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Texas Leads States With Deficient Bridges

By KRWG News

Texas – A new report says Texas has the largest number of deficient bridges in the country.

And on a percentage basis, New Mexico doesn't score much better.

The Better Roads Bridge Inventory is an annual survey that has been conducted since 1979. Bridge engineers from every state and Washington, D.C., respond to the survey.

The Federal Highway Administration, in consultation with the states, has assigned a sufficiency rating to each bridge that is inventoried.

Nationally .more than 1 in 5 interstate and state bridges ..and more than 1 in 4 city, county, or township bridges are either structurally deficient (SD) or functionally obsolete (FO).

The report says .Texas has the largest number of bridges that fall in those categories ..more than 95 hundred or 19 percent of the state's more than 50 thousand bridges.

16 percent of New Mexico bridges were classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

The report says .federal stimulus funding has helped .but it's not nearly enough.

The government's official website ..recovery.gov .says .in the 787 billion dollar stimulus .just 30.1 billion is available to the department of transportation ..with 4.8 billion already paid out.

And that money is used for more than roads .it's spent on everything from public transit to airport construction.