In shape, if not up to date

Troubled Water? The Newport Pell Bridge is considered functionally obsolete. / COURTESY RITBA
Troubled Water? The Newport Pell Bridge is considered functionally obsolete. / COURTESY RITBA

When the Mount Hope Bridge opened in 1929, the engineering standard was single-lane travel with no divider. For that reason alone, the span over Mount Hope Bay has been considered functionally obsolete for decades.

But it isn’t structurally deficient, as are 23 percent of the bridges in Rhode Island, because it receives regular maintenance and repairs.

Mount Hope is among the four largest bridges in the state, which fall under the jurisdiction of the R.I. Turnpike and Bridge Authority. It has a dedicated revenue source for operations and maintenance, siphoned from 3.5 cents of the state’s 34 cent per gallon gasoline tax, as well as all tolls collected on the Newport Pell Bridge.

And because the authority doesn’t rely on federal funding, it has more flexibility than the R.I. Department of Transportation to decide how to prioritize its bridge maintenance and replacement projects.

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None of the four bridges maintained and operated by the authority – Newport Pell Bridge, Mount Hope Bridge, Sakonnet River Bridge and Jamestown Bridge – is classified by the federal government as structurally deficient, according to Maggie Baker, chief financial officer for the authority.

The Newport Pell Bridge, completed in 1969, as well as the Mount Hope Bridge, finished in 1929, are functionally obsolete, which reflects that they are not designed or built to current standards, according to Eric Offenberg, director of engineering for the authority.

The authority receives about $14 million a year for its operations, which is sufficient to keep the bridges maintained, he said. The authority has the bridges inspected every two years, per federal requirement.

“We use these inspection reports to plan our capital improvements, as well as our routine maintenance,” he said.

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