Shock and grief turned to anger and blame as reports surfaced that officials had warned as early as 1990 that a bridge which collapsed over the Mississippi had serious structural problems.
Officials warned that it would take months, if not years, to determine the cause of the collapse, but that did not stop halt the calls for an immediate review of the nation's infrastructure.
"This really should be a wake up call for America," Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid told reporters in Washington. "We have infrastructure that is deteriorating and deteriorating."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Nick Coleman lambasted the "negligence" of federal and state legislators for failing to adequately fund road and bridge maintenance.
"We are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government," he wrote yesterday.
...The American Society of Civil Engineers warned in a report two years ago that between 2000 and 2003, more than 27 per cent of the nation's almost 600,000 bridges were rated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
