By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — A pair of recent structural quality assessment studies have refocused attention on the condition of rural bridges in the Midwest, particularly in Iowa and Illinois.

A recent analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) 2018 National Bridge Index (NBI) revealed that 47,052 U.S. bridges are classified as “structurally deficient.” Iowa leads the nation with 4,675 such bridges, according to the survey, while Illinois’ 2,273 ranks fourth nationally.

Other states located in this region ranking among the worst 20 for deficient bridges included Ohio (11th, with 1,518), Indiana (15th, 1,203), Michigan (16th, 1,196), Kentucky (18th, 1,016), and Tennessee (20th, 871).

“While the report highlights that the nation has made a degree of progress in addressing our bridge challenges, considerable work remains, particularly in rural areas,” said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition (STC).

“If President Trump and Congress are able to work together to produce a comprehensive infrastructure initiative, efforts to address the dilapidated condition of our rural bridges should be included.”

While the STC is calling for increased levels of federal investment to help address America’s rural bridge problem, the Iowa-based organization is also promoting better stewardship of taxpayer funding at all government levels. Such efforts could include county-level implementation of a bridge testing initiative developed by the STC, which it says provides a more precise structural quality rating while allowing counties and other local governments the flexibility to allocate resources directly to bridges most acutely in need of repair.

The STC allocated $10,000 to fund bridge testing projects in each of the 13 states comprising the organization, with the stipulation that tested bridges must be in rural areas in which soybeans are transported. Data have been collected in Indiana and Michigan, and another project is underway in Kansas.

“(Bridge load testing) is not applicable on every bridge or in every vicinity, but it is a validated practice that we believe should be more accessible in rural areas of the country,” said Steenhoek.

“We also think this is a nice example of a true public-private partnership – a farmer organization and county government – that is making a difference. I think we need more examples of constituent groups and government coming together to address problems.”

The 2,273 structurally deficient Illinois bridges identified by the NBI account for 8.5 percent of the state’s 26,809 bridges – the 20th-highest percentage of deficient bridges in a state, of all states. This mirrors the percentage of Illinois bridges rated as deficient during 2017, according to an Illinois Soybean Assoc. (ISA) critical bridge assessment issued in 2018.

The ISA assessment further noted that 6.3 percent of Illinois’ bridges, or 1,674 structures, were classified as functionally obsolete in 2017, with Peoria County ranking highest (21 percent obsolescence).

The ISA bridge assessment served as a follow-up to its comprehensive 2012 study in which rural bridge infrastructure in Peoria and nine other Illinois counties was evaluated for effectiveness of servicing agricultural needs. That study determined that for every dollar invested in rural bridge improvements, a return of $10.24 can be expected to the local economy.

ISA transportation and export infrastructure lead, Scott Sigman, said the organization supports the STC’s public-private bridge testing initiative. The ISA is promoting a public-private Alternative Bridge Construction (ABC) style “bundling” system that combines similar-size bridge projects into a single bid package to create a more cost-effective environment for rural bridge construction.

“We have engaged an engineering firm to help us with communications and conversations with county engineers and the state and U.S. DOT. We are promoting the methodology that Pennsylvania has applied in bundling a number of bridges that are of similar width and height in a fashion so that parts and forms can be precast (using the ABC method for precasting concrete elements), and not custom-built, to reduce costs,” Sigman said.

“There is a public-private partnership with a couple of firms that have done about 558 bridges in Pennsylvania, all in one fell swoop. In Illinois, we are currently working to identify the potential for bundling bridge construction projects in a similar manner.”

The ISA is consulting with a former Illinois DOT official to evaluate strategy and determine how to best approach county engineers regarding the bridge construction bundling system, and help the county engineers to use current or upcoming FHWA grant programs and partnership opportunities.

ISA would like to begin working with IDOT and the Illinois Assoc. of County Engineers to develop statewide precast concrete standard details and encourage the ABC method for rural bridge construction, Sigman added.

Meanwhile, the ISA has developed a Google Earth mobile app that farmers and grain transporters can use to identify structurally deficient bridges in Illinois counties, located in relation to grain elevators and other delivery destinations. To learn more about the app, email the ISA office in Bloomington at ilsoy@ilsoy.org