TULSA, Okla. — The Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation is recommending a large number of Oklahoma school districts change school bus routes due to dangerous bridges.
If a county bridge has a weight limit of less than 18 tons, ODOT officials said it is not considered safe for a school bus with students on it.
A map shows county bridges inspected by ODOT over 20 feet in length and with weight limits of less than 18 tons. According to ODOT Strategic Communications Director Jessica Brown, a school bus with students on it weighs about 18 tons. It’s why she said if a school bus goes over one of those listed bridges, ODOT recommends the schools change bus routes.
“We’re providing this information with our engineers' best perspective of looking at these, based on the reports and inspections of these bridges," Brown said. "They are not safe using a school bus to cross them because of how heavy they are.”
The map was sent to local school districts at the start of the school year, Brown said.
ODOT provided this list of structurally deficient (SD) and functionally obsolete (FO) bridges along with the costs to fix or replace them:
Owasso Public Schools Communications Director Jordan Korphage said no routes have had to be changed since their school busses didn’t cross any of the listed bridges. Owasso is one of the school districts listed on ODOT's map.
“If there’s an issue with a bridge and we’re over a weight limit, then we’re not going to go over it," Korphage said. "Our transportation folks take the safety of our students very seriously."
But then there are some districts, like Henryetta, where the Transportation Director tells 2 News Oklahoma over the phone that he wasn’t made aware of the list. But if he was, he said he'd plan to talk to city and county officials if changes had to be made.
Muskogee County Commissioner Ken Doke said smaller county bridges - bridges less than 20 feet - are not included on the map.
“We have three times the number of these bridges than we do the major collector, larger bridges that are on system bridges being inspected," Doke said.
Doke said he knows that counties are in charge of maintaining county bridges - greater or less than 20 feet - mostly through fuel taxes or partnering with organizations for grant money. He said lots of smaller county bridges need to be replaced.
“There’s no way the county can do it on the funds they have available," Doke said.
Randy Robinson, executive director of the Oklahoma Cooperative Circuit Engineering District, said there are no federal funds dedicated to addressing those bridges. He said their focus in the short term is addressing county bridges over 20 feet.
“When you have longer school buses, one thing that is fortunate is that you don’t have the fully loaded school bus on it on one time," Robinson said. "You have axles. The shorter the bridge, the less of the load because you’re only going to have one axle on it at a time.”
ODOT staff said they’re required to inspect bridges once every two years, but bridges less than 20 feet aren't required to have inspections.
Robinson says counties maintain about 60 % of Oklahoma’s bridges and 75 % of Oklahoma's road miles.
Trending Stories:
- Highway 20 at Keetonville Hill preparing for drivers on main road
- DOWNLOAD the 2 News Oklahoma app for alerts
- Reports: Sam's Club to raise annual membership fee
- FOLLOW 2 News Oklahoma on Facebook
- Wagoner County health experts, former addicts raise overdose awareness
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
