GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Here in Northeast Wisconsin, bridge maintenance is a top priority.
Some local bridges are in poor condition.
A small bridge on W. Mason Street will soon get work done, and with the federal infrastructure law, funding could benefit similar projects.
“For bridges, the increase in funding is going to be about $45 million over a five-year period,” said Wisconsin State Bridge Engineer Josh Dietsche.
Dietsche says the Wisconsin Department of Transportation grades bridges based on a scale of 0-9.
“Bridge is considered good if it has a grading of 7 or above, fair if its 5 or 6 and we call it poor if its a 4 or less,” said Dietsche.
Dietsche says In Northeast Wisconsin there are a total of 2,300 bridges.
Of those, 900 are owned by the state and 1,400 are locally owned by cities, towns or counties.
There is only one state bridge that is in poor condition.
But 130 locally owned bridges fit that same category.
FOX 11 asked, “since Northeast Wisconsin has a number of local bridges in poor condition, will there be more money allocated to this area compared to other regions?”
“It hasn’t been decided. There’s still some details to be worked out yet on how that will be allocated,” said Dietsche.
Two City of Green Bay bridges, Larson Road and Chantelle Street are listed with load ratings, meaning that trucks carrying overweight loads are not permitted to use them.
Current traffic is safe. The city says they will be replaced within a couple of years.
‘We are not in a situation where we have any bridges that are in imminent failure mode,” said Steve Grenier, Green Bay Director of Public Works,” If we become eligible for additional funding here, what we’re going to do is look the next couple of projects we got.. and we would accelerate.”
Grenier says bridge maintenance costs the city an average of $1.5 million-$2 million a year.
To learn more about DOT bridge grading CLICK HERE.
