Mapping the Country's Bridge Maintenance Crisis

A new, interactive feature by The Washington Post endeavors to bring the point about the nation's crumbling infrastructure closer to home.

1 minute read

February 22, 2017, 6:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Benicia Bridge

The Benicia Bridge, where it arrives in Solano County from Contra Costa County in Northern California. | DS.SF / Shutterstock

The Washington Post has published a large, interactive feature on the state of the nation's bridges, mapping the locations of the "structurally deficient" and "functionally obsolete" bridges around the United States. The interactive map zooms to the county level, automatically if you allow the site access to your location.

At this writing, for instance, I'm in Contra Costa County, California, where the interactive feature reports that there are 46 structurally deficient bridges, 89 functionally obsolete bridges, and 458 bridges in good condition. Along side the custom report on the county, the feature offers a geo-tagged satellite view of all the deficient and obsolete bridges around the region.

Denise Lu and Dan Keting supplement the interactive features with an article introducing the key terms and data that drive the interactive map. The article concludes by focusing on a sample of counties with high rates of structurally deficient bridges, namely Suffolk County, Massachusetts; Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania; and Nemaha County, Nebraska.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017 in The Washington Post

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