[Fat Charlie]

I've got a cousin outside Minneapolis who crosses the Mississippi, he was already home when I-35 collapsed. My father in law was driving from New York to New Hampshire back in the early 80s and took 95 over the Mianus River. Right before nobody could.

I'm not saying that the bridges are a deadly menace and sadly the real cost isn't in lives- it's the economic disruption. Chris Christie's (alleged, are you happy, folks?) lane reduction only closed two lanes and only lasted a few days, but the gridlock cost a lot of people a lot of time and money.

Properly maintaining existing infrastructure is cheaper than doing without a bridge while it's being rebuilt- and that's good traffic management.