“Structurally deficient” does not necessarily imply a bridge is dangerous, said Lawrence Bank, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It means the bridge has undergone wear and tear.
“Structurally deficient means that some or all of the components of the bridge might not meet their original design capacities. They may have degraded in some way,” Bank said. “Not everything is expected to remain in a new and pristine state.”