About 9 percent of Illinois' roughly 8,000 bridges are considered "structurally deficient," the same rating given to the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis.
Basically, that means bridges aren't in imminent danger of collapsing, but they should be repaired sooner rather than later.
Back in 2003, the Sun-Times did an analysis of the state's bridges, showing that 8 percent of Illinois bridges were structurally deficient that year. Read more here.
this is a big problem that needs to be addressed. i'm surprised we've been as lucky as we have without more bridge collapses. i'd be interested if any have collapsed in the past few decades that didn't make national news because there were no casualties.
Chicago is heading down the road to ruin. We someday will have to decide between cars or buses. I doubt we will be able to choose and so will become a transit mess that looks back and says "Those were the good old days".