Bill Burton: It’s time for us to take a look at the Science Behind the Forecast, as I am joined by WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Good morning, Tawana.
Tawana Andrew: Good morning. Today’s topic has a lot to do with very important infrastructure that we use every day.
BB: Yes, and we may unsettle some folks, but as I like to say, knowledge is power. We’re going to be talking about how the weather and climate change can play a role in bridges and overpasses and how they deteriorate. Explain, please.
TA: So of course, you know me. I’m going to dive into the numbers. And I found, I found that of the more than 600,000 bridges in the US, about 7% of those bridges are deemed structurally deficient. That means they’re basically in poor condition.
Now for Kentucky, 7% of our 14,000 bridges are deemed structurally deficient. And in Indiana, that number is 5% of the more than 19,000 bridges across the state of Indiana. Now to switch things and put things a little bit more into context, 42% of bridges in Indiana and 27% of bridges in Kentucky are deemed in good condition. So with that information, I was like, “How does weather, of course, play a role in this?”