TULSA, Okla. — In the wake of the tragic bridge collapse in Baltimore, ODOT Director Tim Gatz addressed the conditions of Oklahoma's bridges before the state senate.
While some of Oklahoma's bridges are old, they are not unsafe, he said.
As for the oldest, most out-of-date bridges, there is a plan in place. He said travelers can drive with peace of mind.
2 News Oklahoma met Michael Taylor, driving through Oklahoma and over Catoosa's truss bridge.
"Well, it seemed to be functioning fine. Although you know, I’m no inspector by any means, but I mean, if they need to be repaired, they should be repaired," Taylor said.
Truss bridges are classified as "fracture critical," meaning they don’t have redundancy engineered into them, which could make a major crack catastrophic. According to Gatz, Oklahoma has 49 of these truss bridges.
"That doesn’t mean they’re is any safety concern," Gatz said. "If they were, we would close those facilities."
He wanted to emphasize that the tragedy in Baltimore did not come out of nowhere; rather, it was the cargo ship that caused the bridge to collapse.
"It was not a conditional failure," Gatz said.
Every Oklahoma bridge, he said, is inspected at least once every two years. More than a thousand of them, he says, are one inspection away from needing replacements or repairs.
All 49 bridges in Oklahoma classified as “structurally deficient” are in the current eight-year plan for replacement. Taylor said he believes the process should be expedited.
"Well that’s Oklahoma all over, a lot of the money that’s spent that should be spent in structures, isn’t," Taylor said.
Despite some of those stats and concerns, Gatz said there is no reason to be scared, calling Oklahoma's highway bridges top ten.
"From a conditional perspective, our bridges are in exceptional condition," Gatz said.
Longtime Oklahoma residents will remember the bridge collapse of 2002 near Weber Falls. According to Gatz, that bridge is set to undergo imminent repairs.
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