Msnbc.com has discovered
that at least 17,000 bridges across the country were not inspected as
regularly as they should have been. The figures are based on a
new batch of bridge inspection records, the first released since the Minneapolis bridge collapse last year.
The news site also created an
interactive map that enables drivers to plot their route and
see the inspection results for every sizable bridge in their
path.
In addition, msnbc.com is helping other journalists by making available state-by-state files of all bridges in the nation,
including summaries of their condition and inspection information. Those files are posted
here.
(Msnbc.com asks that journalists who make use of any of the information in the files credit
"MSNBC.com analysis of National Bridge Inventory through 2006, as
reported by states in April 2007," and that they provide links to msnbc.com's site:
bridges.msnbc.com.)
Msnbc.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman reports:
After 13 people died in August when a freeway
bridge fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, governors across
the nation rushed to calm fears. Using almost identical language,
states assured the public that bridges are safe, because federal
regulations require inspection of "every bridge at least once every two
years."
In fact,
at least 17,000 bridges in the U.S. went more than two years between
safety inspections, according to federal records analyzed by msnbc.com.
These newly released records from the National Bridge Inventory include
inspections through 2006. Although Congress in 1971 ordered rigorous
standards for inspecting bridges every 24 months, the records reveal a
system in which the buck is passed down from federal to state to local
governments, without penalty for those that fail to protect the public.
You would think that the more famous or high-profile a bridge is, the
more likely it is to be inspected on time. But
Dedman reports that even the Golden
Gate Bridge is being checked nearly a year behind schedule.
Still, the new inspection records show a tiny improvement in the
percent of bridges that need repair or replacement. At the same time,
while nearly 97 percent of bridges were inspected on time, thousands of
the most needy bridges have not been inspected within two years.
Many states report that nearly every bridge has been inspected on time, while others are badly lacking. The states with the highest rate of inspections that took longer than two years:
- Hawaii: at least 46.5 percent
- Rhode Island: at least 27.5 percent
- Arizona: at least 26.7 percent
- New Mexico: at least 17.4 percent
- West Virginia: at least 12.2 percent
- Illinois: at least 11.5 percent
- Washington, D.C.: at least 11.5 percent
Mr. McNary is correct: Readers deserve civil treatment -- so...
