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Which States Have the Most Failing Bridges?

Posted on 03/22/24 News

States with the most failing bridges

The National Transportation Safety Board determined in February that maintenance and oversight failures were behind a 2022 bridge collapse in Pittsburgh that injured 10 people.

Despite multiple maintenance and repair recommendations, a critical plate was allowed to corrode and fracture over time, leading to the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsing on the morning of January 28 and falling about 100 feet into Frick Park.

Fortunately, no one was killed in that collapse. But bridge failures can lead to incredibly high death tolls, as in 1967, when 1,460 feet of the Silver Bridge spanning between Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, fell into the Ohio River and 46 people died.

Additionally, poor or failing bridges can lack important traffic safety features, making them dangerous to motorists even if they do not collapse.

So to better understand the condition of bridges across the United States, the Orange County car accident attorneys at Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian Law analyzed records of more than 600,000 bridges throughout the country, in order to determine which states have the most bridges that are in need of repair or replacement — as graded by engineers and inspectors.

KEY FINDINGS

  • 10.8% of bridges nationwide are rated in poor condition.
  • Four states have less than 5% of their bridges in poor condition, led by Texas — which has the 26th-highest number of poor-condition bridges, but more than twice as many total bridges as any other state.
  • Iowa has the most bridges in poor condition, with over 5,000, but the highest rate is in South Carolina, the only state where more than 1 in 4 bridges are poorly rated.

Which state has the worst bridges in the country?

Below, we ranked the states by the highest percentage of all bridges that are in poor structural condition.

51. Texas

Total bridges: 56,313

Bridges in poor condition: 1,087 (1.9%)

Closed bridges: 79 (0.14%)

50. Arizona

Total bridges: 8,544

Bridges in poor condition: 169 (2.0%)

Closed bridges: 1 (0.01%)

49. Delaware

Total bridges: 874

Bridges in poor condition: 18 (2.1%)

Closed bridges: 0 (0.00%)

48. Nevada

Total bridges: 2,090

Bridges in poor condition: 85 (4.1%)

Closed bridges: 1 (0.05%)

47. Minnesota

Total bridges: 13,502

Bridges in poor condition: 714 (5.3%)

Closed bridges: 33 (0.24%)

46. Washington D.C.

Total bridges: 252

Bridges in poor condition: 14 (5.6%)

Closed bridges: 0 (0.00%)

45. Connecticut

Total bridges: 4,362

Bridges in poor condition: 245 (5.6%)

Closed bridges: 8 (0.18%)

44. Maryland

Total bridges: 5,473

Bridges in poor condition: 312 (5.7%)

Closed bridges: 10 (0.18%)

43. Florida

Total bridges: 12,881

Bridges in poor condition: 753 (5.8%)

Closed bridges: 17 (0.13%)

42. New Mexico

Total bridges: 4,037

Bridges in poor condition: 242 (6.0%)

Closed bridges: 13 (0.32%)

41. Virginia

Total bridges: 14,068

Bridges in poor condition: 858 (6.1%)

Closed bridges: 27 (0.19%)

40. Ohio

Total bridges: 26,960

Bridges in poor condition: 1,741 (6.5%)

Closed bridges: 7 (0.03%)

39. Wyoming

Total bridges: 3,131

Bridges in poor condition: 212 (6.8%)

Closed bridges: 3 (0.10%)

38. Tennessee

Total bridges: 20,373

Bridges in poor condition: 1,385 (6.8%)

Closed bridges: 52 (0.26%)

37. Indiana

Total bridges: 19,381

Bridges in poor condition: 1,457 (7.5%)

Closed bridges: 60 (0.31%)

36. Colorado

Total bridges: 8,954

Bridges in poor condition: 712 (8.0%)

Closed bridges: 1 (0.01%)

35. Wisconsin

Total bridges: 14,412

Bridges in poor condition: 1,153 (8.0%)

Closed bridges: 19 (0.13%)

34. New Jersey

Total bridges: 6,820

Bridges in poor condition: 560 (8.2%)

Closed bridges: 14 (0.21%)

33. Alabama

Total bridges: 16,176

Bridges in poor condition: 1,364 (8.4%)

Closed bridges: 200 (1.24%)

32. Georgia

Total bridges: 15,058

Bridges in poor condition: 1,281 (8.5%)

Closed bridges: 43 (0.29%)

31. Alaska

Total bridges: 1,675

Bridges in poor condition: 154 (9.2%)

Closed bridges: 12 (0.72%)

30. California

Total bridges: 25,818

Bridges in poor condition: 2,390 (9.3%)

Closed bridges: 33 (0.13%)

