Philadelphia is using federal funds to address bridges in poor condition
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — As investigators begin the process of figuring out exactly how a ship rammed into a bridge in Baltimore, leading to its collapse early Tuesday morning, CBS News Philadelphia is digging into the state of bridges in the Philadelphia area.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers' most recent "Report Card For America's Infrastructure," there are more than 617,000 bridges across the United States, and about 42% of them are at least 50 years old. More than 7% of the nation's bridges are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in poor condition.
In Pennsylvania, bridge conditions are even worse. According to a 2022 report, nearly 14% of the commonwealth's bridges are in poor condition, the second worst in the country.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law intends to address these shortfalls. Earlier in March, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was in Philadelphia checking on the progress of the construction underway on the MLK Drive Bridge.
"We see a lot of wear and tear on America's roads and bridges; it's why this infrastructure funding was so urgently needed for decades and we're finally bringing it, in order to create or repair structures," Buttigieg said. "And as we do that, we're also funding research into new materials that might last longer as they stand up to the different things that can beat up a road or a bridge."
The City of Philadelphia was allocated almost $1 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. According to a recent update, so far the city has received $350 million, which is being used to design safer streets for pedestrians, school zones for students and job creation in the electric vehicle industry, among other projects.
Philadelphia has a total of 320 city-owned bridges. The infrastructure bill won't cover all of the repairs needed, so city leaders are already counting on more federal funding when current funds expire in 2026.
