Photo: MassDOT
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Over 640 bridges in Massachusetts are considered "structurally deficient," according to a new report that came out Tuesday.
The report was published by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, an independent, non-profit think tank. Using the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's bridge database, which lists 7,880 bridges in Massachusetts, the report found that 644 bridges across the Commonwealth meet the definition of being structurally deficient.
According to the report, the designation of structurally deficient means "at least one major weight-bearing component of these bridges has serious problems and is in need of repair or replacement."
More than half of those bridges are found in either Western Massachusetts or Worcester County. In the Greater Boston Area, 115 bridges are known to be structurally deficient.
The report also shows that the average bridge in Massachusetts is 56 years old, which is older than the national average of 44 years. A total of 778 bridges in Massachusetts exceed 100 years old since they were first built or most recently reconstructed.
The report concludes that without significant investment from the state, the condition of Massachusetts' bridges will continue to deteriorate.
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