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>> In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump called for rebuilding America's infrastructure.>> We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways and waterways all across our land.>> And Trump has often slammed what he calls the country's third world airports, highways, and bridges.
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But a Reuters' study of data on the state of US bridges, suggest the situation may not be so dire. Jason Lang is on the story.>> The view that roads, bridges, other pieces of the US infrastructure are failing, they're crumbling, it's a bit overblown. We've analyzed federal data on highway bridges.
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There's more than 600,000 of them. And about just under 9% are deemed structurally deficient, which means they need repairs. That sounds like a large number, but actually, it's been falling for decades. It was above 20% in the early 1990s. If you look at the data by number of daily crossings, as a way to look at how are the busiest bridges, a much smaller share of them are deemed structurally deficient.
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Nationwide, only about 4% need repairs.>> Occasional collapses do grab headlines. Like this one in Minneapolis ten years ago. But a 2014 study of bridge failures found most are caused by floods, fires, and collisions, not structural decline.>> If you look at international rankings of infrastructure, for example, the World Economic Forum keeps an index.
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The US ranks pretty well for a large developed economy, it's roads aren't the best in the world. But among G7 countries for example, it's number three.>> Investment in bridge upkeep is already significant. But that's not to say more isn't needed. The Federal Highway Administration says government should be spending $37 billion more each year to keep roads and bridges in good shape.