The report cited Federal Highway Administration statistics that 152,000 out of the nation's 600,000 bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The $140 billion price tag was derived by multiplying the total number of square meters of the problem bridges by the average cost per square meter - in 2006 dollars - to do the work.
"States are doing their best to improve them, but construction costs are skyrocketing ... forcing states to delay needed repairs," said Pete K. Rahn, head of the Missouri Department of Transportation and the transportation group's president.
"Without a national commitment to increasing bridge investment, we will see a continuing spiral towards deterioration and, ultimately, bridge closures in order to protect the traveling public," he said.
The news conference announcing the report was held in North Philadelphia near the spot where a 6-foot crack in a concrete support pillar beneath Interstate 95 forced three days of emergency repairs in March, shutting down the busy highway and choking secondary roads with 185,000 vehicles that were detoured daily.
The "Bridging the Gap" report was released just days before the first anniversary of the Aug. 1 bridge collapse on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis that killed 13 people. Cost figures and other statistics were derived from state and federal transportation agencies.
Rendell, part of the Building America's Future bipartisan coalition pushing for increased federal infrastructure funding, said a congressional study committee found 75 percent of the $80 billion spent annually on transportation infrastructure comes from state and local sources.
"No matter how hard a state applies its efforts and its resources to this problem, it's never going to make enough of a dent without significantly and radically increased federal help," Rendell said.
Typically built to last 50 years, the average U.S. bridge is 43 and approaching the age for replacement, according to the report.
The report's suggestions include increasing gasoline taxes and new taxes on alternative fuels, adding tolls to free highways, and increasing private investment in public works.
Rendell, who has proposed leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to generate revenue for transportation issues, likened what he called the infrastructure crisis to the battered U.S. mortgage market. He added that the $140 billion spent each year in Iraq would be enough to meet the growing costs of rebuilding transportation infrastructure.
"There's money when there's a crisis ... and we have a legitimate crisis with these bridges," Rendell said.
Pennsylvania, with an average bridge age of 51 and roughly 6,000 deficient bridges, is "a poster child for bridges with significant needs" for repair, said state Department of Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler.
"In Pennsylvania and all across the nation, all levels are of government are going to have to have to step up to meet the kinds of tremendous challenges that we've got in front of us," Biehler said. "It's going to take political will, it's going to take innovation and it's going to take a commitment to not allow out transportation system to crumble."
