Report: Weak bridges span Mahoning Valley
Youngstown Vindicator – Crews surveyed the Market Street bridge in downtown Youngstown on Wednesday as part of the structure’s annual inspection.
The bridge, formally named the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge, is structurally sound, but the same can’t be said for hundreds of bridges in the Mahoning Valley.
With 18.9 percent of bridges considered “structurally deficient” the Youngstown area has the seventh-highest percentage of deficient bridges in the nation among metropolitan areas of less than 1 million people, according to a new report from Transportation for America, a transportation reform group.
The group says the bridges need substantial repair or replacement.
A bridge is deficient if at least one of three components — the deck, or surface of the bridge; the superstructure, or the deck support; or the substructure, which supports the structure — are rated poor during an inspection.
The Valley has 228 of those bridges. On an average day, 789,241 vehicles will cross a deficient Valley bridge, the group said.
