Deficient bridges a problem in rural areas

According to 2014 Federal Highway Administration numbers, there are 32 structurally deficient bridges and 39 functionally obsolete bridges in St. Landry Parish, and the city of Eunice is home to several of these bridges.
“A deficient bridge can be classified as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, neither of which implies a lack of safety,” said Deidre Druilhet, public information officer for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. “It means the bridge should be monitored, and in the case of structurally deficient bridges, speed or weight limits must be put on the bridge to ensure safety.”
“A bridge classified as structurally deficient does not imply that it is likely to collapse or that it is unsafe. If unsafe conditions are identified during a physical inspection, the structure is closed. To be considered functionally obsolete, a bridge’s design may not be up to the current design specifications. It met the standards of design at the time it was designed and built. Both of these terms are used to determine which bridges are eligible for federal funds and are not terms used to determine safety.”
As an example, Druilhet said that something like a bridge’s guardrail may not meet today’s design specifications, which have changed through the years, but that such an issue would have resulted in work to the bridge if there was a safety issue due to those specifications being out of date.
FHA data from 2014 shows the state has nearly 13,000 bridges, and 1,837 of them are structurally deficient, according to the United States Public Interest Research Group. Across the United States, there are more than 61,000 structurally deficient bridges. St. Landry Parish’s numbers are down from 36 structurally deficient bridges and 44 functionally obsolete bridges in 2010. As of 2014, St. Landry Parish had 326 bridges and ranked 11th among the parishes for the number bridges. The parish ranks 22nd amongst the parishes in the number of structurally deficient bridges and 16th for the number of functionally obsolete bridges. 
Numbers from the 2012 National Bridge Inventory Database (NBI), the latest location-specific information, list two drainage canal bridges in Eunice as being structurally deficient. The two are located on La. 91 (Maple Avenue), and it is likely that one was the recently replaced bridge near the intersection of Maple Avenue and Bobcat Drive. According to the Transportation for America Organization (T4A), the remaining bridge on Maple Avenue is the most heavily utilized, structurally deficient bridge in Eunice with an average of 3,100 vehicles passing over the structure each day. T4A’s 2013 numbers also list a creek bridge on La.755 (Sittig Street) as being structurally deficient.
Within a 10 mile radius of Eunice, there are a total of 18 structurally deficient bridges, according to T4A, including these bridges. While several are located in St. Landry Parish, some are also located in Evangeline and Acadia Parishes, including three on Ardoin Street (the Old Crowley Highway). The map can be viewed at http://t4america.org. Of the structurally deficient bridges in the parish, almost all are in located less populated and rural areas.
“This is an ongoing issue across the state but particularly in rural areas,” said Sen. Eric Lafleur, D-Ville Platte. “I follow this (bridge ratings) very closely in Avoyelles Parish. They closed four of them recently. It’s also a problem in rural areas of St. Landry Parish, but not so much in Evangeline Parish.” 
“It’s not just a problem in my district, particularly with lightly used bridges in lesser traveled areas.” 
Of the 161 bridges in Avoyelles Parish, which is located in Lafleur’s district, 41 are structurally deficient and 26 are functionally obsolete. Evangeline Parish has 172 bridges and 16 are structurally deficient, and 19 are functionally obsolete. 
Numbers from the 2012 NBI list six bridges in the Eunice city limits as functionally obsolete. Two of the six are on U.S. 190, and the other four are on city streets that cross Richard Gully, which cuts across Eunice from northeast to southwest. About half of the parish’s functionally obsolete bridges are in rural or less populated areas, and the other half are within city limits.
The bridges at the La. 91 drainage canal (new bridge project) and Joe W Road and Gallow Road bridges (bridge replacement) are expected to be let for construction next year. There have been five bridge repair/replacement projects in St. Landry Parish during the last five years, and about $12.6 million was invested to repair or replace these bridges during that same time.
According to Lafleur, the number one problem with making repairs to or replacing these structurally deficient bridges, especially ones in rural areas, are the standards to which repairs and replacements must be made, and wooden bridges don’t make the cut. Standards are set by the state or the federal government, depending on where the funds originate from.
“When parish governments get money from the state for roads and bridges, the standards by which bridges must be rebuilt or repaired are so high -- the guard rails, the height and weight load even though you might not have anything with that weight cross it,” LaFleur said. “It creates problems for local governments. Money from the state is so restricted.”
If the repair or replacements will not be up to the federal standards, then certain funds cannot be used for the work.
“DOTD has indicated that because some of the money they receive (for road projects) is federal, their interpretation of federal rules does not allow the kind of flexibility I am asking for,” LaFleur said. “A typical problem is that we could have one dollar of federal money mixed in with state money, and we lose all flexibility at the local level.”
“DOTD and the federal government need to let parish officials, like St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot, who was an engineer for DOTD, and police jurors decide what is best for their parish. Locals know the traffic, and they are best suited to decided what to build. I want DOTD to give some discretion and flexibility.”
According to LaFleur a low load weight bridge can be built for about a third of the cost of a concrete/steel girder bridge.
While more money would solve the problem all around, a pile of money is highly unlikely as the state faces a $1.6 budget shortfall.
“There are proposals to increase gas taxes to fix roads but the governor will likely veto those,” LaFleur said. “Right now, I’m floating the idea with DOTD to try to relax the rules and allow us to build wooden bridges. If we know we don’t need superstructure (concrete and steel) bridges, we could just use a wooden one. It’s a waste of money to build to build a superstructure bridge on a private road that does not have big truck traffic. In many cases (of the bridges that need to be replaced in Louisiana), all we need is a wooden structure which will have the structural integrity for its purposes.” 
“We don’t want unsafe bridges but at the same time, we know we can build strong wooden bridges,” LaFleur said. “With some of these roads, a bridge of wood can easily accommodate the traffic.”