Bush pledges to rebuild collapsed Minnesota bridge
Sunday, 05 Aug 2007 08:36
George Bush with Minnesota senators Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar
George Bush has vowed to rebuild the bridge over the Mississippi river that collapsed in Minnesota last week as "quickly as possible".
During a visit to the wreckage of the I-35W bridge in the state's largest city, Minneapolis, the US president acknowledged that the fallen bridge had been the "main artery of life here".
Five people are known to have died when the bridge collapsed during rush hour last week, sending more than 50 cars into the river.
Divers are continuing to search for the bodies of the eight people who remain missing.
Mr Bush, who also toured the site in a helicopter, has pledged $250 million (£122 million) of aid to rebuild the bridge.
"I have met with the chief of police, and the sheriff, rescue workers, people who represent men and women who are working as hard as they possibly can to save life and to find life, to go under these murky waters to find the facts," the US president said.
"I've been impressed not only by their determination but I have been impressed by their compassion."
But the funding comes as it emerged the United States department of transportation had already designated 170,000 bridges as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete in 2002.
By 2007 this figure had risen to more than half a million.