Alaska Bridge Report
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Alaska2013 Bridge Report Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities November 2013 Contents Introduction . 3 The Bridge Program and MAP-21 . 4 Funding . 4 New National Highway System Routes . 5 Inspection . 5 Bridge Rating. 6 Bridge Management System (PONTIS) . 7 Structurally Deficient Deck Area . 8 Performance Measures . 8 Bridge Program Features . 10 Scour Monitoring . 10 Seismic Bridge Retrofit . 10 Functionally Obsolete and Fracture-Critical Bridges . 11 Bridge Closing and Load Posting . 12 Design . 13 Preservation. 13 Maintenance . 13 Rehabilitation . 13 Research . 13 Bridge Age and Construction Materials . 14 Project Programming and Planning . 15 Schedule of Improvements . 15 STIP Funding. 15 The Alaska Factors . 17 Natural Resource Development . 17 Environmental Factors . 17 Lack of Reduncancy in the Highway System . 17 Specialized Structures . 18 Short Inspection Season . 18 Closing . 19 Appendices . 20 Appendix A: Glossary of Terms. 21 Appendix B: Structurally Deficient DOT and other Public Bridges . 23 Appendix C: Structurally Deficient Bridges Identified for Replacement in the 2012-2015 Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) . 26 Appendix D: Location of Bridges Seismically Retrofitted . 28 Appendix E: National Highway The Cold Bay ferry ramp, one of System Routes in Alaska . 29 the many specialized structures maintained by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. See page 18. Photo by Peter Metcalfe . Kasilof River Bridge 150 miles south of Anchorage on the Sterling Highway. Photo by Kathleen Metcalfe . Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities | 3 Introduction he Alaska Department of The department’s bridge inventory is ongoing and will always face Transportation and Public includes 77 culverts twenty feet challenges. About one-third of the TFacilities is responsible for or greater in diameter, nine drive- bridges in the state are past the inspecting 996 bridges on public down ramps to seaplane floats, mid-point of their 75-year design roads in Alaska,1 including 810 and 35 ramps at Alaska Marine life — the design life for bridges bridges owned by the department, Highway System terminals. All of built after 1995. Before then, bridg- 23 owned by other state agen- these structures are in the FHWA’s es were designed for a 50-year cies, and 163 owned by cities and National Bridge Inventory System design life. Industrial activities, in- boroughs . These inspections are (NBIS), although only road and cluding mining and oil or gas field subject to the requirements estab- highway bridges are the subject development and future construc- lished by the Federal Highway Ad- of this report . Federal legislation tion of oil or natural gas pipelines, ministration. The Alaska Railroad (MAP-21, see below) has added may require rehabilitation and/or Corporation is responsible for the four tunnels to the inventory . replacement of existing bridges to inspection of most bridges on the Drive-down ramps at small boat carry the significant traffic loads rail system, while federal agencies harbors are not counted . such development generates . Pop- inspect the bridges under their ulation growth, increased traffic jurisdiction . Department engineers annually in- volumes, and environmental fac- spect about 500 bridges on public tors such as high runoff volumes This report addresses all bridges roads to identify problems and en- and thawing permafrost also place for which the department has in- gage in a corrective work program demands on the bridge inventory . spection responsibility, but focus- that assures Alaska bridges are es on the 810 bridges owned and safe and in overall good condition . operated by the department . Bridge inspection and remediation The listing of structurally Bridge Ownership deficient bridges in Appen- dix ‘B’ of the report is based on bridge inspections per- Local formed by the department in 163 2012. The list is used to cal- culate structurally deficient Other State deck area (see graph on Agencies page 8), and represents the 23 Alaska Department most ”real time” account- of Transportation & ing of structurally deficient Public Facilities bridges, but is unofficial, 810 since the list has not been formally approved by the FHWA for inclusion in the National Bridge Inventory. 1 Federally-owned bridges are excluded from all data in this report. Please refer to the Glossary in Appendix A for the definitions of technical and engineering terms. 