Anonymous Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chicago Tribune:
> MINNEAPOLIS - The highway bridge that collapsed
> into the Mississippi River on Wednesday was rated
> as "structurally deficient" two years ago and
> possibly in need of replacement.
>
> That rating was contained in the U.S. Department
> of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory
> database.
>
> Jeanne Aamodt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota
> Department of Transportation, said the department
> was aware of the 2005 assessment of the bridge.
> "We've seen it, and we are very familiar with it,"
> she said.
>
> Aamodt said the department plans its bridge
> repairs using information from the Bridge
> Inventory database.
>
> Many other bridges nationwide carry the same
> designation that the I-35W bridge received, Aamodt
> said.
>
> Aamodt declined to say what the agency was going
> to do to address the deficiencies found in 2005
> and referred further questions to Dan Dorgan,
> state bridge engineer and director of the bridge
> office. Dorgan wasn't available for comment.
>
> The deficiency rating is derived from a complex
> formula that evaluates many factors and condenses
> them into an overall score. A score of 80 percent
> or less indicates some rehabilitation may be
> needed; a 50 percent score or less indicates
> replacement may be in order.
>
> The I-35W bridge was rated at 50 percent. The
> rating data was provided to the Star Tribune by
> the National Institute of Computer Assisted
> Reporting.
>
> The inventory data also summarize the bridge's
> status as "structurally deficient." Bridge
> components are ranked on a scale of 0 to 9, with 0
> being "failed" and 9 being "excellent."
>
> In 2005, the bridge's superstructure -- meaning
> the physical conditions of all structural members
> -- was rated at 4, records show. The bridge's deck
> was rated 5, and the substructure, comprised of
> the piers, abutments, footings and other
> components, was rated 6.
>
> In 2001, a research report on the bridge had found
> that it was unlikely to experience any fatigue
> cracking in the trusses supporting its deck. The
> paper, prepared by the University of Minnesota's
> Center for Information Studies, evaluated both the
> main trusses and the floor truss of the bridge.
>
> The report by the late Robert J. Dexter and
> others, concluded that the bridge's deck "has not
> experienced fatigue cracking, but it has many poor
> fatigue details on the main truss and floor truss
> system."

And I bet that there isn't 1 or 2 more bridges like this one but HUNDREDS!!
and Bush didn't build them all.