360-plus Bexar County bridges 'functionally obsolete'



less There are 13 bridges within county lines that are classified as "structurally deficient," and 369 are labeled "functionally obsolete" out of the 2,175 total bridges in the county, according to information provided by the Texas Department of Transportation. You may drive over some of these outdated structures every day. There are 13 bridges within county lines that are classified as "structurally deficient," and 369 are labeled "functionally obsolete" out of the 2,175 total bridges in the county, according to information ... more Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close 360-plus Bexar County bridges 'functionally obsolete' 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO -- More than 2,100-plus bridges are used every day within the Bexar County limits. However, almost 17 percent of the bridges in the county do not meet the needs of its current use.

There are 13 bridges within county lines that are classified as "structurally deficient," and 369 are labled as "functionally obsolete" out of the 2,175 total bridges in the county, according to information provided by the Texas Department of Transportation. Locations of the 13 bridges are shown in the map above.

The Federal Highway Administration says on their website that "functionally obsolete" means "it does not meet current design standards, either because the volume of traffic carried by the bridge exceeds the level anticipated when the bridge was constructed and/or the relevant design standards have been revised."

The administration says that structurally deficient designation "does not imply that a bridge is unsafe, but such bridges typically require significant maintenance and repair to remain in service." It also continues to say that structurally deficient bridges would eventually need major repairs or replacement to address the deficiency.

In Bexar County, there are 1,262 bridges classified as "on-system," and 913 classified "off-system."

Information released by TxDOT in 2008 says that on-system bridges are "vehicular bridges owned and maintained by the state on the TxDOT-designated highway system." Off-system bridges are not on the Texas highway system, and are owned and maintained by a city, county, or local government and are not on the TxDOT-designated highway system.

All of the structurally deficient bridges are labled as "off-system." According to information from Bexar County Public Works, none of the 13 structurally deficient bridges are maintained by the county.

You can find a list of all the structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges at the San Antonio Express-News' data page, here.

jcook@express-news.net

Twitter: @JosephCook89