Alabama Bridges Safe According to DOT

By Chad Petri Reporter

The Alabama Department of transportation is confident in area bridge safety. Engineers says bridges are sound. Alabama Bridges Safe According to DOT

Published: Thu, August 02, 2007 - 5:13 pm Last Updated: Thu, August 02, 2007 - 10:23 pm

Chad Petri

The Alabama Department of Transportation is assuring motorists the 15,000 bridges under their control are safe to drive on in light of the recent tragedy in Minnesota. Transportation engineers say Alabama bridges are inspected once every two years.

“Our bridges are inspected very thoroughly,” says Maintenance Engineer Nick Amberger. “The motorists of Alabama should feel very comfortable in driving over the bridges in Alabama.” More than 500 DOT controlled bridges are in the Gulf Coast area.

Traffic and weather can wear down a bridge. The Bayway can see 80,000 cars a day on a high volume day.

“If a bridge is over water, especially salt water are more prone to corrosion,” says Amberger. The state has about 100 bridge inspectors.

“It takes five years to become a bridge inspector,” says Amberger. “They have a bi-annual renewal of their inspection license and they all take their jobs very seriously.”

The Federal Highway Administration has information on all bridges across the country..
The agency also lists how many bridges are considered structurally deficient.
--- 305 Florida bridges are listed as structurally deficient
--- 2,102 Alabama bridges listed as structurally deficient
--- 3,170 Mississippi bridges listed as structurally deficient

To see the statistics, look for the Federal Highway Administration link next to this article. Once the page pulls up, look under the "SD" category.