29. Illinois

Total bridges: 26,873

Bridges in poor condition: 2,596 (9.7%)

Closed bridges: 85 (0.32%)

28. North Carolina

Total bridges: 18,817

Bridges in poor condition: 1,822 (9.7%)

Closed bridges: 40 (0.21%)

27. Idaho

Total bridges: 4,588

Bridges in poor condition: 453 (9.9%)

Closed bridges: 2 (0.04%)

26. Kentucky

Total bridges: 14,493

Bridges in poor condition: 1,453 (10.0%)

Closed bridges: 60 (0.41%)

25. Massachusetts

Total bridges: 5,281

Bridges in poor condition: 549 (10.4%)

Closed bridges: 16 (0.30%)

24. Utah

Total bridges: 3,109

Bridges in poor condition: 332 (10.7%)

Closed bridges: 1 (0.03%)

23. New York

Total bridges: 17,573

Bridges in poor condition: 1,898 (10.8%)

Closed bridges: 80 (0.46%)

22. Vermont

Total bridges: 2,856

Bridges in poor condition: 322 (11.3%)

Closed bridges: 13 (0.46%)

21. New Hampshire

Total bridges: 2,537

Bridges in poor condition: 287 (11.3%)

Closed bridges: 13 (0.51%)

20. Mississippi

Total bridges: 17,573

Bridges in poor condition: 1,897 (11.3%)

Closed bridges: 246 (1.47%)

19. Michigan

Total bridges: 11,341

Bridges in poor condition: 1,331 (11.7%)

Closed bridges: 53 (0.47%)

18. Washington

Total bridges: 8,421

Bridges in poor condition: 1,022 (12.1%)

Closed bridges: 6 (0.07%)

17. Montana

Total bridges: 5,218

Bridges in poor condition: 636 (12.2%)

Closed bridges: 11 (0.21%)

16. Oklahoma

Total bridges: 22,872

Bridges in poor condition: 2,805 (12.3%)

Closed bridges: 141 (0.62%)

15. Maine

Total bridges: 2,521

Bridges in poor condition: 353 (14.0%)

Closed bridges: 5 (0.20%)

14. Pennsylvania

Total bridges: 23,257

Bridges in poor condition: 3,269 (14.1%)

Closed bridges: 183 (0.79%)

13. Arkansas

Total bridges: 12,962

Bridges in poor condition: 1,893 (14.6%)

Closed bridges: 28 (0.22%)

12. Missouri

Total bridges: 24,617

Bridges in poor condition: 3,988 (16.2%)

Closed bridges: 196 (0.80%)

11. Louisiana

Total bridges: 12,717

Bridges in poor condition: 2,145 (16.9%)

Closed bridges: 139 (1.09%)

10. Oregon

Total bridges: 8,292

Bridges in poor condition: 1,499 (18.1%)

Closed bridges: 6 (0.07%)

9. Rhode Island

Total bridges: 782

Bridges in poor condition: 146 (18.7%)

Closed bridges: 5 (0.64%)

8. West Virginia

Total bridges: 7,323

Bridges in poor condition: 1,386 (18.9%)

Closed bridges: 19 (0.26%)

7. South Dakota

Total bridges: 5,889

Bridges in poor condition: 1,116 (19.8%)

Closed bridges: 63 (1.07%)

6. Hawaii

Total bridges: 1,190

Bridges in poor condition: 228 (19.2%)

Closed bridges: 3 (0.25%)

5. Nebraska

Total bridges: 15,348

Bridges in poor condition: 3,038 (19.8%)

Closed bridges: 179 (1.17%)

4. Kansas

Total bridges: 24,907

Bridges in poor condition: 4,975 (20.0%)

Closed bridges: 1 (0.004%)

3. North Dakota

Total bridges: 4,280

Bridges in poor condition: 875 (20.4%)

Closed bridges: 70 (1.64%)

2. Iowa

Total bridges: 23,720

Bridges in poor condition: 5,039 (21.2%)

Closed bridges: 375 (1.58%)

1. South Carolina

Total bridges: 9,481

Bridges in poor condition: 2,642 (27.9%)

Closed bridges: 58 (0.61%)

Data source and methodology

Data for this analysis comes from the 2023 National Bridge Inventory, an annual survey conducted by the Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Bridges and Structures.

We downloaded data on nearly 620,000 bridges in the United States and determined the percentage of bridges in each state that were deemed to be in poor structural condition (including those that have been closed for rehabilitation or replacement).

Each open bridge is rated on a scale from 2-9, with 9 as the best possible rating, while closed bridges receive a 0. A bridge is classified as being in poor condition if it receives a rating of 4 (“meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as is”) or below.

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