BY NORMAN WALZER Associate professor of economics. Western Illinois University, he is currently on a visiting appointment in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois, Urbana. Financial support/or this project was provided by the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Illinois, from Title V, Rural Development Funds. Any views expressed in this paper belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the sponsor.

Pricetag for bringing bridges up to safe standards estimated at $500 million

The problem with rural bridges

A MAJOR problem facing rural residents in Illinois and most other states is the deterioration of local bridges maintained by townships. There are 11,061 locally-maintained bridges in Illinois, a sizable proportion of which are becoming suspect regarding their future serviceability. And bringing the bridges to safe standards will be a price borne by taxpayers.

Background and issues
The majority of the local bridges in Illinois were constructed shortly after the turn of the century. On the average, the structures, 53 feet long and 16 feet wide, have almost come to the time when large numbers of them must be extensively repaired or be replaced.

Concern over the bridge condition is expressed nationwide from three groups. The main users of the bridges are agricultural producers who must be able to transport crops from fields to markets. Over the last 20 years, there have been significant technological developments and economies of scale in agriculture causing farmers to increase the size of their operations by using much larger equipment in the production process. The equipment is not only heavier thereby creating additional strains on roads and bridges; but also the equipment is wider causing formerly adequate bridges to be too narrow. Even though a bridge structure may with-stand the weight of agricultural equipment, it may be too narrow to allow passage. An immediate solution that is apparently being used is the removal of guardrails or other protective devices. While this may be an adequate remedy for slow-moving farm machinery, it may present problems for traffic safety, especially during inclement conditions, such as fog or ice. Even though the motorist may be adequately warned by signs, the situation is still not desirable.

A second group with considerable interest in this problem is school administrators and families of school age children. A loaded school bus

weighs approximately nine tons, and an increasing number of bridges are being posted at less than this weight. Concerned for students' safety, school administrators are being forced to design bus routes around unsafe bridges, and this raises transportation costs and thus places additional strain on already hard-pressed budgets. The alternative, if rural pickup and delivery is necessary, is to use smaller buses which will require additional drivers and higher total operating costs.

The third group interested in the condition of bridges is the taxpayers and their elected representatives, the town board of trustees. It is this group that must find a solution to the problem and raise funds needed for the remedy. Taking no action means that the condition of bridges will worsen, and the cost of correcting the problem will be passed along to future generations.

The situation is made even more difficult by the fact that if a bridge has to be closed (or collapses), the usefulness of the road on both sides is drastically reduced. Rural residents will be inconvenienced and experience higher fuel costs in conducting their normal activities. There is little doubt but that the residents in the vicinity of the bridge are the main users of the local roads and bridges. This may cause urban residents to resist tax increases to raise revenue for improving the bridges. Because the voters in urban areas usually outnumber those in rural areas, it may be difficult to pass a tax increase or bond issue for improving or replacing rural bridges.

What urban residents may not fully comprehend is that additional fuel costs, travel time and depreciation of farm equipment may significantly increase the costs of raising agricultural products which may ultimately show up in higher food prices. The urban resident may pay an even higher cost since he purchases a larger share of his family's food than a rural family.

The roads of rural Illinois divide the prairie farmland into grids along lines running north-south and east-west. In the early days of slow travel it was essential that most country roads intersect at one-mile intervals. Today two-mile intervals might suffice, since it is not unreasonable in this age to ask commuters to go two miles before changing directions. This of course would eliminate many local bridges and thus save expenses, but might be a sacrifice for farmers who drive slower moving equipment.

The local road commissioner, in

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many instances, may have enough money to completely replace one bridge or patch the five that are clearly substandard. By eliminating a bridge or two, the local budget could be used to provide safe passage on more of those remaining; spending a small amount on all structures merely postpones their collapse. Selecting the bridges to be closed is a politically painful task since it will inconvenience residents in the area and may cause them to incur a capital loss on residential property values because of limited access. Nevertheless, given the high cost of bridge reconstruction and the large number in need of repair or replacement, a feasible long-term solution may require closing a small percentage of the bridges.

Condition and cost
In the early 1970's, the Illinois Department of Transportation developed a continuing needs data bank to provide information on transportation needs in the state. As part of this data gathering effort, a program to rate township-maintained bridges was instituted. The bridges were rated on structural adequacy, condition of foundation and related characteristics- Although not all bridges have been rated, there is detailed information on 4,400 structures longer than 20 feet.

A condition rating followed with interest is whether a bridge will carry a nine-ton load since this is the capacity needed to safely transport a loaded school bus. Of the 4,400 bridges, 1,312 (29.8 per cent) were posted at less than nine tons and an additional 193 bridges were posted at the nine-ton limit. If the sample of bridges which have been rated reasonably approximates the universe, nearly one bridge out of every three is unsafe for travel by a loaded school bus. Incidents have been reported where a school bus driver has to discharge the students, drive the empty bus across the bridge and reload on the other side.

Detailed bridge information was examined as part of a study on the financing and provision of rural roads in 10 western Illinois counties supported by Title V, Rural Development Act monies. The 10-county study area was selected by a statewide committee formed to guide the rural development research effort. The counties included Adams, Brown, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough, Pike, Schuyler and Warren.

