Despite Stimulus Funds, Many Bridges Stay in Disrepair

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma received $465 million of federal stimulus money to fix the state's roads and bridges, but state officials can only use the money for "shovel-ready" projects. This means some of the bridges needing repairs will not be touched.

Oklahoma has a total of almost 7,000 bridges that are either obsolete, deficient, need repair or should just be replaced. However, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is only spending about a fourth of its stimulus money on only about 130 bridges.

Transportation Secretary Gary Ridley said "shovel-ready" bridge projects are hard to find.

"You have environmental issues you got to go through. Certainly there's issues with the Corps of Engineers. There are things you have to worry about with U.S. fish and wildlife," Ridley said.

ODOT officials said they have earmarked the majority of the stimulus money on road repaving and widening projects, which compared to bridges, are simple to get going.

Ridley said repairing all the state bridges in need will cost up to $5 billion, not including one-lane county bridges.

"I told the legislature three years ago that it would take twelve to fifteen years of focused effort on our bridge problem in order to solve it. It's not something that can be done overnight," Ridley said.

Bridge projects in the state do not solely depend on stimulus funds. The state also uses several state and federal funds set aside for bridge repair.

Check the conditions of bridges in your community.