Editor’s note: This story and visualization are part of our new series “Data In Your Life,” in which we mine public databases to tell fast-paced stories about the world around us.
In the early hours of March 26, a 1,000-foot container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing a section of the 1.6-mile-long bridge to collapse in less than 40 seconds.
Although the Key Bridge could have fallen in any state, the high-profile accident drew attention to bridge safety across the country.
The Federal Highway Administration maintains a public database of bridge ratings in each state, which takes into account multiple parts of the bridge structure, including the deck, superstructure, substructure and culvert.
The federal government assigns three designations to assess the condition of bridges: good, fair and poor.
In 2023, the Key Bridge was in the “fair” group, along with about 49% of the nation’s bridges.
Another 44% are rated ‘good’ and almost 7% are ‘poor’.
Are California Bridges Safe?
In California, 47.7% of the state’s thousands of bridges are rated “fair.”
About 6.2% of California’s bridges were rated as in “poor” condition as of 2023. The data does not include the commonly used names of the bridges.
According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, of California’s 25,818 bridges, 1,591 were classified as structurally deficient in 2023.
“This means that one of the key elements is in poor or worse condition,” the trade association said in its report, which analyzed California data from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory.
By comparison, a total of 1,797 bridges in California were classified as structurally deficient in 2019, the report said.
According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association’s analysis, the state found that a total of 1,781 bridges need more than $6.3 million in repairs.
Which provinces have the most bridges in ‘poor’ condition?
More than two dozen California counties have 29 or more bridges rated in “poor” condition, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration.
These are largely clustered in the Bay Area, Central Valley, and Southern California regions.
Of the 734 bridges in Sacramento County, 29 are in poor condition.
About 15% of Stanislaus County’s 380 bridges are considered in poor condition, while one-tenth of San Joaquin County’s 643 bridges (64) are in poor condition.
Meanwhile, Merced County has 48 bridges in poor condition. The province has a total of 527 bridges.
Forty of Fresno County’s 909 bridges are in poor condition.
On the Central Coast, 26 of the 400 bridges in San Luis Obispo County are in poor condition.
Why did Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore?
The Key Bridge in Baltimore relied on piers, which were essential to its structural integrity.
Without sufficient protective barriers around the piers, other bridge components could not make up for the missing support when the large container ship, called the Dali, crashed into one of the piers, The New York Times reported in March.
Even with stronger protective barriers, it is possible that the bridge still would not have been able to withstand a blow from such a large ship.
