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Have we learned our lesson? Will things change now that disaster has struck?

It seems to me, attention does not get paid until something happens. For example, before 9-11, were we talking about air marshals and heightened security at the airport? Or how about the "terror level"? No, all that came after 9-11.

But, think about it, had those things been in place BEFORE 9-11, would it have happened?

Or, how about Hurricane Katrina? Sure, there were warning signs about the levies and their ability to hold back the force of a category 5 storm. Sure, they were told that New Orleans would get flooded out if there was a major storm; because after all, they are 57 feet below sea level.

Attention was not paid until after that fateful August day in 2005.

Two years later, again in August, warning signs seemed to go unheeded. At 6:05 pm, at the height of rush-hour traffic and a Twins game an hour away from starting, the 35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River gave way.

Were there warning signs? Yes. The phrase "structurally deficient" came into our daily vocabulary, because that is what we were told the bridge was. A little bit like the whole Jeffrey Wigand thing with 60 Minutes and the phrase "tortious interference."

What were the warning signs for the bridge? According to the DOT website in Minnesota; "The capacity of the bridge was rated safe for legal truck loads (up to 80,000 pounds per truck), which is the standard use for bridge design today. The bridge was rated to be safe to carry permitted (overweight) loads of up to 159,000 pounds."

My question is, WHEN was it rated safe for legal truck loads up to 80,000 pounds? 1967, when the bridge opened? The website does not really say. The website also says, "The 2006 Fracture Critical Bridge Inspection Report, prepared by a Mn/DOT bridge inspection team, describes specific problems that caused the superstructure to receive a poor rating. The poor rating can be attributed to corrosion at some areas where the paint system has deteriorated, poor weld details in the steel truss members and floor beams, bearings that are not moving as they were designed to move, and existing fatigue crack repairs to the truss cross beam and approach spans."

Folks, "poor rating," "corrosion," and "deteriorated" to me are words that are shining a bright red. There was construction on the bridge when it collapsed. But, it was not a repair job. It was a resurfacing job. Had this collapse not happened when it did, how much longer would the bridge have gone

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