By Miriam Raftery

Cal Fire photo: Cal Fire workers rescue motorist who plunged into rushing waters when bridge collapsed

July 20, 2015 (Riverside) – A bridge collapse Sunday that shut down Interstate 10 between Palm Springs and the Arizona border occurred during heavy rains.  The cause of the failure, however, may well be outright neglect. 

Built in 1967, the bridge was listed as “functionally obsolete” in the 2014 National Bridge Inventory—one of hundreds of bridges across California in need of replacement or major repair.

State Senator Jeff Stone (R-Riverside) has issued a press release stating that the incident “further illustrates the rapidly deteriorating state of California’s roads and highways and the urgent need to rebuild our state’s crumbling infrastructure.”