TULSA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation approved over $13 million to upgrade over 400 Oklahoma bridges considered structurally deficient.
The bridges selected are off-system bridges, meaning they're mostly smaller and not highway bridges.
Most people don't see bridge beams, but it's important to remember it's where a bridge foundation begins. The more crumbling in the beams means the bridge is losing years of its life.
As an avid traveler, Glenn Nold gets weary whenever he sees a crumbling bridge.
"A lot of them probably need to be fixed to fit the environment," Nold said.
Making Oklahoma's bridges better has been at the top of ODOT's mind for years.
In this case, they're talking about bridge scour. It's when bits and pieces of a bridge are actually removed due to erosion. It typically comes from a waterway.
Crews will focus on off-system bridges. A bridge designated as off-system means it's located off the Oklahoma highway system.
Out of 1700 off-system, structurally deficient bridges, ODOT's Matt Michell said 600 of them had scour. After field assessments, he says 428 of them could be repaired with heavy maintenance that counties and cities couldn't do on their own.
Stan Prins says it's a necessity.
"They need to be fixed with upkeep like everything else," Prins said. "They need to be fixed and updated for people's lives."
ODOT says the $13.7 million comes from the federally funded Bridge Formula Program. Mitchell says the state will use a portion of the annual $28 million from the feds to address the 428 bridges.
The motion was approved by all ODOT board members this week.
Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Tim Gatz announced that the state has improved to No. 7 in the nation for good highway bridge conditions in 2021.
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