4 | 2013 Alaska Bridge Report The Bridge Program and MAP-21 In July of 2012 the U.S. Congress passed a surface transportation authorization bill, MAP-21, or “Moving Ahead for Progress In the 21st Century.” The legislation took effect on October 1, 2012. AP-21 represents a new direc- • NHS bridges funded through National Highway Performance Pro- tion in surface transporta- the National Highway Perfor- gram (NHPP) . The Highway Safety Mtion and bridge funding . The mance Program; Improvement Program (HSIP) may authorization eliminates the Highway be used for bridge work con- • non-NHS bridges, a mix of also Program, but includes bridge sistent with the Strategic Highway Bridge state and local bridges on eligibility in the Surface Transporta- Safety Plan or to resolve a known major collectors and minor tion Program and (new) National hazard or safety issue . arterials; and Highway Performance Program (NHPP) categories, and adds tun- • off-system bridges, often Only bridges and tunnels on Nation- nels to each state’s bridge inventory . owned by cities or boroughs al Highway System (NHS) routes The legislation also modifies bridge on local roads and minor col- may be funded through NHPP . By inspection standards and requires lectors . federal requirement, at least 15% of the FHWA, with input from the states, the state’s STP allocation must be to establish performance measures Funding set aside for off-system bridges, for bridges on the National Highway Bridge funding in the (now) su- typically bridges on roads function- System (NHS) . perseded highway authorization, ally classified as minor collectors SAFETEA-LU, occurred under a dis- or rural roads, often owned by local AP-21 focuses on NHS routes, crete program, the Highway Bridge government (the set-aside can- including NHS bridges and Program. Although this program is not be less than 15% of the State’s Mtunnels. Essentially, MAP-21 discontinued under MAP-21, funding FY2009 Highway Bridge Program creates three classes of bridges: for bridge and tunnel preservation, apportionment — about $4 mil- rehabilitation, and construction is lion this fiscal year). Funding for all available under the Surface Trans- other bridges, the 400-plus that portation Program (STP) and the are neither off-system nor on the Asset management is a systematic process of Bridge Conditions operating, maintaining, and All State and Local Bridges improving physical assets by focusing on engineer- ing and life-cycle economic analysis based on up-to- GOOD date, standardized informa- 43% tion. The department recog- POOR nizes Transportation Asset 11% Management as a valuable approach to preserving FAIR assets at a time of grow- 46% ing demand and shrinking resources. Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities | 5 NHS, is available under the Surface Transportation Program . One-half of the STP allocation, after set-asides for off-system bridges, transporta- tion alternatives, and planning and research, is allocated by population, while the remaining 50% is available for projects in any area of the state . MAP-21 is focused on preservation of the National Highway System . The legislation includes penalties for failing to adequately maintain NHS bridges, thus helping assure adequate bridge funding on the state’s principal routes. Off-system bridges receive annual funding through a set-aside formula, how- ever, the minimum funding level of $4 million is approximately 18% less than the average funding level between 2006 and 2011. All other bridges that are eligible for federal Culverts for the Marshall Airport Access Road. Photo by Clyde Kelso, ADOT&PF. funding must compete against all other projects for available funds in Inspection bridge inspection times, and the the Surface Transportation Program accurate entry of considerably more allocation . The available level of MAP-21 continues to require a 24-month bridge inspection cycle, datasets into PONTIS will be time- federal funding is not considered consuming . sufficient to fully address Alaska’s and department inspectors will known bridge conditions. (See the continue to use condition ratings section on Project Programming and and sufficiency ratings to identify MAP-21 requires the FHWA to es- Planning on page 15 for additional candidate bridges for rehabilitation tablish performance measures for detail on programming and funding .) and reconstruction; however, the bridges on the National Highway sufficiency rating will no longer act System within eighteen months of as a ‘trigger’ for bridge rehabilita- enactment, or by April 1, 2014. The New NHS Routes tion and reconstruction funding . In legislation also sets a minimum MAP-21 expanded the National place of the former evaluation of the threshold for bridge condition on Highway System to include all bridge deck (the driving surface), the NHS by requiring that no more urban and rural principal arteri- the substructure (elements such as than 10% of total NHS bridge deck als and other connector highways, abutments and piers) and the super-