Nearly 10 percent of Ohio bridges termed 'structurally deficient'

CLEVELAND - Workers have begun setting pilings for the new Innerbelt Bridge near Downtown Cleveland.

The current bridge is one of the busiest in the state of Ohio and has been deemed 'structurally deficient'.

But Ohio, and the country, have many thousands of bridges that share the same designation. In all, 68,842 of the 599,996 bridges in the United States, a total of 11.5 percent are deficient, according to a new report by Transportation for America, which compiled and analyzed federal bridge data then ranked the states by percentage of bridges that are deficient.

Ohio ranked 29th in the nation, with 9.8 percent of its bridges structurally deficient. Of the 27,963 bridges in the state, 2,743 are deficient.

Neighboring Pennsylvania topped the list of states with almost 6,000 of more than 22,000 total bridges listed as deficient.

Federal guidelines classify bridges as structurally deficient if engineers have identified a major defect in its support structure or deck. Deficient bridges are in need of significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement.

Click on this link to view the full report on the Transportation for America website .