{ "id": "2000-januaryfebruary-troubled-bridges", "slug": "2000-januaryfebruary-troubled-bridges", "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2000-januaryfebruary-troubled-bridges.html", "year": 2000, "month": "January/February", "monthNum": 1, "headline": "Troubled bridges", "kicker": "FIRST VENTURE", "author_name": "Mark Greenblatt", "author_title": "", "affiliation": "University of Missouri", "summary": "A journalism student uses computer-assisted reporting to investigate bridge conditions in Missouri, discovering that while database analysis provided initial leads, direct expert consultation and inspection data proved essential for uncovering the actual state of disrepair in local bridges.", "keywords": [ "bridges", "database", "investigation" ], "topics": [ "Investigative Methods", "Data & Databases", "Public Safety" ], "technologies": [ "National Bridge Inventory" ], "full_text": "Troubled bridges\n\nBy Mark Greenblatt\nUniversity of Missouri\n\nI wanted to find an easy database to work with for my first computer-assisted story. I had taken a CAR course at the University of Missouri-Columbia earlier, but had put off applying what learned. My only goals were to use the CAR skills I learned and also to play around a little bit with my brand new computer.\n\nSince bridges have always fascinated me, I thought I'd take a look at the conditions of the ones in my area for a project in an investigative reporting class, taught by IRE and NICAR Executive Director Brant Houston.\n\nI wanted to play it safe the first time and avoid getting a database with dirty data, so I obtained my copy of the bridges inspection database for Missouri directly from NICAR. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.\n\nIt turned out we could only use the database as a tipsheet to finding bridges of interest, and also to find the bigger picture.\n\nThree months later, the story I uncovered would have Missouri lawmakers calling for quick reform. The state of the bridges in our area turned out to be in dismal shape.\n\nStarting out\n\nKOMU TV's news director Stacey Woelfel and I originally thought we could do a quick story to see if any bridges open to traffic in Columbia and around our viewing area were in bad shape. We had heard rumors of bad bridges but had nothing nailed down. It would be easy, I thought, to simply run a few queries on the database, come up with a list of the worst bridges, and broadcast the story after confirming a few facts with local bridge inspectors. I couldn't have been more wrong, and that turned out to be good.\n\nJust learning about the database took me a couple weeks of playing around on my spare time. The record layout of the National Bridge Inventory was more than 100 pages long, and it included a lot very technical terms like sufficiency rating formulas, structure numbers and deck geometry.\n\nThe sufficiency rating is a computer-generated formula that is supposed to represent each bridge's overall condition. I ran different queries showing the bridges in mid-Missouri with the lowest sufficiency ratings. With that list in hand, I contacted a local bridge inspector with the Missouri Department of Transportation to learn more.\n\nHe immediately told me that using sufficiency ratings was the wrong way to do this study. The only way to look at bridges is to look directly at the safety ratings for their substructures, superstructures and decks, he said. He took me out on bridge inspections for a day to teach me about his job.\n\nBy the end of the day, I had determined there was no accurate way we could use the numbers in the National Bridge Inventory to point us towards any list of the 10 worst bridges in mid-Missouri. It turned out we could only use the database as a tipsheet to finding bridges of interest, and also to find the bigger picture.\n\nNew direction\n\nI went back to my computer and started running more queries. I ranked the mid-Missouri bridges with the worst substructures and the worst decks, and for the first time grew concerned about the sheer numbers of bridges in bad shape in our area. Far too many bridges were rated in poor condition, and many of them carried thousands of cars a day on major highways.\n\nAfter examining the written records of countless bridges to match them with the computer data for accuracy, I noticed a common trait. All the bridges the computer data pointed to as in bad shape were all determined to be structurally deficient. That means they can't carry the legal loads they were designed to hold.\n\nA query we ran showed that close to one-third of the 3,000 bridges in mid-Missouri were in that bad shape. The break in this story came when the computer data pointed us towards one bridge that seemed like it should be closed based on its ratings. The written report said the bridge was in \"exceptional\" condition.\n\nIt turned out the Missouri Department of Transportation keeps a list of 19 bridges in mid-Missouri that are \"exceptionally\" deficient, yet still open to traffic. One of a few inside sources I had developed anonymously passed that list on to KOMU.\n\nThe list was remarkably frightening. It showed the Missouri Department of Transportation knew the bridges in mid-Missouri were falling apart in some cases, but it had no immediate plans to fix them. One bridge we focused on was described as having \"concrete periodically falling into traffic lanes\" on Interstate 70.\n\nWe queried the database again, and found out it would take 49 years to fix all the bridges that needed repairs in mid-Missouri at the rate the state was going. The problem was, state officials told us the average lifespan of a bridge is only 50 years.\n\nIn the end, the computer database we used added depth to the story and made it possible to more quickly uncover larger, specific problems. After the story aired, the Speaker of the House of the Missouri House of Representatives requested a copy of the story to use in the Legislature to push for reform. Other lawmakers also called, and an internal MoDOT e-mail was forwarded to me that showed MoDOT was \"putting everything else on the backburner\" for a while to examine what they can do about their bridges in mid-Missouri.\n\nI think it's safe to say I'm hooked on CAR after doing this project. I can't wait to get ahold of another set of data.", "provenance": { "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6", "extracted_at": "2026-07-05", "verified": true }, "similar": [ { "slug": "1994-july-are-your-bridges-falling", "score": 0.365 }, { "slug": "2005-may-june-uncovering-bad-bridges-at-risk-in-mudslides", "score": 0.36 }, { "slug": "1998-march-a-bridge-to-car", "score": 0.31 }, { "slug": "1995-september-the-falling-bridges-of-madison-county", "score": 0.305 }, { "slug": "2000-june-data-update", "score": 0.255 } ], "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2000-januaryfebruary-troubled-bridges.html", "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2000-januaryfebruary-troubled-bridges.json" }