Report finds 2,239 Illinois bridges have structural problems
BY KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter/kjanssen@suntimes.com March 22, 2011 8:08PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
Four years after a Minnesota bridge collapse tragedy triggered national outrage, more than 2,000 bridges used by millions of Illinois motorists daily remain structurally deficient, according to a report released Tuesday.
The growing backlog of repair work means one in 12 Illinois bridges now has key components in poor condition or worse, meaning they need immediate attention, the analysis of federal data by Transportation for America, a transport industry advocacy group, shows.
The list — which includes three bridges on Lake Shore Drive that are each used by more than 100,000 motorists a day — represents $1.8 billion of delayed work that will only get more expensive to fix, the report’s authors say.
“It’s just digging taxpayers into a bigger hole where we are going to have more and more infrastructure needs that will require more and more dollars to address problems” said Brian Imus, of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, which is a member of the Transportation for America coalition.
As of this year, 2,239 Illinois bridges are structurally deficient, according to the report — just a handful less than the 2,400 in need of repair in 2007, when the I-35 bridge collapse killed 13 people in Minnesota. Though the Minnesota collapse was ultimately blamed on design flaws rather than shoddy upkeep, it prompted vows of action from then Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Guy Tridgell insisted Tuesday “there are no unsafe or dangerous IDOT bridges open to the public.” IDOT — responsible for just under a quarter of the state’s bridges — has repaired 500 bridges since 2009, Tridgell said, suggesting the report’s records may be out of date.
Professor Joseph Schofer of Northwestern University’s Infrastructure Technology Institute said Illinois’s problems are part of a longstanding national trend of “using our roads more than we are investing in them,” pointing out that the gasoline tax that funds road repairs has remained frozen for more than a decade even as the price of gas has rocketed.
But unless a bridge collapses “its hard to get people’s attention,” he said.
The report was released at a press conference in front of the crumbling 50-year-old Western Avenue overpass between Addison and Diversey, which is expected to be demolished by the Chicago Department of Transportation next year. Almost 7,000 Illinois bridges are at least 50 years old — a number which is expected to double by 2030, according to the report.
Contributing: AP
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