Anomalous temperatures caused by climate change could lead to the collapse of every fourth steel bridge in the United States by 2050, Report informs, citing The New York Times.
A quarter of the bridges in the US were built before 1960 and have been in need of repair. However, experts believe that extreme heat and more frequent flooding associated with climate change are accelerating the deterioration of these structures.
"We have a bridge crisis that is directly related to extreme weather events," said Paul Chinowsky, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado. "We've never seen such phenomena at this rate. It's getting so hot that the elements holding concrete and steel together, and the bridges themselves, can literally fall apart like toys."
Meanwhile, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg noted that this infrastructure was possibly planned, designed, and built decades ago, and restoring them requires a lot of time.
According to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, extreme temperatures caused by climate change could lead to mass bridge repairs and closures by 2040, and by 2050, one in four steel bridges in the US could collapse.