Nearly Half of Montgomery County Bridges Are Deficient

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With a quarter of all its bridges classified as structurally deficient, Montgomery County faces a problem that’s 2.5 times the national average. (Image via the Washington Post)

There’s nothing like a bridge over troubled waters, except when that bridge itself is in trouble.

Such is the case for 24.1 percent of all bridges in Montgomery County, according to a report in The Washington Post by Denise Lu and Dan Keating.

Drawing data from the Federal Highway Administration’s 2015 National Bridge Inventory, 184 of the county’s 762 bridges are structurally deficient due to defects, while 168 are functionally obsolete due to traffic needs that are greater than the bridge can handle.

The local share of deficient bridges is two and a half times the national average of 9.4 percent and nearly as bad as it gets in suburban Philly, where 25.7 percent of Bucks County’s 678 bridges are deficient, as are 19.9 percent of Delaware County’s 361 bridges, 19.8 percent of Chester County’s 623 bridges and 18.7 percent of Philadelphia’s 579 bridges.

“A low score does not mean that a bridge will fall, but it indicates that it needs repair,” the article explained. “Bridges with posted load limits are in greatest need of repair.”

Learn more about Montgomery County’s deficient bridges in The Washington Post here.

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