Disaster Coming To A Bridge Near You?

.

In fact, at least 17,000 bridges in the U.S. went more than two years between safety inspections, according to federal records analyzed by msnbc.com.

These newly released records from the National Bridge Inventory include inspections through 2006. Although Congress in 1971 ordered rigorous standards for inspecting bridges every 24 months, the records reveal a system in which the buck is passed down from federal to state to local governments, without penalty for those that fail to protect the public.more