As Italian investigators continue to search for what caused a bridge to collapse last week, killing more than 40 people, our Defenders team found almost 5,000 North Carolina bridges that, like that Italian bridge, are more than 50-years-old.
State records show one out of every four of those bridges are labeled structurally deficient by state inspectors. That rating means the problematic bridges need to be fixed or replaced.
While critics call into question everything from the Italian bridge's design to its maintenance, the rubble is a reminder that many of our aging bridges, while designed differently, need attention.
Two Interstate 277 bridges are on the state's structurally deficient list; one over Brevard Street and the other over North College Street. The two bridges, both 51-years-old, each carry more than 93,000 cars a day.
They join more than 1,600 other bridges in North Carolina, more than 140 of them in the Charlotte area considered structurally deficient. Most of those bridges are also more than 50-years-old. Federal requirements mandate the state inspect bridges every two years.
"Not only do we inspect them every two years, we have people that look at them every year on the ground," NCDOT Division Bridge Program Manager Garland Haywood said. "Any structures we have, if it's available to the public for use, it's safe to be on."
The state started significantly reducing the number of problematic bridges after a bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people.
Now living in Charlotte, former Minnesotan Eliza Gardner knows the risks are real.
"I drove over that bridge, 35W in Minneapolis and knew, that could have been me," she said. "I definitely think about it. It's definitely something I think can happen, definitely a possibility."
State records show more than 2,000 bridges in North Carolina with a worse rating than that Minnesota bridge, including one on Shopton Road, which received just a four out of a 100 during its inspection earlier this year, almost as low as you can get. The "poor" conditioned bridge is scheduled for replacement in 2022, according to NCDOT.
"What we're talking about is on a scale that is catastrophic, that you have a total failure of a bridge, I don't know of anything in our division, in the Charlotte area that has that potential to happen," Haywood said.
According to NCDOT, the state is currently funded to repair or replace at least 250 structurally deficient bridges by 2030. The two I-277 bridges are part of that group. Haywood said repairs are set for next year.
South Carolina has nearly half as many structurally deficient bridges as North Carolina.