(Photo via Google Maps).
Highway superintendent Charles Sudbrink said the condition of bridges in Cortland County is improving, despite their age.
A list published by Stacker.com pinned Cortland County as a county with bridges that are in disrepair. The county ranked eighth on the statewide list, which was compiled with Federal Highway Administration data.
The list claims 27 of the 189 bridges in the county, or about 14%, are listed as being “in poor condition.” It also means 5,770 of the 57,826 square meters are in bad shape.
From a national point of view, the list estimates that roughly one in every three bridges in America is in need of repair or replacement, based on data from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. The cost of these repairs would exceed $54 billion.
Sudbrink noted the content of the list is not as alarming as the county’s ranking would suggest.
“If you take the entire article into perspective Central New York is actually doing very well maintaining their bridges in large part to the Bridge New York program,” he said, noting that the federal figures seem far more staggering. “Cortland County is at 14.3% with 189 bridges and that includes state, interstate, towns, villages and county-owned bridges. Cortland County owns 65 bridges.”
Sudbrink noted the county has rebuilt or replaced five bridges in the last five years and has made an effort to repair more of its infrastructure.
An example of this, Sudbrink said, is Cortland County’s recent award of around $2.5 million to replace High Bridge Road Bridge in the town of Cuyler through the Bridge New York program.
There is $200 million in funding available every year through Bridge New York.
