What does poor rating for collapsed bridge mean for others?

[turbinetree]

By CLAUDIA LAUER
an hour ago



A 50-year-old bridge that collapsed in Pittsburgh had been rated as poor on a recent inspection report, but transportation officials and engineering experts cautioned that doesn’t necessarily signal imminent danger for the thousands of other U.S. bridges with the same designation.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Highway Administration have been combing through rubble from the collapse early Friday of the Forbes Avenue Bridge, looking for what caused it.

President Joe Biden, who was in Pittsburgh on Friday to promote a $1 trillion infrastructure law, said it was miraculous that there were no fatalities and that only a few people were injured.

https://apnews.com/article/pittsburgh-bridge-collapse-what-does-poor-rating-mean-bd268909e7f4aff4b3ef3680c9258bc9

I just wonder if WV and AZ had a bridge collapse what would two senators do....

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. Probably the same thing MN republicons did

when I-35 collapsed into the Mississippi right before the republicon convention - Nothing. Ignore it, distract the rubes and blame the left.

[turbinetree]

2. I remember that from my former state ....but we got a new bridge ...

[Ocelot II]

5. That's not what happened at all. Pawlenty freaked out

because the GOP convention was scheduled for the following summer, so he put replacing the bridge on an accelerated schedule.

[FoxNewsSucks]

6. Yes, he hurried to fix the bridge,

but ONLY because of the convention. Maybe I am remembering incompletely, and I don't live there, but I think he did everything possible to basically sweep it under the rug, along with the fact that republicons had just shot down a nickel or so increase in the gas tax that would have gone to road and bridge maintenance.

[Ocelot II]

7. He definitely avoided the issue of the lack of previous infrastructure funding.

However, he made himself front and center about getting a new bridge built, and of course there were all those thoughts and prayers for the victims, etc.

[Ocelot II]

3. It's deja-vu all over again.

A major freeway bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The bridge had been built in 1967 and had deteriorated quite a bit by the time of the collapse; it was already classified as deficient. As a result, the state - even GOPers - decided to allocate quite a lot of money toward improving bridges. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/safer-bridges-are-legacy-of-2007-minneapolis-collapse/89-1e20aa2a-9df4-44bc-8860-00275f7fab7d Apparently this has not been a priority in PA - it seems a bridge needs to collapse spectacularly before anyone decides unsafe ones actually should be replaced.

[Klaralven]

4. Poor is about 2 ratings above unsafe.

The most recent report using 2021 data showed more than 43,500 of the country’s roughly 615,000 bridges were rated poor.

If any of the three structures of a bridge is rated 4 or below on a 9-point scale, the bridge is rated as poor, said Andy Herrmann, past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“A poor rating doesn’t mean bridges are unsafe, it just means one of those components are rated at that level," Herrmann said. “It's a rigorous system, and frankly the federal system is what gives me confidence in the safety of our bridge infrastructure."

New bridges are rated 9, and bridges with minimal or no wear are rated 7 or 8. Bridges considered in what the federal program deems fair or satisfactory condition — some signs of deterioration or minor loss or cracking — are rated 5 or 6.

When a bridge reaches a 4 rating, it means there is advanced deterioration or section loss, but the primary structural components are still sound. A 3 rating means those structural components are starting to see deterioration, and a 2 or 1 rating means there are critical issues or an imminent failure of the structure is possible.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-01-29/what-does-poor-rating-for-collapsed-bridge-mean-for-others

[crickets]

8. K&R for the post and the discussion.