Nothing like a 17-year heads up on a significant problem:
Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River was “structurally deficient,” yet they relied on patchwork repairs and stepped-up inspections that unraveled amid a thunderous plunge of concrete and automobiles.
“We thought we had done all we could,” state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan told reporters not far from the mangled remains of the span. “Obviously something went terribly wrong.”
Gee, you think? The good news is there are only about 77,000 more bridges like this in America. How many bridges in your state are deficient? How many are obsolete? Check here.
Seems like a great opportunity for the private sector to get to work. Obviously the government can’t do it right.
