It will take 80 years to repair all of America's deteriorating bridges

It will take 80 years to repair all of the bridges in poor condition in the U.S., according to a report from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).

Of the 616,087 bridges across the country, 47,052 have been determined as "structurally deficient" and require urgent repairs. An additional 187,000 bridges have a lesser need for repairs, making 38 percent of all bridges in the U.S. in need of some sort of repair. It would cost nearly $171 billion to fix all of them, the ARTBA estimates.

The overall number of structurally deficient bridges has decreased since 2014, per the report, but the rate at which bridges are being fixed has slowed. Last year, ARTBA estimated it would take 37 years for the repairs to take place, reports CNN.

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The term "structurally deficient" does not mean the bridges are unsafe for traveling but that they are currently in poor condition. Structurally deficient bridges are currently crossed more than 178 million times each day, according to the report.

A bridge collapse in Chattanooga, Tennessee, made headlines this week in what Tennessee officials are calling a "once in a lifetime accident" caused by a vehicle hitting the bottom of a bridge, reports CNN. The bridge in question was inspected in July of 2018 and deemed structurally fair, per Forbes.