Berks bridges need repair, but many on track to get it

A high-profile bridge collapse less than 300 miles away in Pittsburgh brought renewed attention to the condition of infrastructure in Berks County and across the U.S.

But while Berks has more than its fair share of bridges in need of replacement or repair, many of the most heavily traveled spans here have either already been addressed or are scheduled to undergo work soon.

And although lower priority bridges in less-traveled parts of the county are in worse shape in some cases, officials have taken steps to prevent catastrophes.

“There’s a system in place that I think works really well,” said Alan Piper, Berks transportation planner. “It is still governed by the resources that are available, but the system is designed to protect the public except for truly unexpected things.”

According to PennDOT’s public database, there are 880 bridges in Berks County, of which 117, or 13.3%, are rated “poor” in at least one of three areas — deck condition, superstructure condition and substructure condition.

However, those numbers aren’t necessarily as dire as they might sound.

Removing eight bridges that are closed to all traffic from the equation, only one of the remaining 43 state bridges and nine of 66 local bridges (county or municipal) received ratings worse than poor — many of those seeing traffic average in the low hundreds of vehicles per day.

Meanwhile, state bridges in particular are on the road to recovery, with current planning drafts calling for 33 of the total 45 to be repaired or replaced in the next four years, according to Piper, in addition to an unknown number of bridges that currently have a rating of “fair.”

“We’ve made some pretty good progress,” he said. “It’s actually really good compared to where it was about four or five years ago.”

How do we know our bridges are safe?

After the incident in Pittsburgh that resulted in 10 injuries, even one bridge rated poor might be cause for concern for drivers — especially if it happens to be located in their neck of the woods.

Piper attempted to put those fears at ease, outlining a thorough review process that every bridge in Pennsylvania must undergo every two years at minimum, with the frequency of evaluations increasing for structures that are found to have flaws.

Piper said projects get into the poor category, then get inspected once a year.

“If it gets really bad, sometimes it comes down to every six months,” he said.

“Generally, those inspections will identify what the issue is that’s causing that problem, then you have a series of options that are available to you.”

Bridges that receive poor ratings often post signs recommending weight limits or reducing traffic to one vehicle at a time to ensure safe passage. Whether there is a posting or not is based on the deficiencies found.

“We can post a load limit on the bridge, which means that the bridge should be safe for all traffic up to that (weight),” Piper said. “If a bridge gets to a certain point … we can post it down to a 3-ton limit, which is basically one normal passenger vehicle or pickup truck.

“If the rating gets below that, the bridge will generally get closed. Obviously, that creates problems for local use, but we try not to let bridges get to that point.”

Piper noted the county is only technically responsible for 19 bridges that it owns, and a small number of those are on track to be refurbished and transferred back to the municipalities in which they are located.

Yet, as a member of the Reading Area Transportation Study (RATS) committee, he’s often involved with securing funding for various road projects throughout the county.

“I tend to take all of the bridges and all of the highways in Berks County personally even if I’m not directly responsible for them,” Piper said.

The biggest obstacle

While Piper views the existing level of funding for Berks roads as adequate, PennDOT has shared concerns.

In a 2021 report, PennDOT describes a serious problem as funds are failing to keep pace with rising costs, a result of rising traffic and freight on roads, reduced revenue from the state gas tax as drivers switch to hybrid or electric vehicles, and unreliable federal contributions.

According to the report, Pennsylvania ranks second in the nation with bridges in poor condition while projecting a $8.1 billion shortfall in its highway and bridge funding.

Several ideas have been floated to cut the difference, such as tolls, mileage fees and other taxes.

Still, it can take a while for that money to trickle down to the local level.

“Your interstates come first, your expressways and your major routes like 222, 422, 61, they come up next,” Piper said. “So you work your way down through the hierarchy and the money generally doesn’t for the most part get down as far as municipal or county level out of those pools.

“And municipalities, while they can, in most cases will not try to raise their local taxes to replace local bridges. It’s up to them to make those decisions for what their priorities are.”

Piper added that a few of the more high-volume local bridges have made the Reading Area Transportation Study draft plans in years where there’s money available. Many municipal bridges only see a few hundred vehicles per day on average, though.

There also might be a belief that the Infrastructure & Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021 would go a long way toward easing concerns about the nation’s bridges.

While some of that $1.2 billion in federal funding from the bill that’s coming over the next 10 years will inevitably find its way to bridge projects, the fight over where, when and how much is really just getting started.

Source: Berkshire mont