Do bridges collapse often in the US?.
Not often, but the bike paths are well groomed with the tax dollars that are supposed to be for roads and bridges...
No, this is a rarity. Both the state (Washington) and the federal government are responsible for funding inspection and upkeep of the Interstate road system. Additionally, non-government organizations, primarily engineering profesionals, bolster the inspection process.
This is what the much ballyhood stimulus bill of 2009 was designed to repair. Unfortunately most of the funding was diverted by political favoritism to the likes of Green Energy, et al.
NO no the bridge collapse problem was addressed by our great federal government in the late 70s THE NATIONAL BRIDGE INSPECTION PROGRAM. Nothing to see here move o”a trucker on drugs and talking on his cell phone hit the bridge?
surprisingly, no. given how old some are. but generally, no.
it’s why when they do it’s sensationalized. usually they are still heavily used. generally it occurs on bridges where the traffic flow has grown to be far greater than designers imagined would be on the bridge,’which leads to a lot more weight on it for hours a day - rush hours - and for real popular roads on interstates that have a lot more trafic on them with larger vehicles, the wear and weight occasionally does an old bridge in.
of course this bridge was flagged as having problems a long time ago, so it isn’t a huge shock it finally failed. real assessments show you which ones are in real danger of catastrophic failure. i am sure we have others in other places that were rated as poor as this one.
Mostly when hit by Canadian truckers with oversized loads.