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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 a thousand are classified
as what they call
structurally deficient.
We turn to Wisconsin DOT
Bureau of Structures Director
Josh Ditchie 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
addressed 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?
Uh, not many that are quite as
old as the Lansing Bridge.
The average age of the bridges
of the state owns is about 37
years. The average age in the
local system is about 42 years
old. So yeah, something as old
as it is.
Uh, what's specific bridges
need immediate repair or
removal? Are there any?
Um, again, I would stress that if
it's open, it's safe. Um, so we
always have a program we were
going in and rehabilitating or
replacing bridges. So you mentioned
that, uh, 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. We, as we inspect
bridges, they get rated as either
good, fair or poor. Um, 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 their near future.
So those are the ones that we've
got in the program that are in
the planning stages for, you
know, getting some kind of
work. 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, um, or small
rivers that you probably don't
even realize where you're going
over a bridge. Um, 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 by local municipalities,
so you do use consultant
engineers as well. Um, and the
same thing on the local side, the
local side, they do have some local
staff that will inspect bridges, but
they lean heavily on consultant
engineers as well. Um, so mostly
when the bridges aren't good
condition, basically knew 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
of the bridge, the larger
bridges may take up to a week to
inspect some of the larger bridges,
let you reference the Lansing
bridge or some of our more
signature bridges. Others, you know,
it can be done in the morning or
afternoon, but yes, it's definitely
a great effort. We took a look
at the work that's happening on
that bridge from De Soto to
Lansing, and it made me wonder
how tricky is it to repair
bridges while they're still
doing it?
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 land 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 closures or lane shifts,
so it's definitely possible, but
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.
All right, well, we are all glad
to know that the bridges are
safe. John De Chi, thank you so
much. No problem, thanks for
doing it. 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.
Have a good weekend.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There's gusset plates in the
truss and that was kind of
ultimately the issue that caused
the collapse average.
We have different procedures, more
than we were doing before, so we
definitely learned something every
time that happens, but unfortunately
sometimes it does take that to
happen to kind of teach us something.
Yeah, 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 don't know
everyone's in a while zoom
it. I know. Yeah, have a good
weekend. Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Goodbye. Thanks.