Nearly a quarter of roughly 600,000 major bridges in the U.S. carried more traffic than they were designed to bear, an expert was quoted by the CNN as saying Friday.
The remarks were made two days after the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minn., collapsed into the Mississippi River during rush hour Wednesday, killing at least five people and injuring 79 others. Eight people are still missing.
"Our bridges are not in very good condition in this country," said Ruth Stidger, editor in chief of the trade publication Better Roads, which compiled the data.
The data show that 24.5 percent of the nation's some 600,000 bridges longer than six meters were categorized as "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete."
"Structurally deficient" and "functionally obsolete" don't indicate the crossings are treacherous, but they do imply serious problems, Stidger said.
The Interstate 35W bridge was deemed "structurally deficient" two years ago.
Source: Xinhua
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