9 Spans in City Have Lowest Federal Rating

More than 2,000 bridges in New York State carry the same federal rating of "structurally deficient" as a major highway bridge that collapsed in Minnesota this week, killing at least four people.

The cause of the collapse is being investigated, but city transportation officials yesterday sought to reassure New Yorkers that it couldn't happen in the city.

According to state standards, New York does not have any bridges that are structurally deficient, a deputy commissioner at the New York City Department of Transportation, Lori Ardito, said yesterday, noting that bridges in the city undergo inspections every two years.

By federal standards, about 15% of New York City bridges are "structurally deficient." At least nine city bridges received the lowest rating on their federal evaluation in 2006, which means they have components requiring replacement, according to a national bridge inventory database maintained by the Federal Highway Administration.

Ms. Ardito said that even the three city bridges that have gotten a poor rating under the state's rating system, including the Brooklyn Bridge, are safe to drive on.

"There's only components of the bridge that are in poor condition. They're actually the ramps leading to the bridge, not the span of the bridge," she said of the Brooklyn Bridge. "If the bridge was deemed unsafe, we would have to close it."

The national transportation secretary, Mary Peters, said in a statement yesterday evening that all states should immediately inspect bridges similar to the one that collapsed in Minnesota.

The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that had been undergoing repairs crumpled into the Mississippi River during rush hour, carrying with it up to 50 cars. Divers were searching for more than 20 people who were missing yesterday until Minnesota authorities called off the search because of dangerous conditions.

In an earlier news conference, Ms. Ardito said the city would not be doing anything differently in the wake of the disaster.

"We feel like the program we've been using is sufficient, and we obviously aren't speculating as to what happened" in Minnesota, Ms. Ardito said.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, Carol Breen, said the state's standards for bridges exceed the federal standards.

"Those are pretty much our minimum standards," she said, noting that when problems are found, inspections can increase to once a year.
"If we had any concern that the structural integrity of the bridge was compromised we'd close it down," she added.

The other two bridges rated poorly in the city by the state are a bridge crossing Willow Lake at 76th Street in Queens and the 78th Street pedestrian bridge over the FDR Drive in Manhattan. Of the 787 other bridges overseen by the Department of Transportation, 456, or 75%, are deemed "fair," while the rest are either "good" or "very good," according to state standards.

At the end of 2006, the city transportation department also reported 10 outstanding "red flags," meaning failures or potentially imminent failures of critical primary structural bridge components. There were 576 outstanding "yellow flags," which refer to hazardous situations that, left unattended, could become a "clear and present danger."

A civil engineering professor at Columbia University, Rene Testa, who has worked on most of the city's major bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge, downplayed any concerns that New York's bridges might be in danger.

"I don't hesitate to go across the bridges," he said. "If the rating is low, they're either going to limit traffic on the bridge or they're going to close the bridge."

A half-dozen New Yorkers who paused to talk to a reporter at the end of a ramp leading to the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday evening said they were equally as confident.

Joe Rainer, 50, of Riverton, N.J., was walking near the ramp of the 124-year-old bridge, but said he often drives across, too.

"I probably have a better chance at Atlantic City than falling off that bridge," he said.

Two decades ago, when the city was undergoing a financial crisis and bridges were left untended, Mr. Testa said he was less confident. Then, the Williamsburg Bridge was closed as officials considered whether to replace it, and a section of the West Side Highway collapsed.

In the last eight years, the city has invested $3 billion on bridge improvements and it plans to spend another $2 billion in the next two years, Ms. Ardito said.

Mr. Testa suggested that more would be needed, however, to keep up the city's aging bridges, some of which are almost a century old.
"It's never enough," he said. "There's always work to be done."