Unlike the famous nursery rhyme, Utah bridges are not falling down.
The Ogden-Clearfield metropolitan area ranks 11th out of the country's top 102 metropolitan areas for the lowest percentage of structurally deficient bridges, according to a study released Wednesday by Transportation for America, a transportation watchdog group.
Of the more than 300 bridges in the Ogden-Clearfield area, which consists of Davis, Weber and Morgan counties, only 3.2 percent are structurally deficient, according to the study.
The Salt Lake City metropolitan area ranks eighth overall, with 2.7 percent of its bridges structurally deficient.
David Goldberg, one of the authors of the study, said the state of Utah as a whole has very well-maintained bridges.
Factoring into the high ranking are the state's relatively dry climate, average age of bridge infrastructure and recent transportation projects that have added bridges or repaired old ones, he said.
"The (Wasatch Front) area is in a relatively good spot," Goldberg said. "You don't have a lot of the issues that plague some other areas, but that isn't a sign that you can let your guard down."
He said the deficient bridges in Weber, Davis and Morgan counties see average daily traffic of 304,190 vehicles.
In 2010, the Utah Department of Transportation invested in several new bridges and bridge improvements, many of them in the Top of Utah.
Last summer, UDOT crews set up the centerpiece of the $97 million south Layton interchange project: a bridge that connects the Layton Parkway with Fort Lane on the east side of Interstate 15 and with Flint Street on the west side of the freight and commuter railroad corridor running through Layton.
Last year, UDOT also replaced the U.S. 89 bridge over I-15 in North Salt Lake, as well as bridges at Beck Street, 1000 North and 800 North, as part of the $125 million ExpressLink project in southern Davis County.
In West Haven, UDOT spent $21 million to build a bridge that extends Hinckley Drive nearly a mile from its previous ending point at 1900 West to a new connection at 3600 S. Midland Drive.
UDOT Region One spokesman Vic Saunders said state-maintained bridges are typically inspected every two years.
"Bridge maintenance is a high priority for us," he said. "Over the past few years, we've had several projects in this region that have involved a lot of bridge work."
The bridge data used in the report came from the Federal Highway Administration's 2010 National Bridge Inventory.
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