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Bay Bridge Debris Collapse Raises Fears of Bridge Safety

Earlier this week, the San Francisco Bay Bridge was closed down indefinitely after steel from repair work done earlier this year, broke off and crashed onto an upper deck. Fortunately, no one was injured, but several rush-hour motorists likely got the fright of their lives when they saw the large blocks of steel and cable flying about. Transit systems are already feeling the strain of having to accommodate bridge users. However, inconvenience from the closure of the bridge should be the least of our problems. Bridge safety experts are already warning that the incident on the Bay Bridge is just a sign of what ails our county’s bridges.

Currently, investigators believe that the two and a half ton metal rods and steel beams which snapped off the Bay Bridge and crashed down on the deck, fell because of strong winds. The bridge had been repaired just this past Labor Day holiday. The pieces of metal that came loose were from the repair job.

We blogged about the Minnesota bridge collapse in 2007 that killed 13 people on our California personal injury lawyer blog, and this week’s incident on the Bay Bridge really hit home. Already, safety experts are warning that the incident on the Bay Bridge is just a symptom of what is wrong with thousands of bridges across the country.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the condition of America’s bridges “is serious”. When the bridge collapsed in Minnesota two years ago, it had been labeled by the federal government as being “structurally deficient”. However, although the words “structurally deficient” should be enough warning of the state of a bridge, there are about 80,000 bridges in that category across the country. According to ABC News, out of every four bridges in the US, one is structurally deficient.

The biggest problem facing our nation’s bridges is the long number of years they have been in service. The age of the average bridge in the country is 43 years. The average American bridge is designed to last for 50 years. That doesn’t mean that when those 50 years are up, the bridge gets scrapped. However, it does mean that once those 50 years near, it’s important to invest in maintenance and repairs of these bridges. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, it could cost tax payers $17 billion a year to maintain all bridges in the country. However, we are currently spending only $10 billion a year on bridge maintenance.

Representative from Minnesota, James Oberstar, who is also the chairman of the Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure, has introduced a bill that will provide for more money to be spent on infrastructure over 6 years. However, the bill has not been high on everybody’s priority list. Stimulus funds have been used in several states to repair bridges in need of repairs, but these will not be enough to undertake the massive repairs that are going to be necessary if we have to prevent a repeat of the Minnesota tragedy.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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