Roadie wrote:

Where did you get the idea that it was badly designed. Given that the
bridge was built in the 1960's, used extensively and regularly dosed
with road salt I suspect that the local authorities failed to spend
the money to maintain the bridge. Inspections notwithstanding.



Interviews with engineers revealed that the bridge was not designed
to withstand the traffic it eventually saw. It was not supposed to see
arterial traffic, and was underdesigned for the 100,000+ cars it saw
each day.

Punnett was on WLS yesterday talking about this with Roe Conn. An ABC
correspondent confirmed that he had spoken with civil engineers who made
the same determination.

That it lasted as long as it did suggests that it was overbuilt to
its specification. Just underbuilt to its application.