YORK COUNTY, Pa. — The bridge collapse in Pittsburgh has some local community members worried that something similar might happen in Central Pennsylvania.
David Thompson, a spokesman for PennDOT District 8, says the safety of roads and bridges is always a priority.
“We’re required to inspect bridges every two years, but if the bridge is in poor condition, we may inspect it yearly or if there’s something of concern that we want to monitor or keep an eye on, we’ll inspect it more often," said Thompson.
According to the PennDOT website, in Dauphin, York and Lancaster counties there are 2,459 bridges. That includes 1,814 state bridges and 645 local bridges.
539 state bridges in these three counties are in good condition, while 1,114 are in fair condition and 161 are in poor condition.
151 local bridges are in good condition, 365 are in fair condition, and 129 are in poor condition.
“We are doing our planning and prioritizing funding to maintain our highway network. interstate, highway, bridges, and expressways," said Thompson.
Some members of the Central Pennsylvania community say they sometimes don’t feel safe driving some roads and bridges.
“Between York and Lancaster there’s (Route) 30 and then beside it is the bridge that connects Wrightsville to Columbia. The older one always seems a little rickety to me," said Jason Miller, an Uber driver.
Others in the area believe workers prioritize certain roads and bridges over others.
“A lot of times they’re worried about main roads, than they are the side roads and the backroads, and that is when we run into some of the problems," said Miller.
“To me, I always tell everybody this, as soon as you leave PA and you're back. As soon you hit a pothole, you know you’re in PA, cause anywhere in PA there’s always a pothole," said Raul Lopez, a FedEx worker.
But Thompson says there’s no reason to worry about driving through roads and bridges.
“Pennsylvania should be confident that the bridges that they’re driving over are safe," said Thompson.