The Ohio Department of Transportation believes an oversized load may have illegally been driven across the state Route 14 bridge in Streetsboro, causing severe structural damage to it. The span was closed this week because ODOT believes it could have collapsed, though the bridge easily passed its last inspection. As WKSU’s Kevin Niedermier reports, it’s one of many bridges the state maintains.
ODOT is responsible for about 14,000 of the state’s more than 40,000 bridges. Spokesman Matt Bruning says Ohio inspects each one annually, though the federal government only requires inspections every two years. And he says if a bridge scores low on some part the rating system, extra attention is given.
“If an inspector finds something that they think, 'Hey, this is not to the point of being an issue, but we’re getting close, we need to keep an eye on it,' that will be part of the inspection. That will go into the inspection report. And certainly (we will) keep a closer eye on a bridge that has that noted than we would a brand new structure.”
When the 31-year-old Streetsboro bridge was inspected last spring, it received an overall rating of 7 out of a possible 9. Nine is the rating given to a new structure.
