Milwaukee City Wire

With over 14,000 bridges in the state of Wisconsin, about 1,800 are in need of repair, with most still providing safe passage for vehicles and drivers. 

Following the collapse of a bridge in Pittsburg that has generated conversations about bridge safety and repairs across the country, Wisconsin is looking to its own infrastructure to reassure drivers that the vast majority of bridges in the state are still safe for transportation. And according to Infrastructure Report Card, Wisconsin is currently earning a 'C' for a grade.  

"Poor doesn't mean unsafe," said Josh Dietsche, a bridge engineer and WI DOT Director of Bureau of Structures, according to WKOW. "Poor means that they have deteriorated to the point where there's something that we're watching a little more closely."

Current statistics found that 7% of Wisconsin's bridges are structurally deficient in comparison to those that are still entirely up to code, according to WKOW. Rock, Columbia and Portage counties each had at least one structurally deficient bridge while Milwaukee county had 10 structurally deficient bridges, the highest in the state.

"It's something you can't take your eye off of," said Steven Baas, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, according to WKOW. "You have to have to keep up with it and keep them in shape, and that's why the DOT does such a good job of regularly inspecting bridges for safety."

Also included as a structurally deficient bridge is the Pheasant Creek Bridge which was inspected earlier this month due to its rating of four or less on the nine-point scale that is used to rate a bridge's durability and safeness. Despite its rating, the bridge was still determined to be drivable, according to WKOW.

Wisconsin uses the Local Bridge Improvement Assistance Program, which serves to rehabilitate and replace, on a cost-shared basis, the most seriously deficient existing local bridges on Wisconsin's local highway systems.