By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
Dallas, TX –
Any Texan who saw or heard news reports about the Minneapolis bridge collapse must have had a moment when he or she wondered - could something like that happen here? After all over half of Texas bridges are more than 30 years old. Mark Ball, a spokesman with the Texas Department of Transportation says drivers her have nothing to worry about.
But wait a minute. The state transportation department's own report released last fall says 20 percent of Texas bridges- 10-thousand of them- are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. That doesn't sound comforting.
Ball says bridges in Texas are inspected at least every two years. If they pass over water scuba divers swim down to examine the supports.
Minnesota's Governor says his state department of transportation also conducted frequent inspections of the collapsed I 35 W bridge- most recently in 2005 and 2006. Reports described deficiencies as minor. While something obviously failed in the monitoring of that bridge transportation officials in Texas believe drivers traversing the bridges of this state are safe.