliminates earmarks, strengthens the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Program (TIFIA) to leverage federal dollars further. But LePatner says the act only “commits a toe in the water” toward the issue.

“The states are acknowledging that their transportation departments are bankrupt in times of costing and funding for remediation, but it is a national problem, and a lack of political willpower,” he says. “This is not a Democrat or Republican problem. It is just a nation that does not understand how serious and critical the need is.”

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