The condition data on bridges in the western Illinois townships is provided in table 1. The bridges are rated on a scale from 0 to 9; 9 indicates a condition superior to present desirable criteria; 0 indicates replacement is necessary to put the bridge back in service. These ratings are based on structure only. An overall structural rating of 4 means a condition meeting minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as is. For purposes of this analysis, the bridges are grouped into four classes: 0 through 3; 4; 5 through 8; and 9. One measure of deficient bridge structures is the percentage rated less than 4. The percentage of bridges in a basically intolerable condition and requiring a high priority of repair varies by length of bridge ranging from a low of 20 percent for those from 20- to 29-feet in length to a high of 45.8 per cent in the case of those from 50- to 59-feet in length.

On the average, approximately one-third of the bridges will require major repair with an additional 25 per cent barely meeting the minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as is. Thus, more than half the township-maintained bridges in western Illinois either need major repair or were barely adequate.

Based on these figures, the great concern about bridges is not hard to understand. Each year of delay on action to improve the condition of the bridges makes matters worse. Apparently bridges in many other states are in a condition similar to those in Illinois and there is a growing awareness that financial assistance must come from higher levels of governments if the bridge situation is to be corrected.

To estimate the costs of bringing these bridges up to adequate standards, highway superintendents in western Illinois were assembled to estimate both the number of bridges needing renovation or replacement and the cost of undertaking this program. They also were asked to consider the possibility that some bridges could be permanently closed without major inconvenience to the rural residents.

Based on their knowledge of bridges in the study area, they estimated that: (a) 5 per cent of the bridges could be eliminated without imposing serious hardships; (b) 15 per cent are in such a condition that nothing need be done to them beyond normal maintenance; (c) 60 per cent require repairs that could be accomplished at approximately $35,000 (1976 prices) per bridge; (d) 20 percent need major renovation requiringap-proximately $70,000 per bridge.

In developing these estimates, the superintendents were asked to use standards which, although less than ideal, would provide safe passage in most weather conditions. However, in times of heavy rainfall and flooding some of the low volume roads might have to be temporarily closed. Thus, the estimated cost presented here for upgrading bridges is likely to be conservative.

The cost estimate for upgrading bridges in the 186 townships ls $47,110,000 based on 1976 prices. Averaging this cost over the 1,077 bridges needing repair yields a per bridge cost of approximately $43,750. If the bridges in western Illinois are representative of those throughout the state, given the cost estimates in table-the statewide cost is in the neighborhood of $387 million. This 's a conservative estimate; the cost of bringing the bridges up to desired standards, especially if 5 per cent of the bridges were not eliminated, could run

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Legislative alternatives
Given the high cost of bridge replacement, or that of a suitable replacement such as a culvert, financial assistance from the state or federal government will probably be necessary if the bridge problem is to be corrected soon.

Efforts have been made at both the federal and state levels to fund bridge replacement programs, and several factors suggest a brighter outlook for the bridge problem. The authorizations for fiscal years 1977 and 1978 by Congress for the bridge replacement program were $180 million each year. During the past six years the Federal Highway Administration has provided

nearly $640 million to the states resulting in a replacement of 987 bridges.* Unfortunately, most township-maintained bridges are not included in this program. The present concern about high unemployment and recent changes in the federal revenue sharing regulations permitting the use of federal funds for matching may very well provide the setting for larger bridge replacement programs. Recent Federal Highway Administrationand American Road Builders Association surveys indicated that every billion dollars spent on bridge work creates 24,000 off-site and 66,000 induced man-years of work. Because of the labor intensiveness of bridge construction and road building, these projects are good prospects for programs to reduce unemployment. According to American Road Builders Association estimates, more than 11 per cent of the projects approved by the Economic Development Administration in the Public Works Jobs program were for streets, roads and bridges. The total for the category was in the neighborhood of $177 million.

The current level of funding is not nearly enough to solve the bridge problem. The primary burden of replacing the local bridges may fall on the state working with counties and townships.

In June of 1976 the Illinois legislature passed a $ 15 million bond program to be administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation for improving bridges on county, township and municipal highways and streets with special attention paid to school bus routes. From a list of five priority bridges in each county, 196 were chosen for improvement.

Effective July I, 1977, $15 million annually are being provided to counties to be distributed to townships that are levying the maximum (without referendum) for road and bridge purposes. The objectives of the program demand that bridges be selected on the basis of school bus needs, rural mail routes, agricultural equipment and product transfer, and anticipated travel needs of the general public.

In the spring session of the 80th General Assembly, Senate Bill 292 was introduced by Sen. Stanley B. Weaver (R., Urbana) to create a Bridge Repair and Rehabilitation Fund derived from an increase from 7 1/2 cents to 10 1/2 cents in the gas tax effective October 1, 1977, and ending September 30, 1984. The funds would be used for the "repairing and construction of unsafe and substandard bridges on state highways (40 per cent of the funds); county roads (20 per cent of the funds); and road district roads (40 per cent of the funds)." This bill died in committee.

Few, if any, would dispute the serious condition of local bridges in Illinois, or virtually any other state for that matter. The difficulty arises in trying to generate the funds to replace or repair them. The high cost of replacement or repair, combined with the limited traffic volume but necessity of travel, makes the problem very complex. The issue that must be faced is how many local bridges can we afford and who is going to provide the funds. The movement of agricultural products is essential to everyone. If agricultural production costs are to be kept down, we must take advantage of economies of-production which means larger machinery. Unfortunately this largeequipment makes even relatively safe bridges obsolete.

Finding a solution is not going to be simple, but, as of yet, we have merely scratched the surface. Continued delays will not only make existing structures worse but also will make us face higher cost of replacement and repairs in terms of inflated construction costs. ž

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