Poplar Street Bridge

I was alerted to an article on delmarvanow.com regarding Delaware’s bridges. The article states:

Of the state’s 1,457 spans, 33 — or 2.3 percent — are rated as structurally deficient, indicating they scored a 4 or lower on the 0-to-9 federal inspection scale.

And there’s more:

In Delaware, 29 bridges are considered “fracture critical,” meaning that if one main component were to fail, the entire bridge could collapse. Of such fracture-critical spans, five are rated as structurally deficient, placing them on a stepped-up inspection schedule.

Those bridges, which now will be inspected every six months, are located on Rising Sun Lane over the Brandywine and Walnut Street over the Christina River in Wilmington, James Street over the Christina River in Newport, St. Anne’s Church Road over railroad tracks in Middletown and Poplar Street over Broad Creek in Laurel. (emphasis mine)

All the bridges mentioned are upstate with the exception being our Poplar Street bridge. This bridge’s condition is not very comforting for me. I have taken that bridge many times and never thought it would be in poor condition. Maybe the pristine Broadcreek waters have eaten away at the thing during it’s lifetime. I couldn’t tell you how old the bridge is, maybe one of my readers know. Usually, I have only seen one, maybe two vehicles on the bridge at one time. I hope it lasts a long time before it’s replaced. Just based on the fact that it’s not in a high-traffic area and that it is a downstate bridge means that it will probably not be on the express road to replacement.

I was surprised that the Indian River Inlet Bridge wasn’t in the top 5.

The article is at this link.