Transcripts

"State of Repair"-The Minnesota Bridge Collapse

PAUL KANGAS: This Saturday, President Bush will visit the site of the deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis. The accident has brought problems with the nation's crumbling infrastructure into the spotlight. Jeff Yastine detailed those issues in his recent series, "State of Repair," and he has a follow-up tonight.

JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Even as rescuers resumed the grim work of search and recovery, the question being asked, from Minnesota to Washington was -- how did this happen? The answers won't be known until experts from the National Transportation Safety Board fully analyze the 40-year-old span and its supporting steel girders and rivets. A recent inspection declared the bridge safe, although it had been rated structurally deficient in 2005. The American Society of Civil Engineers says there are more than 40,000 bridges in urban areas declared as structurally deficient. But as the group's deputy executive director Larry Roth explains, that doesn't mean the bridges are not safe.

LARRY ROTH, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN SOC. OF CIVIL ENGINEERS: The structurally deficient bridges doesn't mean that they're in imminent danger of collapse. It does mean that we should be paying attention to it. It does mean that we need to continue to invest in our infrastructure, particularly maintaining our infrastructure, so that it takes care of us.

YASTINE: But bridge maintenance -- correcting excessive rust on steel supports, fixing metal fatigue and cracked concrete bridge supports -- is an expensive business. The ASCE estimates it would take $9.4 billion each year over the next 20 years to bring all the nation's bridges up to full safety standards.

ROTH: As long as our -- we don't have dramatic failures -- and our infrastructure is only letting us down because of slowly increasing congestion, for example, people don't pay attention to it. And if people aren't paying attention to it, it doesn't rise to a level of importance on our lawmakers and legislators.

YASTINE: Key Senate leaders are paying attention today, including majority leader Harry Reid and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell.

SEN. HARRY REID, (D) NEVADA/SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I think we should look at this tragedy that's occurred as a wake-up call for us. We have, all over the country, crumbling infrastructure -- highways, bridges, dams. We really need to take a hard look at this.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R) KENTUCKY: The whole issue of bridge construction and bridge safety has been a big issue in the commonwealth of Kentucky in recent years. I share the concerns of the majority leader about reports of the state of our infrastructure in America.

YASTINE: The question though, is whether congressional concern will be galvanized into congressional action for increased funding of bridge repair and replacement. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.