New Data Shows Slow & Steady Progress Repairing America’s Bridges

What happened: The U.S. Department of Transportation just released its 2024 National Bridge Inventory database that provides snapshots of U.S. bridge conditions.

Key takeaways: “Slow and steady” describes ongoing state efforts to reduce the number of bridges in poor condition (“structurally deficient”) to 42,067, down from 42,391 in 2023. Motorists cross these structures 168.5 million times a day.

• Overall, nearly 221,800 of America’s 623,147 bridges need repair. Placed end-to-end, these 221,800 structures span over 6,100 miles—that is the equivalent of every mile of urban and rural Interstate in California, Florida, and Illinois.
• States with the biggest decline in the number of bridges in poor condition: Pennsylvania (down 90), Louisiana (down 87), Florida (down 85), and West Virginia (down 74) and California (down 64).

Impacts of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL): States have received $15.9 billion in the first three years of BIL’s new $27.5 billion formula bridge program and, to date, have committed 46 percent ($7.3 billion) of these resources to over 4,170 bridge projects.  The remaining 54 percent ($8.5 billion) of already released bridge funds AND the $10.6 billion that will be provided in the next two years will support needed bridge improvements well into the future.

What’s next: To learn more about your state, visit artbabridgereport.org.