At least they meet Federal safety standards. This from New York 1:
Prompted by Wednesday’s dramatic bridge collapse in Minnesota that left at least four people dead and dozens of others missing or injured, city transportation officials reassured New Yorkers Thursday that all crossings within the five boroughs are structurally safe.
Transportation officials say all of the 787 bridges maintained by the city met federal and state safety standards in their most recent inspections last year, however three are considered to be in poor condition, including the 150-year-old Brooklyn Bridge.
DOT officials insist the span itself is safe, and say the problems deal with joints on the ramps leading to the bridge itself.
“The rating could involve different parts of the bridge and it depends what parts we’re talking about and how it pertains to the structural integrity to the whole system,” said Michel Ghosn, a professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. “So if it’s just one part, that does not mean the whole bridge is about to collapse.”
The city has scheduled renovations on the Brooklyn Bridge for 2010.
The other bridges receiving a poor rating are a pedestrian bridge across the FDR Drive at 78th Street and a crossing in Flushing Meadows Park across Willow Lake at 76th Road.
The state inspects the city’s bridges every two years and the city has invested $3 billion in the infrastructure in the last decade, with $2 billion more scheduled to be put into bridge rehabilition in the next few years.
Experts say local bridge safety has improved vastly over the last decade – with a total of 40 bridges in poor condition just 10 years ago.
“This is a once in a lifetime event, hopefully,” said Ghosn. “We don’t know what the cause of the accident was, but generally speaking our bridges are very safely designed.”
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s governor has ordered an immediate inspection of all bridges with a design similar to the one that collapsed in Minneapolis, killing at least four people during the evening rush.
Investigators are treating the site as a crime scene until an exact cause is determined but authorities say it appears to have been a structural collapse. Police fear the final death toll could be much higher.
“This is not a rescue operation any longer,” said Chief Jim Clack of the Minneapolis Fire Department. “It is a recovery operation, which means we move slower and more deliberately.”
“We are estimating anywhere from 20 to 30 people that could be unaccounted for, but that’s an estimate based on the number of vehicles that we are estimating to be on the bridge,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan. “So that’s a lot of estimates.”
Surveillance video released today shows the 40-year-old span crumbling into the Mississippi River, taking at least 50 vehicles along with it.
Senator Charles Schumer said Thursday that the incident in Minnesota should serve as a necessary wake-up call as the Senate considers $5 billion for bridge replacement and rehab across the country.