Load Rating – What is it and why is it important?

Load rating provides information about a specific bridge's load carrying capacity, which plays a key role in the Bridge Bureau's mission to maintain a safe, resilient, economical and reliable transportation system. This information, provided in a standardized and organized report, is used for several purposes:

   To protect safety of the traveling public by identifying bridges with limited    capacities and determining safe posting limits
   To help in the prioritization of rehabilitation or replacement projects
   To assist in overweight vehicle permit review
   To satisfy federal requirements that all bridges in the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) must be load rated and restricted, if necessary