The Bridge & Tunnel Enterprise told the Transportation Commission on Friday that it plans to allocate new capacity to bridge preventative maintenance to blunt a projected increase in poor deck area.

Patrick Kolenda, BTE managing director, and Natasha Butler, state bridge engineer, presented an analysis showing that without additional preventative work the percentage of poor deck area on Colorado bridges could rise toward 10% over a 20-year forecast horizon. Butler said a one-time $125,000,000 targeted preventative-maintenance (BPM) program, focused on decks, expansion joints and top-of-bridge treatments on structures forecast to fall to poor condition, would stabilize poor deck area near the federal 4% performance target.

Butler described the approach as "targeted": staff plan to identify bridges forecast to fall to poor condition that are not typically addressed through CDOT's existing bridge BPM (which bundles work with surface treatments) and to group those structures into biddable packages based on proximity, treatment type and complexity. BTE expects $50,000,000 of the $125,000,000 to be available within the next four-year fiscally constrained period and the remainder over the 10-year plan horizon if the board approves the shift of some enterprise dollars to preventative work.

Staff stressed that BPM is not a permanent substitute for replacement: treated fair bridges will still age and require eventual rehab or replacement, but targeted maintenance can extend service life and delay some high-cost replacements when the bridge population is converging in age. BTE also reported ongoing commitments to replace or rehabilitate priority structures already in the 10-year plan, and indicated some limited unprogrammed capacity in FY29'30 for additional replacement or BPM needs.

The commission did not make a funding decision during the workshop; BTE said it will return with refined project bundles, coordination details with regional bridge managers and requested board authority as its next steps.