Do You Feel Safe on Our Local Bridges?

By Caitlin Moran

Thursday's shocking collapse of the I-5 bridge in Skagit County left many people with one question: Are the bridges around me safe?

It's important to note the bridge that collapsed was not among the 391 classified as "structurally deficient" by the Washington State Department of Transportation in 2011. The bridge was, however, designed to be "fracture critical"—meaning the entire structure can fail in the event of serious impact—andofficials have said an extra-tall semi struck the upper part of the bridge just prior to the collapse.

Do you feel safe traveling on bridges in Washington state?Tell us in the comments section.

WSDOT marked the Skagit River bridge, which was built in 1955, as "functionally obsolete" in 2011. A step below structurally deficient, functionally obsolete does not refer to a bridge's structural integrity but rather indicates its configuration fails to meet current demands for lane width, shoulder width or "doesn’t have enough vertical clearance for large trucks to pass under, causing repeat hits and damage to the bridge." (No word yet on whether the bridge had been hit by trucks prior to Thursday's incident.)

In Washington, 1,624 out of 7,627 total bridges were deemed functionally obsolete by the Federal Highway Administration in 2009, including 349 in King and 119 in Pierce County. Another 45 of King County's bridges - and 22 of Pierce County's - were classified as structurally deficient, meaning a certain component needs repair or replacement. A bridge deemed structurally deficient is not necessarily in danger of collapse, according to WSDOT.

Some of the structurally deficient bridges in this area, as classified by WSDOT, include:

• KING: State Route 18 at Neeley Bridge (prioritized for rehabilitation)
  
• PIERCE: State Route 165 at Gulch No. 1 - milepost 12 (monitored through inspections)
  
• PIERCE: State Route 167 at Puyallup River Bridge (prioritized for replacement). This bridge is being proposed as a foot bridge that would help to connect Enumclaw and Buckley over the Foothills Trail.
  
• PIERCE: State Route 410 at PSPL Co. Canal - milepost 22 (monitored through inspections)

King County also identified 35 bridges earlier this year that it says are in danger of closing because funds are not available to properly maintain or replace them. The list includes the following Enumclaw-area bridges:

• Boise X Connection Bridge over S.E. Mud Mountain Dam Road
• Green Valley Road Bridge over S.E. Green Valley Road, 6.7 miles east of SR 18