Report finds bridge problems in parish, state

St. Landry Parish has 32 structurally deficient bridges and 39 functionally obsolete bridges, according to the 2014 Federal Highway Administration.
Federal Highway Administration 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.
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.
The report comes as Louisiana grapples with a $12 billion backlog in deferred road and bridge maintenance. And state and federal gas taxes, which provide money for transportation infrastructure, are flat and failing to keep up with inflation.
John Olivieri, the U.S. PIRG’s national campaign director for 21st Century Transportation, said Federal Highway Administration data highlights the state’s spending priorities.
“It’s not just the numbers are increasing. It’s just that there’s such a staggering amount in the first place,” he said.
Structurally deficient bridges have at least one component that needs repairs or replacement. The designation doesn’t mean a bridge is unsafe.
Such bridges are “more prone to safety issues in the future,” Olivieri said. “They become more expensive to fix in the future.”
Louisiana has a history of spending money on interstates instead of paying to maintain existing roadways and bridges, state Sen. Robert Adley said.
He said he and other legislators are trying to figure out how to get money that has been diverted to state police and other areas back into the pot for roads and bridges.
Louisiana has put $1.8 billion into bridge repair and about $7 billion in road improvements since January 2008, said Lauren Lee, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation and Development.
“The state appears to favor building new and wider highways at the expense of repair and maintenance,” Olivieri said in a statement.
State transportation deputy secretary Eric Kalivoda told the state’s House appropriations committee March 24 the department forecasts Louisiana will have serious problems with the condition of its bridges in 10 years.
Kalivoda said the vast majority of those bridges were built in late 1950s through the early 1970s. The bridges are reaching their design life and deficiencies will grow substantially.