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SALT LAKE CITY — Becky Nix finds that it's always better to be "proactive" than reactive when it comes to handling bridge conditions.
That's because it's expensive when bridges fall into a state of disrepair dire enough that they need to be replaced.
"We're able to look at our system and look at rehabilitating and fixing some of our bridges before they get to the chance of needing a full replacement," said Nix, a bridge management engineer for the Utah Department of Transportation, as cars on I-80 rushed underneath a bridge about 100 feet from her on a Friday morning. "It's a lot more effective economic approach to it so that we're able to keep the entire inventory in a good and fair condition."
This is also why she lights up when she talks about a recent Federal Highway Administration report that shows Utah has the lowest percentage of bridges listed in "poor" condition — the condition that state transportation officials want to avoid.
The report, released in June, notes only two of the Beehive State's 1,382 highway bridges are in "poor condition," or a little more than 0.1%. Most of the bridges — 1,018 altogether — are listed in "fair" condition, while the remaining 362 bridges are in "good" condition.
These are bridges along the paths of highways, freeways or major collectors, which are high-volume traffic routes. Overall, the report found there are 4,459 bridges in "poor" condition of the 146,403 highway bridges across all 50 states and other U.S. districts and territories.
Utah's number is actually lower now, according to Nix. One of those bridges — an I-15 bridge over Nichols Canyon Road in Cedar City — was replaced in July. That happened a few months after data in the report was submitted to the Federal Highway Administration. The other bridge, in Riverdale, is not considered an imminent risk but is scheduled to be replaced in 2025.
The Utah Department of Transportation is required to inspect every highway bridge during a 24-month cycle, which means inspectors are working year-round to ensure that every one of those bridges is reviewed every two years to meet federal standards. Inspectors use the data the evaluate the type of work that needs to be done on the bridges. They also rank the bridges in the order of highest to lowest priority, allowing state officials to determine which bridges are in need of repair faster than others.
While not required, Nix said these inspectors also review the other 1,698 bridges owned either by state or local entities. Utah has 64 total bridges in "poor" condition when taking into account state and local bridges, which is also among the lowest percentages in the nation. The federal report also lists 858 of these bridges in "good" condition and the remaining 2,158 bridges in "fair" condition.
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Several of the bridges on the extended list are already scheduled to be repaired or replaced. The state has plans to replace about 78 local bridges through the $225 million that Utah will receive over the next five years from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed last year, Nix said.
She said UDOT is typically only able to only replace one or two of those types of bridges every year. It's a big overhaul aimed at keeping the number of "poor" condition bridges in Utah low.
"We're really focusing heavily on our local government system that's historically been kind of an underfunded area," Nix said. "With that funding, we're able to program all of the bridges that are currently in poor condition on the local system."
