GILA RIVER, AZ — Eastbound Interstate 10 was closed for several hours Tuesday after concrete on the Gila River Bridge deteriorated, exposing rebar.
The ABC15 Investigators took a look at the bridge’s safety rating.
The Federal Highway Administration rates a bridge’s condition in one of three categories: Poor, Fair or Good.
The Gila River Bridge is rated as “fair.”
Arizona Department of Transportation Spokesman Steve Elliott said that’s not surprising given the bridge’s age of more than 50 years.
He said the two-lane bridge is going to be replaced with a three-lane bridge as part of a $50 million project for I-10 bridges in the area known as the Wild Horse Pass Corridor. Construction on those bridges started last month and is expected to last through 2026.
“We have a much better situation coming,” he told ABC15.
Overall, Arizona has more than 8,500 inspected bridges. Of those, 1% are rated poor; 35% are rated fair and 64% are rated good. The bridges rated “poor” are mainly in rural areas.
Here’s a map of the bridges rated as poor in Arizona, according to a Scripps News analysis of federal data:
A Scripps News investigation last year found more than 14,000 bridges across the country ranked in poor condition for at least a decade.
Poor condition doesn’t mean the bridge will collapse.
“It means it needs attention. It means it needs repair,” said Kent Harries, a structural engineering professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
In a few extreme cases, a poorly rated bridge needs immediate replacement, he said.
Bridge repair and replacement is a key part of President Biden’s push to improve the nation’s infrastructure.
Since Biden took office, money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law he championed and other federal funding sources have helped pay for more than 6,400 bridge repair and replacement efforts across the country.
That still leaves thousands of bridges in need of funding, according to a Scripps News analysis of data released last year by the Federal Highway Administration.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at: anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.