KDOT to motorists: State’s bridges are safe ???

This has GOT to be the stupidest headline I've seen in months:

KDOT to motorists: State’s bridges are safe
August 2, 2007
It’s all about trusting a set of eyes. Inspectors for counties and the Kansas Department of Transportation crawl, climb and creep over bridges all across the state to ensure that problems don’t develop that lead to catastrophic failures like Wednesday’s deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Would anyone expect KDOT to say any different?!? What KDOT is going to come out and say, "well, actually, we have thousands of bridges that could collapse that we aren't taking care of..."

Is there any reason to think that all KS bridges are safe? Well, as it turns out -- NO.

A federal national survey found that 21% of KS bridges (> 5,000 of them) are deemed "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete." I found that survey. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify exactly which ones. Which blows. Dean and I go over bridges every day on k10.

In Minnesota, where the tragic accident occurred, only 13% of bridges, 1,798 of them, were considered structurally deficient or obsolete in the same report. So there are 300% more deficient or obsolete bridges in KS than in Minnesota. So this is potentially a big deal.

I did find an obscure email on the website, so I decided to ask for the names. We'll see if I get an answer. I might also write my congressmen (not that I will get a response from them, I never do).