Absolutely. I didn't mean to imply that Governor Pawlenty was responsible for the collapse - it was a combination of engineering, not funding inspections/repairs/replacement adequately, and bad luck.
Mainly it was that they had parked 270 tons of construction equipment and concrete on top of the bridge, and that they had added 2 inches of pavement over the years. In addition the original design or construction was deficient and some metal plates that should have been 1 inch were 1/2 inch.
I drove over that bridge not long before it collapsed, and marveled at how they had concrete and trucks lined up from one end to the other in a closed lane.
yeah that's what scares me most, infrastructure is built to the cheapest bidder that can satisfy safety requirement that often don't account for aging
I've recently passed under two (!) overpass that failed at different times due to lack of maintenance, and every time I'm in queue on top of a bridge it scares the heck out of me watching everyone tailgating each other instead of leaving some margin to the car ahead.
