With over 2,300 bridges in the OKI region, maintaining the safety and functionality of those bridges is critical to keeping people and goods moving. “Functionally Obsolete” is a status used to describe a bridge that is no longer by design functionally adequate for its task. Reasons for this status include that the bridge doesn’t have enough lanes to accommodate the traffic flow or it may not have space for emergency shoulders.
Functionally Obsolete does not communicate anything of a structural nature. A Functionally Obsolete bridge may be perfectly safe and structurally sound, but may be the source of traffic jams or may not have a high enough clearance to allow an oversized vehicle. “Structurally Deficient” is a status used to describe a bridge that has one or more structural defects that require attention. This status does not indicate the severity of the defect but rather that a defect is present.