Americans cross 18,000 structurally deficient bridges 210 million times a day

(Transportation for America)

(Transportation for America)

In case you've been wondering what states were in the lead to host the next bridge collapse disaster, there you have it.

A "structurally deficient" bridge, by the way, is one in which either the deck, superstructure, or substructure is rated as a four or worse on a zero to nine scale. As of 2009, $70.9 billion in repairs were needed on American bridges (PDF). That would be a massive job-creation measure. It would also be a massive cars-not-falling-into-rivers measure, if Republican legislators are so allergic to creating jobs that they couldn't vote for it in those terms.

And while there are nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States (11.5 percent of all our bridges), a new report finds that around 18,000 of them, located in 102 metropolitan areas, carry the vast majority of traffic to cross such a bridge each day. "In Los Angeles, for example, an average 396 drivers cross a deficient bridge every second"; even without an earthquake that's a terrifying number.

Here's another way to think about it:

[T]here are more deficient bridges in these 102 regions than there are McDonald’s restaurants in the entire country – 18,239 versus about 14,000. Worldwide, McDonald’s serves a staggering 64 million people a day. But here in America, 210 million trips are taken daily across deficient bridges in just these 102 regions.

There's a good chance you know where your closest McDonald's is. But do you know where your closest structurally deficient bridge is? Maybe you cross it every day and don't even know it. Transportation for America allows you to find out which bridges in your area are structurally deficient.