Although the MTA capital program has gotten all the press, NY State will also have to approve a new 5-year highway spending program this winter. While a clear picture of financing issues facing the NY State DOT has yet to publicly emerge, 2004 executive budget documents indicate that present arrangements will lead by next year to over $1 billion in state debt service payments per year for bonds from the Local Highway Improvement and Dedicated Highway and Bridge trust funds, with steadily growing debt for the foreseeable future.

Will New York be able to find the money to maintain its infrastructure? Recent incidents seem to compel the question. This month, "basketball-size" pieces of concrete fell from an overpass onto the Cross Bronx Expressway. This summer, a 3 by 5 foot concrete chunk fell from the underside of the Gowanus Expressway, and last week, still more concrete fell from a Hudson span at Troy.

Indeed, both New York City and the Capital Region (NYSDOT Regions 11 and 1, respectively) stand out in NY State DOT data on bridge conditions around the state. More than half (55.5%) of the city’s 2,097 bridges (including highway overpasses) are in deficient condition, compared to a statewide average of 35.9%. Deficient bridges are those found to be deteriorated and no longer functioning as designed. Looking not just at the total count of bridges, but also the size of those bridges (such as the elevated Gowanus), almost 70% of NYC’s "bridge area" was rated deficient according to NYSDOT standards. The next worst – the Capital Region – had 50% of its bridge area rated as deficient, made up by one-third of the area’s of individual bridges.

Work to improve New York’s bridges has been slow going. The number of deficient bridges in New York City has dropped by just under 11% since 1999, but this is faster than progress in the state as a whole, where the rate for the same period is a 7.5% reduction. According to state records, only eight of NYC’s 1,164 deficient bridges are now being replaced or rehabilitated. 

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