Nevada’s bridges named nation’s best maintained – again

Nevada’s bridges have once again been ranked as the nation’s best.

Nevada Department of Transportation Director Rudy Malfabon credited the department’s bridge inspection and rehabilitation program for the honor by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. This is the fourth consecutive year the state’s bridges have won that ranking.

The association found only 1.6 percent of the state’s 2,000 public bridges as structurally deficient compared to the 9.1 percent national average.

One project that undoubtedly helped the state maintain its ranking was replacement of the historic but failing Virginia Street bridge in downtown Reno. The new bridge opened to traffic last summer.

“We utilize federal and state transportation funding to make important enhancements to keep Nevada bridges the nation’s best and, most importantly, to keep Nevada motorists safe on our bridges,” said Malfabon.

He pointed to the challenges of just the past two months when northwest Nevada experienced large scale flooding and magnitude 5.7 earthquakes in the Hawthorne area with no major damage to the bridges there.

He said maintaining the state’s bridges can be a major challenge since nearly 440 of the state-owned bridges are more than 50 years old.

NDOT spent some $17 million in the past two years maintaining and preserving those bridges.