The Missouri Department of Transportation says just two-and-a-half years after it completed its most intense bridge replacement project ever, 641 bridges are in critical condition, according to a press release sent out late last month.
Of those 641 bridges, 16 are within the boundaries of the three-county Lake of the Ozarks area. Camden County has the largest number of critical bridges at 10, with three each in Miller and Morgan counties.
State Bridge Engineer Dennis Heckman said another 50 bridges has been added to MoDOT's critical list in the less than three years since the end of a project that replaced some 800 plus bridges statewide.
"When we completed the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Program in 2012, we stemmed the tide for a while," he said. "But we knew that the curve would start going up again. Safe & Sound made a dent, however it did not repair or replace all of the state's bad bridges. Now with a shrinking construction budget, the number of bad bridges is on the rise again."
Several bridges in the Lake Area were replaced under the Safe & Sound project including both the U.S. 54 Niangua Bridge west of Camdenton and the Missouri 5 Niangua Bridge north of Camdenton as well as the Hurricane Deck Bridge near Sunrise Beach. Several smaller bridges in all three counties were also replaced.
According to MoDOT, Missouri has a total of 10,376 bridges on state highways including 209 that are more than 1,000 feet long, many of which are more than 50 years old and were built before modern engineering standards were instituted.
According to the press release, while at least 50 bridges "drop into critical condition" at MoDOT's current funding level, it can only replace about 30 a year.
Because of the backlog of structures that need replacement, Heckman said if the agency doesn't get more funding within 10 years, it will have as many as 1,500 bridges listed as critical.
"To get ahead of the game, we should be replacing more than 100 bridges per year," he said. "Instead, our funding levels are only allowing us to replace about 30."
Heckman does caution, however, that just because a bridge is placed on the critical list does not mean it is unsafe.
"We aggressively inspect our bridges. When we discover a problem that is a safety issue, we close the bridge," he said.
Four bridges in the state have been closed due to disrepair. None of those are in the Lake Area.
According to MoDOT, to replace all the bridges on the critical list would cost about $820 million, an amount not possible under the revenue garnered from the state's 17-cent gas tax, which is the primary funding source for roads and bridges in Missouri.
After voters rejected an increase in the state sales tax to fund MoDOT, the agency announced no new roads and bridges would be built since the revenue garnered under the current formula only allowed for maintenance of the existing road and bridge system.