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Aug 1, 2008 4:13 pm US/Eastern
Officials Still Can't "Bridge" Safety Problems
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
One year has passed since the I-35 Bridge that spanned the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 and injuring 144. The collapse sparked an immediate outcry and officials scrambled to assess the infrastructure of cities around the country. But, after one year, the CBS4 I-Team found troubling records still surround the infrastructure around South Florida.
After a CBS4 investigation earlier this year, some bridge improvements were completed, but dozens of other bridges still carry records as bad, or worse than the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota.
"There is no excuse there is no justification and it gets to the point where they are putting our people at risk for no good reason," said U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.
The I-Team reviewed more than 15 thousand inspection records statewide that consisted of more than 26 hundred bridge inspections in South Florida. And we discovered 45 bridges labeled by engineers as "structurally deficient," the same term for that bridge that collapsed in Minnesota one year ago.
The major hurdle for all of the restorations that are needed is quite simple, money.
A report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, released the week of July 27- August 1, says it will take at least $140 Billion dollars to properly fix all the bridges in this country that need major repairs, which is roughly one in four bridges nationwide.
Local governments compete for federal funding unless they can afford their own repairs, but in the current economic crisis, there isn't enough capital, or political will to spend the cash needed for the repairs.
"Right now we're getting 6 to 7 million dollars a year. I mean, last year we had to repair a drawbridge that we had to rebuild and that took all of our allocation," said Frank Guyamier, an FDOT bridge expert.
Officials have suggested raising gas and alternative fuel taxes as well as turning free highways into toll roads to help pay for the $140 billion price tag for repairs across the nation.
Despite the number of problematic bridges in South Florida, experts say Florida as a whole is much better than the rest of the country at keeping the bridges here well maintained.
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