In the wake of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on Aug. 2 called on all states to immediately inspect any steel deck truss bridges similar to the one involved in the Aug. 1 tradegy.
“Even though we don’t know what caused this collapse, we want states to immediately and thoroughly examine all similar spans out of an abundance of caution,” Peters said. There are 756 of these relatively rare bridges in the United States, according to Federal Highway Administration data.
In a related move, Peters Peters asked the DOT Office of Inspector General to conduct a rigorous assessment of the National Bridge Inspection Program.
“What happened in Minnesota is simply unacceptable,” Peters said. “We must have a top-to-bottom review of the bridge inspection program to make sure that everything is being done to keep this kind of tragedy from occurring again.”
