Bridge inspectors from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation have safety inspections procedures that go beyond federal standards, but they don’t always follow their own rules, according to Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor who, on Tuesday, presented the findings of an audit into PennDOT’s bridge inspection program.
Pennsylvania is home to about 32,000 bridges including 1,580 in Allegheny County, according to PennDOT. Each year, PennDOT inspects about 18,000 state-owned bridges and oversees inspection of the locally-controlled bridges.
But the state audit on how PennDOT conducts these inspections found “inconsistent and incomplete bridge inspection reports,” according to DeFoor. Some of the team leaders for bridge inspectors didn’t meet the minimum qualifications for their role. And what information inspectors included in reports on “critical or high priority maintenance issues” and when they filed them varied.
DeFoor said PennDOT told him the “proper notifications regarding high-priority maintenance issues happened” but they didn’t write them down.
Following these processes can prevent catastrophic failures like the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse in 2022, according to DeFoor. Each bridge is up for inspection at least once every two years. Bridges that have weight restrictions or have a “poor” rating are supposed to be inspected more often.
PennDOT gave the Fern Hollow Bridge, which was owned by the City of Pittsburgh, a “poor” rating on its last inspection prior to its collapse. The inspection report noted “12-inch by 12-inch holes in its legs” that the city needed to fix by its 2023 inspection. And it was the City of Pittsburgh’s failure to maintain the bridge after its poor inspections that led to its collapse rather than its design and materials, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the incident.
DeFoor said these processes are put in place for a reason.
“It is important for our safety and the investment of our tax dollars that all bridge inspection reports are consistent, filed on time, and the qualifications of the teams doing the inspections are readily available.”
