To prevent this from happening in the future, I would give the inspectors the right to immediately close a bridge when it got to be this bad. If the owner forcibly reopened it, they would lose any insurance coverage on it (be totally liable for consequences).
This seems reasonable, but there's also the concern of abuse of power. Like when the mob or politicians had control of local labor unions and inspectors on payroll. They would force closures of bridges, roads, building, etc to hire mob run construction companies to do the repairs. Maybe there are enough federal safeguards in place for this now at DOT (Department of Transportation) level.
