There has been quite a lot of concern over bridges in the US and a Federal survey classified the Skagit River Bridge that collapsed as "substandard" several years ago. Washington State did their own survey and listed this bridge as "marginally satisfactory" but did NOT have it on their list of bridges for priority in repair/replacement.

Even in Kansas, where you can spit across most "rivers" that require a bridge**, the last count I saw was something like 1,800 (?) bridges in need of serious maintenance. Most of these are posted with reduced "load limits" far below what they were originally designed to carry, but remain in use.

The problem is common to bridges and to the "overpasses" quite common in major highway interchanges - or to almost any kind of fairly long unsupported span structures.

It's still not impossibly hard to get funding for a new highway with bridges, but money for proper maintenance is very difficult to find, almost everywhere.

** We do have some rivers that are pretty wide. They just don't have any water left in them.

John