By its absence, New Hanover County had a much better showing on this year’s top-20 list of “substandard” bridges in North Carolina.
Assembled by AAA Carolinas, the annual rankings last year included the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and the Heide Trask Drawbridge, neither of which made this year’s edition.
Released Friday, the statewide list’s only area inclusion was the 46-year-old bridge carrying U.S. 17 over U.S. 76, just across the river in Brunswick County (a repeat from last year).
The Trask Drawbridge’s removal from the list is easily explained: it underwent an $8 million overhaul last year with the installation of a new steel grid floor, improvements to the operator house and replacement of motors, locks and other components.
But it’s a different story for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.
Forty-five years old, the iconic vertical-lift bridge hasn’t seen much more than routine maintenance lately, according to press releases from the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) over the past year. It remains “structurally deficient,” meaning it’s safe to cross but needs repairs and represents outdated design standards.
That means other bridges in North Carolina have simply gotten worse, bumping the Cape Fear bridge off the top-20.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that the bridges [no longer on the list] have improved,” said AAA Carolinas spokeswoman Tiffany Wright.
She said the Cape Fear bridge is now ranked 134.
The Brunswick County bridge still on the top-20-substandard list–ranked 13–is not scheduled for improvement work. While structurally deficient, an estimated 238,000 vehicles cross it weekly.
DOT maintains 13,500 bridges in North Carolina; more than 2,600 are listed as structurally deficient.
Of the 75 bridges in New Hanover County, 8 are structurally deficient and 24 are functionally obsolete, according to a DOT log. Of the 102 bridges in Brunswick County, 28 are structurally deficient and 16 are functionally obsolete. The latter term describes bridges that are narrow, have low clearances and generally aren’t geared to serve modern traffic needs.
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“Despite North Carolina investing nearly $500 million in state and federal funds to replace and repair bridges last year, more than 5,100 of the state’s bridges still remain substandard,” AAA Carolinas said in a statement Friday.
DOT says it would cost $16 billion to replace all of the substandard bridges in its jurisdiction; or $11 billion to bring them up to standard.
The state had an initiative, starting in fiscal year 2011-12, to commit $450 million to bridge improvement. Friday’s release quoted DOT Secretary Tony Tata, who said the state is making progress: “We’re seeing the positive results of our increased investment, which in the first three years is enabling us to upgrade about 1,000 more substandard bridges.
“This is a good step forward, and with additional revenue, we could repair and replace even more of our deficient bridges to ensure motorist safety and better connect people to jobs, education, healthcare and recreation.”
Click here to view the full top-20 list.
Ben Brown is a news reporter at Port City Daily. Reach him at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
