Nevada has the lowest number of deficient bridges in the nation, according to recent Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) data.
The data show that the state has a mere 36 deficient bridges, while most other states maintain hundreds or thousands of deficient bridges. The only other state with less than 100 deficient bridges is Delaware, with a grand total of 56.
Nevada’s deficient bridges comprise less than 8 percent of its total 1,972 public bridges.
Mark Elicegui, Chief Structures Engineer for the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), says a number of factors help keep Nevada’s number so low.
Elicegui says the agency connects many bridge projects to paving projects.
“A lot of our bridge maintenance work is incorporated into some of our paving projects,” Elicegui says. “When we have a maintenance project such as an overlay or a mill and fill big paving project — we’ve got long stretches of roadway in Nevada where we might do 20- or 30-mile projects — we’ll look at those projects and the bridges that are within those project limits, and we try and do our bridge preservation or bridge maintenance to an extent that’s practical on projects like that.”
