Drivers on New Hampshire's highways and other state roads pass over more than 2,000 bridges.
Some of those bridges are in such poor condition they make up what's called the state's "Red List."
And as New Hampshire Public Radio's David Darman reports, that list is growing, not getting smaller.
The U.S. Route 3 Bridge over the Suncook River in Pembroke is an attractive spot, even in the rain.
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The bridge was built of steel and concrete in 1931.
And as Dean Bennett of the state's Department of Transportation points out, the bridge has an upper and lower level.
14 45 this is somewhat an unusual structure in that its one bridge on top of another, so called, "double decker." It crosses the suncook river and it also carries a road under it and a road on one end of it, so, it's a little unique. 14 58
More than 8,000 cars a day cross the bridge.
The cars on top are heading to north to Concord or south toward Manchester.
The deck below handles local traffic.
As Dean Bennett of DOT looks at the bridge, he confirms its most obvious defect.
15 00 It has a significant amount of rust. Some section loss in areas. From time to time we get our bridge maintenance force down here. And if we discover any serious section loss, we notify them and they come down and patch it up, plate it up, whatever it might take to keep it in service. 15 26
This bridge, like others on the red list, is safe to drive on.
Most can be fixed with patches.
But when DOT finds a bridge that can't be easily fixed, it gets posted for load limits.
Dave Powelson is DOT's chief of existing bridges.
21 412 the biggest one we did that to recently was the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth. We posted that for a 16 weight limit. We have just let a contract to restore its capacity to a 20 ton weight limit. 21 428
The DOT's report on red list bridges shows that it would cost 384 million dollars to replace all one hundred sixty seven of them.
Memorial Bridge alone is estimated to cost 22 million dollars to replace.
The Pembroke Route 3 bridge is priced at 8 million dollars, and is slated for replacement in 2006.
In both these cases, the final cost is expected to be much greater.
In fact, since 2000, more bridges have been added to the red list than have been removed.
Dave Powelson says the number of red list bridges is growing, but funding to fix or replace them has dried up.
And he says the list grows because there are 20% fewer people to work on bridge maintenance crews.
21 542 but we don't have enough money for what we're doing now and we're looking at cuts and hiring freezes and contracts that have been bid, that aren't making it through governor and council. 21 600
Contractors are also feeling the squeeze from state hiring freezes and budget cuts.
Gary Abbot of Associated General Contractors of New Hampshire says state spending on bridge and road work has dropped 33% from 2002 to 2003.
But he says the state's roads and bridges are going to need work, as traffic on state highways increases from year to year.
13 330 its going to become a really problematic issue for the state to decide which things need priority. There's no doubt there's a bigger safety factor in making sure our bridges are fixed, than whether or not there's potholes on a different road. 13 352
Several road projects have been delayed in recent months as they came before Governor Craig Benson and the Executive Council.
Governor Benson delayed these projects when he pulled them off the Council's calendar right before they came up for a vote.
A couple of councilors were disturbed by the Governors actions.
But Councilor Ruth Griffin of Porstmouth says the Governor has pulled projects only to double check the figures.
But it isn't as though he's withdrawn them and they've been lost in the fog on discussion and further review. In many instances either they come back on the next council, or maybe in another month, or six weeks from the time it was withdrawn.
DOT is hoping about a billion dollars will be available for roads and red list bridges in the future.
For that, officials are looking to Congress, where lawmakers are debating a new, six year transportation bill.
