Hundreds of Illinois spans get poor structural ratings

More than 1,500 Illinois bridges, some used by tens of thousands of people each day, carry worse structural ratings than the Minneapolis span that collapsed last month and killed 13 people, according to a review of records by The Associated Press.

Cars and trucks are barreling across worn-out decks, crumbling pillars or aging supports. One bridge in downtown Chicago that carries 139,000 vehicles every day has a structural rating of just 2 out of 100.

"It's highly questionable that those should even be open," said John Frauenhoffer, a Champaign engineer and past president of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers. "That's a ridiculously low number."

State officials acknowledge the safety concerns but insist they're doing all they can to repair the poorest ones and keep an eye on others, including special inspections of all critical bridges since the Minnesota collapse Aug. 1.

"We can't just live with 93 percent or 82 percent or whatever. We want 100 percent of our bridges to be safe," said Ralph Anderson, engineer of bridges and structures for the Illinois Department of Transportation. "We're managing as well as we can within our means."

Overall, the vast majority of Illinois' 26,000 bridges are deemed safe.

Fewer than 10 percent are rated "structurally deficient" by inspectors. Nearly 890 of the 2,400 bridges in the deficient category simply need attention and some rehabilitation work, not replacement.

But more than 1,500 have bigger problems and they have been rated lower than the 50 given to the Minneapolis bridge. Fully one-third of those bridges were rated at 25 or below.

The ratings are based on a long list of factors that measure whether a bridge is structurally sound and able to meet modern traffic needs. The federal government will provide rehabilitation money for bridges rated 80 or below and will help replace bridges at 50 or below.

A low rating doesn't mean a collapse is imminent. But it does mean that inspectors see potential problems, which triggers a complicated process of determining how urgently the bridge needs repairs.

"It's a moving target," IDOT's Anderson said. "It isn't a science; it is somewhat of an art."

The worst-rated bridges are mostly little-traveled spans in smaller counties in central and southern Illinois. They're usually old and carry little truck traffic.

Others, however, are major crossings. They include:

• The south bridge of Interstate 290 over the Chicago River, which carries 139,000 vehicles a day and has a sufficiency rating of 2. A sufficiency rating summarizes detailed inspection data for a bridge's deck, superstructure and substructure and provides an overall picture of a bridge's health.

• A Peoria County bridge on U.S. 24 that serves 28,800 vehicles a day and scored only a 16.

• The Stewart Avenue elevated section of Interstate 90-94 in Cook County, which carries 238,500 vehicles a day and scored a 35.

Bridges worry Maurice Jones, a Chicago security guard.

"I don't like none of them, I don't like walking over them," Jones said as vehicles zoomed across the rusty Chicago River bridge, which clanged as cars hit bumps and creaked slightly under the weight of a semitrailer.

"I'd like all of them to get fixed and repaired," he said. "These are people's lives you're playing with."

Amer Haskovic, a pizza delivery man who crosses the bridge three times a day, fears the span will continue to deteriorate until disaster strikes. "People don't pay attention until something happens," he said.

Anderson, the state engineer, acknowledged the low scores are troubling but said the agency is doing what it is supposed to -- delivering attention and money to the bridges that need repairs the most.

The department either has done major work or will start it soon on two low-rated Chicago bridges and several others in the area, closing lanes and spending millions of dollars. Bridges generally are inspected every two years. The lowest-rated bridges get yearly inspections, and some are examined more often and for more detailed problem areas, Anderson said.

"The bridge is talking. We're just hoping that we're listening," he said.

Still, there is no trigger point on the rating scale where officials are required to shut down a bridge for repairs or replacement, making such decisions more subjective. IDOT did not release its inspection reports for 10 low-rated bridges, despite multiple requests over nearly two weeks.

Governments need money for repairs, but that has been scarce in Illinois. Gov. Rod Blagojevich and state lawmakers have been deadlocked for years over proposals to borrow money for a major new construction program.

The Aug. 1 collapse in Minneapolis, which remains a mystery, has renewed calls for action in Illinois. Officials may try again to agree on a source of money when lawmakers return to Springfield in September.

Bridge inspectors don't have the luxury of taking a span out of service to pore over every inch of it, the way an airplane is inspected. They have to review a bridge's strength and condition while it's being used and then estimate the effect of everything from corrosion to traffic.

"Once you see something, even harder is to understand what the impact of that is on the safety of the bridge," said Robert Dodds, head of the civil engineering department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The biggest challenge is prioritizing the bridges so that the limited pot of state and federal money goes to the spans most in need of repair or replacement. Experts say bridges often take a back seat to higher-profile transportation problems, such as reducing teen deaths.

"If we were killing 6,000 people a year with our highway bridges, we'd be spending more money," Frauenhoffer said.