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Bridge Safety for 6 Month Report to Congress - Email

Dear all,

At this morning's meeting, Brian Kozy, our senior bridge engineer with
FHWA brought up a question about bridge safety.  He asked Vermont and
Maine to explain the built in safety factors for their bridges if they
are making a statement that the bridges are safe to carry 100K lb.
trucks.  Those bridges that do not have a reserve safety factor will
then, by definition, realize a reduced factor for safety for 100K lb.
trucks.  I may not have phrased this as elegantly as Brian originally
posed the question.  Brian, please feel free to again pose the question
the way you were asking it on the phone this morning.

It is incumbent upon the states in the 6 month report to explain what
bridges they think are safe to carry 100K lb trucks and why?  Also they
need to explain what bridges may be marginal and why.  Please keep in
mind when we first started this process we had figures that we had been
using in briefings on the condition of bridges in both states.  Here is
an excerpt from that briefing:

FHWA's latest information shows that of the 197 total bridges on Maine's
Interstate System, 36 are functionally obsolete, and 6 are structurally
deficient. In Vermont there are 313 total bridges.  Of those, 95 are
functionally obsolete, and 22 are structurally deficient.  

These figures still stand since I have not seen them refuted.  Our focus
of attention in this first phase (or 6 months) was to look at the
bridges that were in the worst state and determine how to deal with
them.  Maine has provided a report that does not speak to the 36
functionally obsolete or 6 structurally deficient bridges.  I suggest
that by the end of the month Maine lets us know their thoughts on this
briefing material or we have no alternative but to report to Congress
that information is inconclusive as to capability of some interstate
bridges to support 100K trucks.  I am hoping that Vermont's load rating
analysis will speak to the functionally obsolete and structurally
deficient bridges, as well as to the other items on safety mentioned
above.

I would like to ask that Brian Kozy, Todd Kimball, and Maria Drozd get
with their counterparts in the state DOT's and provide an explanation as
to why the bridges will handle the load for the pilot testing time and
what data has been gathered to support those contentions.   This needs
to be put into a simple textual explanation of what bridge analyses have
been conducted, what results have been obtained, what expectations the
DOT has for carrying the additional loadings, and what safety
implications there may be.  You can also use whatever charts may be
needed to make your case.  I'm looking forward to some good material on
all this.  Thanks for all your efforts to make this a successful first
phase.

Michael P. Onder