That bridge opened in 1931.
How aged are other bridge crossings
in Wisconsin?
According to the National Bridge
Inventory of the more than 14,000
bridges in this state, nearly 1,000
are classified as what they call
structurally deficient.
We turn to Wisconsin DOT Bureau
of Structures Director,
Josh Dietschy for more.
And thanks very much for being here.
Sure, not a problem, happy to join.
So what does it mean for a bridge to
be structurally deficient?
Uh, so it's a term that probably
sounds a little scarier than it is.
Really. It just means that there is
something, um, some kind
of deterioration that's been noted
with the bridge.
We always try to stress that.
That doesn't mean it's unsafe.
If there's a bridge open in the
state open to travel on, you
can feel safe traveling across it.
So does Wisconsin have a lot of
older bridges like the one, like the
Lansing Bridge?
And not many that are quite as old
as the Lansing Bridge.
The average age of the bridges that
the state owns is about 37 years.
The average agent, the local system
is about 42 years old.
So yeah, something as old as the
building Lansing is a little bit
atypical.
In Wisconsin,
what specific bridges need
immediate repair or
removal? Are there any?
Again, I would stress that if it's
open, it's safe.
So we always have a program we were
going in and rehabilitating or
replacing bridges. So you mentioned
that there's over 14,000
bridges in the state.
About 2% of those are
classified as being poor condition.
Kind of at a high level, as we
inspect bridges, they get rated
as either good, fair, or poor.
And so again, with about 2% of those
bridges in poor condition, those are
the ones that we're focusing on.
Again, not because they're unsafe,
not because you shouldn't be
traveling over them, but just
because they're going to need some
work to keep them in service in
the near future. So those are the
ones that we've got in the program
that are in the planning stages for,
you know, again getting some kind of
rehabilitation or potentially being
replaced.
How heavy of a lift is it to
inspect all of these more than
14,000 bridges across
the state of Wisconsin?
Yeah, I think most people are
surprised when we talk about it that
we do have that many bridges in the
state. You know about the big ones
that you travel over, but there's so
many that are over just small creeks
or small rivers that you
probably don't even realize where
you're going over a bridge.
So yeah, of those 14,000, about
5,000 a little over 5, 000
are owned by the state and the
remainder then are owned local
municipalities, cities, villages,
towns, so on and so forth.
So the state bridges are inspected
by mostly by state forces, although
we do use and consultant engineers
as well.
And the same thing on the local side
the local sign they do have some
local staff that will inspect
bridges But they lean heavily on
consultant engineers as well
So most when the bridges are in good
condition basically new they can
be inspected on as much as a
four-year cycle But for the most
part bridges are required to be
Inspected on a two-year Cycle or
as they get in that worst condition
into poor condition on an annual
basis So yeah, it's a heavy lift
depending on the size of the bridge
the larger bridges may take up to
a week to inspect some of the larger
britches like you referenced the
Lansing Bridge or some of our more
signature bridges.
Others, it can be done in a morning
or an afternoon, but yes, it's
definitely a pretty big effort.
We took a look at
the work that's happening on that
bridge from DeSoto to
Lansing and it made
me wonder how tricky is it to
repair bridges while they're
still in use.
Yeah, it depends on the situation.
You know, obviously the traffic
is a big thing that plays into that.
If you're trying to repair a bridge
on the interstate, there's going to
be lane closures.
There's a large bridge over the
Wisconsin River just north of
Portage that's being replaced right
now if you've driven through that
area.
And in that case, you'll see lane
closers or lane shifts.
So it's definitely possible.
But yeah, it does present some
complications for sure.
But again, we
make sure to do it in a way that
is safe for sure.
And as we try to minimize the
disruption to the traveling public
as much as we can.
Alright, well we are all glad to
know that the bridges are safe.
John Dietschy, thank you so much.
No problem. Thanks for joining.
For more on this and other issues
facing Wisconsin, visit our website
at pbswisconsin.org
and then click on the news tab.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Fredrika Freyberg.
Have a good weekend.
But there's gusset plates in the
truss. And that was kind of
ultimately the issue that caused the
collapse of that bridge. So yeah, we
have different procedures, more
in-depth procedures at looking at
gussets plates now that we weren't
doing before. So we definitely learn
something every time that happens,
but unfortunately sometimes it does
take that to happen to kind of teach
us something.
All right, well thank you so much
and again sorry for the difficulty
in getting this connected.
No, apologies.
I think it's probably on my end.
I never, I don't know, every once in
a while Zoom acts up.
I'm glad we made it work.
I know, yeah, have a good weekend.
Thank you.
All right, thank you, you too.
Goodbye.