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combined city/county/township bridges (77 out of 145) meet the SD/FO classification. David Fish, P.E., managing engineer of bridge design for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (DOT), says he doesn't expect to lower the num- ber of SD/FO bridges in the com- ing year. Last year, Rhode Island also ranked at 51 percent of its to- tal bridges being considered SD/ FO. In a self-rating for how well a state's bridges rank, on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the poorest, Fish gave Rhode Island a 2 "[be- cause] Rhode Island currently has the second-lowest bridge ranking in the United States." How is Rhode Island able to work toward improving its bridges? Funding is the biggest challenge in lowering the SD/FO rate, Fish says. Insufficient fund- ing in the coming year "would prevent us from implementing more of the preservation con- tracts that are needed to help reduce the rate of SD bridges in the state." Fish says if he could change any aspect of his depart- ment to improve bridges in the state, he would "implement more bridge preservation programs and implement programmatic agree- ments with regulatory agencies to expedite the design process." 3. Pennsylvania: 38 percent combined SD/FO bridges More than 8,600 of Pennsylva- nia's 22,623 bridges are consid- ered SD/FO, a drop of 1 percent from last year. The state has 16,125 total combined interstate and state bridges, 34 percent of which are considered SD/FO. At a local level, 49 percent of Penn- sylvania's 6,498 total city/county/ township bridges are classified as SD/FO this year. Pennsylvania is taking advan- tage of the public-private partner- ship (P3) tool that former Repub- lican Gov. Tom Corbett Jr. signed into law in 2012 to start an initia- tive to help improve the state's bridges. With the P3 approach, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) says it will able to replace hundreds of these bridges more quickly, save money, and minimize the impact on the traveling public. In October, PennDot chose Plenary Walsh Keystone Part- ners to build 558 bridges under its Rapid Bridge Replacement Project.The team must begin construction in summer 2015 and complete the replacements within 36 months, according to PennDOT. The state retains own- ership of the bridges, but the team is responsible for maintain- ing each bridge for 25 years after its replacement. At the time, PennDOT Secretary Barry J. Schoch said this initiative helps Pennsylvania "take a big step to cutting further into its backlog of structurally deficient bridges." To preserve bridge safety, PennDOT said it is also in the Type of Bridge 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Interstate and state bridges Total surveyed 291,034 292,085 292,273 300,260 300,001 *SD/FO 61,149 59,250 58,851 58,106 55,235 Percentage 21.0% 20.3% 20.1% 19.4% 18.4% City/county bridges Total surveyed 309,479 310,006 309,881 309,178 308,093 *SD/FO 78,471 77,566 76,806 73,094 69,150 Percentage 25.4% 25% 24.8% 23.6% 22.4% Total overall bridges surveyed Total 600,513 602,091 602,154 609,438 608,094 *SD/FO 139,620 136,816 135,657 131,200 124,385 Percentage 23.3% 22.7% 22.5% 21.5% 20.5% *SD/FO = structurally deficient/functionally obsolete Source: Randall-Reilly 2014 Bridge Inventory and previous year reports *Note Mississippi & Nevada did not respond - 2013 figures used ** Note California & Ohio did not report functionally obsolete A Five-Year Look at America's Bridges EquipmentWorld.com | January 2015 51