These are the bridges you might use every day that are considered structurally deficient

A new report published by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association says more than 54,000 bridges across the country are deemed structurally deficient, including 2,300 bridges in Illinois and more than 3,000 in Missouri.

Metro-east bridges that made the list include several along Interstate 255 including the bridges over St. Clair Avenue, Illinois 15 and Illinois 163.

Illinois 15 over Richland Creek is also considered structurally deficient, the builders association said.

The report was released as President Donald Trump was expected to propose a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan in his first State of the Union address.

“He’s going to talk about a trillion and a half dollars of investment, but more importantly, he’s going to talk about streamlining the approval process on infrastructure,” White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn told CNBC. “Right now, we have an infrastructure approval process that takes seven to 10 years to build relatively simple roads. We need to streamline that to less than two years.”

The Poplar Street Bridge, which connects St. Louis and St. Clair County and is one of the most traveled bridges in Illinois, is considered structurally deficient. However, the Missouri Department of Transportation is in the midst of a multi-year project to upgrade the bridge built in 1963.

The Martin Luther King Bridge over the Mississippi River also made the list.

Illinois identified needed repairs on 2,642 bridges, which the state estimates will cost $9.6 billion, according to the road and transportation builders association report.

“An infrastructure package aimed at modernizing the interstate system would have both short- and long-term positive effects on the U.S. economy,” said Alison Premo Black, chief economist for the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, who conducted the analysis of Federal Highway Administration data.

The Federal Highway Administration considers a bridge structurally deficient if the deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert, and retaining walls are considered in “poor” condition and the individual parts of the bridge show signs of advanced loss deterioration or breaking.

“It does not mean a bridge is unsafe or dangerous,” said Kelsea Gurski, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Transportation. “A structurally deficient rating means there are elements of the bridge that need to be monitored, inspected and maintained on a more regular basis. Many times they are posted with reduced weight limits to restrict heavy truck traffic. If any unsafe conditions are identified, the structure is closed.”

Gurski added IDOT is developing a list of improvements on major bridges in an order of priority.

“Bridges are among our most expensive, complicated projects. Because of that, we are becoming more focused than ever on viewing bridges and other key pieces of infrastructure as resources we must do our utmost to preserve and protect — the foundation that makes Illinois the transportation hub of North America,” Gurski said. “At the same time, we are creating a separate list of needs for the bridges that cross over major rivers, including the border bridges we share with Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and Indiana. All of these efforts are part of a larger mission to commit to a system of asset management that helps guide IDOT’s decisions about where to best invest the public’s resources.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 5:07 PM with the headline "These are the bridges you might use every day that are considered structurally deficient."