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Many city bridges in need of repair, controller says

PHILADELPHIA Four years after the city controller warned of safety hazards in more than 300 city-owned bridges, drivers are still crossing bridges with serious signs of decay, including corrosion, cracks, and fallen concrete.

PHILADELPHIA Four years after the city controller warned of safety hazards in more than 300 city-owned bridges, drivers are still crossing bridges with serious signs of decay, including corrosion, cracks, and fallen concrete.

In a report issued Wednesday, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said his office found several conditions that require corrective action and recommended replacing the Willow Grove Avenue bridge and Bells Mill Road bridge, both of which were built in the 19th century.

The report, a follow-up to a 2009 examination of bridge conditions in the city, found that some of the bridge deficiencies cited in the initial report had not been corrected. Butkovitz also criticized the city's Streets Department for not having a database to track and manage bridge repairs or the money being spent on them.

"With limited funds available, it is important for Streets to utilize tools that will make the most efficient use of its resources," Butkovitz said in a news release. "Without knowing how much is being spent each year, there's no way to determine how much is needed for future repairs."

City officials said they would soon begin using a system that electronically tracks work orders.

Acting Streets Commissioner Dave Perri said the city would need $300 million - the equivalent of three years worth of the city's capital projects - to repair all of its bridges.

"The budget allocated to the Streets Department for maintenance of our infrastructure is limited and does not allow us to make all the repairs and perform all the maintenance we feel is necessary to maintain our infrastructure in top condition," said Darin L. Gatti, the city's chief engineer and surveyor, in a written response to the controller's report.

The Bridge Maintenance Unit spent about $1.2 million last year, though most of that was in salaries, said city spokesman Mark McDonald.

With city and federal money combined, the city spends about $12 million each year in bridge capital improvements, he said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation plans to post new weight restrictions on 1,000 bridges across the state, including 86 state-owned bridges and 48 locally owned bridges in the five-county Philadelphia region, in the next few months. The weight restrictions came after a deal on transportation funding collapsed earlier this summer.

"Because our budget is limited, repairs made after every unexpected event mean that another repair will have to be delayed until funding is available," said Gatti.

In his latest review, Butkovitz went through city files on eight bridges and hired a licensed civil engineer to inspect them.

Based on the conditions of those bridges, he recommended that the city seek maintenance funding from state and federal government for several bridges. He also recommended that the city replace two bridges.

Perri said the city "vehemently disagrees," with the recommendation to replace Bells Mill Road bridge in Chestnut Hill.

"It's a historically certified bridge and one of the few remaining stone bridges," in the country, Perri said. "It would be a lost treasure."