Bridge Deficiency And Safety Put To Reality Check

By Jennifer Loren, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- In Tuesday night's Reality Check, The News On 6 told you about the I-244 bridges over the Arkansas River and how funding to fix them won't be available until 2016.  The bridges have been deemed structurally deficient by the federal government and received a worse rating than the Minnesota bridge that collapsed last year.

The question now is:  Why are structurally deficient bridges not necessarily unsafe for drivers?

Federal sufficiency ratings range between zero and 100, zero being a completely deficient bridge and 100 being a perfectly sound bridge.

The purpose of the rating system is to help the feds determine which bridges need funding for repair or replacement.

The I-244 bridges over the Arkansas River received low scores.  The eastbound bridge received a rating of 42.7, making it structurally deficient.  The westbound bridge received a rating of 36.9, making it structurally deficient as well.

But, ODOT engineers say being structurally deficient does not mean the bridges are unsafe.

They say a lot of the factors that go into that rating have nothing to do with the bridges ability to carry traffic loads.  Those factors can include roadway widths, including shoulders and their sufficiency for all types of weather and traffic loads, drainage, whether the bridge part of a defense highway, detour length:  if the bridge was closed how much further would drivers have to go as part of a detour and finally, lanes: how many through lanes cross the bridge.

If those factors receive low scores they could make the overall structural deficiency rating low.

According to ODOT, some of those factors took a toll on the I-244 bridges ratings.  That's why they say those bridges are safe for drivers.