http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0123484920070802?&src=080207_132 8_TOPSTORY_more_bodies_found&pageNumber=1
from the story: "The bridge had passed inspections the past two years, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said, though it was among thousands of bridges across the country deemed to be "structurally deficient" in a 2005 U.S. government report.
"(The rating) was by no means an indication that the bridge was not safe," U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said at the scene. "None of those ratings indicated there was some kind of danger here."
[WS:] Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I have a feeling that it is just the tip of an iceberg, and the delinquency of the fed under Bush administration will be found to be much greater.
This reminds me of the Nimitz Freeway collapse in Oakland in 1989 in an earthquake. The Repug swine for governor Deukmeijan (sp?) immediately went on a rant against Caltrans only to be told that Caltrans knew about structural deficiency of Nimitz, but did not have funds to do anything about it thanks to the property tax cuts that Repugs instigated a few years earlier. I have a gut feeling that something similar but on a larger scale is going on in this case, i.e. the fed failing to repair aging infrastructure due to tax cuts for the rich and war in Iraq.
Wojtek