Bay Area bridges and overpasses are in their best shape since 1992 – the earliest year on record – thanks to substantial efforts to improve the seismic and structural safety of these critical facilities. Poor bridge conditions hit a peak in 2004 when nearly one-third of the Bay Area’s bridges were identified as structurally deficient. Over the past 12 years, seismic retrofit programs on highway bridges as well as upgrades to elevated freeway structures helped the region reverse that trajectory. As a result, the share of bridges flagged as deficient fell by a remarkable 25 percentage points – and stood at just 7 percent as of 2016.
Bridge Condition
Bridge Condition
The share of structurally deficient bridges and overpasses in San Francisco County in 2016 are at an all-time recorded low. Numerous structural repairs were made between 2012 and 2014 and the share of structurally deficient deck area fell by nearly 70 percent in that two-year period. Sonoma, Solano, Contra Costa and Alameda counties have also seen improvements over the past decade, though the rate of repair has slowed considerably in the last four years. In Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the seismic retrofits of those counties’ toll bridges have contributed to their strong performance.
2016 Bridge Condition
Overall, every metro area except for Miami has seen improvements in bridge condition since 2000. Having reduced its share of structurally deficient bridge deck area by 25 percentage points since 2005, the Bay Area finds itself in the middle of the pack of the nation’s top 10 metro areas for bridge condition. New York now claims the bottom rung for worst bridge condition, with structurally deficient bridge deck area shares of 11 percent. While the Bay Area had seen by far the largest gains, Los Angeles has also made notable progress over the last four years.
Metro areas in the South generally have the fewest structurally deficient bridges – Houston, Miami, Atlanta and Dallas all have deficient shares below 3 percent. This trend reflects the fact that these regions, due to their recent growth, generally have newer infrastructure and many have fewer geographical features requiring this type of infrastructure.
Metro Comparison for Bridge Condition
Federal Highway Administration: National Bridge Inventory (1992-2016)
Image: MTC Library (ID# IMG_4901)
Regional performance was examined by summing all of the bridge deck area flagged as structurally deficient and dividing it by total bridge deck area. Metro comparisons were performed using current MSA boundaries and using the counties included to calculate past performance in those geographies; for the Bay Area, the nine-county region reflects regional performance instead of separate MSAs.