How sound are bridges in your area? Find out with updated National Bridge Inventory data

Now is a good time to investigate the bridges in your state and community: NICAR has just updated the National Bridge Inventory. Current through 2011, the data can help you assess the soundness of bridges in your area. Key fields can be used for an overall indication of a bridge's quality. There are also fields detailing the year the bridge was built and the feature intersected, for example if the bridge goes over a body of water or if it intersects with another highway or roadway.The records represent the most recent inspection for each bridge (which could be several years ago, or could be the current year).

www.ire.org...

I remember watching a documentary on the Discovery Channel about how structurally unsound our bridges are. If I remember correctly, the government can only inspect a fraction or the bridges currently in use. Also, most of the bridges are 50+ years old and have severe signs of corrosion and wear.

The report costs money to download, but there are some great links to great stories on the conditions of bridges around the nation in the link.

Has anyone seen any high traffic bridges that show obvious signs of corrosion? What would happen if a few of these bridges collapsed? Would it affect you and your daily travel?

Too bad you have to pay for the information...
I guess I'll keep holding my breath as I'm crossing...lol

reply to post by Catalyst317


That's a little ridiculous that it costs so much just to get information, but "That's Capitalism!" Yackity-Wackity-DooOO

reply to post by Catalyst317



Too bad we are wasting so much money fighting wars we can never win. Even if we did have the money people around here would be screeching "THAT'S SOCIALISM" if you actually tried to create a real infrastructure project to fix this stuff.