Number of Deficient Bridges Grows

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The Federal Highway Administration announced this week that 382 bridges in Washington are structurally deficient as of 2014, 10 more than the year prior. 

“The ongoing increase in the number of structurally deficient bridges across Washington highlights skewed spending priorities” said Cecile Gernez, field organizer at the Washington Public Interest Research Group, a state-based consumer advocacy organization that wrote about the issue in a press release. “The state appears to favor new and wider highways at the expense of repair and maintenance.”

Five bridges in Lewis County have been on the list since before 2013, but officials from the Washington State Department of Transportation say at least a couple of them are getting attention.

DeWayne Wilson, bridge asset manager for WSDOT, said the department is monitoring the situations of all of the bridges and will react accordingly if emergency maintenance situations arise. Ultimately though, the projects are completed in order of necessity and as the funding is available. 

“We want to keep major routes in good shape; a secondary route either has to be closed or put down to one lane,” he said. “It’d have a big impact on the people living in those rural areas, but when you look at the amount of people using those compared to the major routes, it’s not as big of an impact.”

The department is focused on the Interstate 5 corridor throughout the state. So, even though the bridge over the Skookumchuck River in Centralia isn’t structurally deficient, its trusses will be repainted as a way to extend their lives by about 20 years. 

The latest Lewis County addition to the structurally deficient bridge list was the Surrey Creek bridge on U.S. Highway 12, where one of the timber piles needs to be replaced. 

The Rock Creek bridge on state Route 6 is under contract to be replaced with traffic being currently diverted onto a temporary span on one part of the project. The bridge spanning the South Fork of the Newaukum River on state Route 508 is also being replaced with a temporary span also in place. 



However, two other bridges aren’t being addressed.

The bridge spanning Clear Fork Creek on U.S. Highway 12 needs to be redecked, but can be continuously patched with asphalt. The bridge over Lacamas Creek on state Route 506 could see weight restrictions within the next decade if not repaired. 

“It comes down to funding and funding is going down,” he said. 

WSDOT is coming off of a 2005 9.5 cent gas tax package that funded 261 transportation projects statewide.  

Due to a combination of those funds going away and a redistribution of existing resources toward other projects such as ferries and roads, Wilson said unless a transportation package is passed by the state Legislature, bridge maintenance funds will be halved to a little over $100 million by July.

“Without that package passing we’ll be in constrained budget scenario, where you make the best of what you can,” he said.