HARRISBURG, PA --- In order to address safety concerns, the state of Pennsylvania plans to borrow $365 million to make its highway bridges more structurally sound.

More than 6,000 bridges in Pennsylvania are considered structurally deficient, Gov. Ed Rendell has said. 

The borrowed money, along with existing state and federal money, will give the state $1.7 billion to spend on bridge repairs this year. That's enough to repair 411 bridges across the state, the Pittsburgh Tribune reported.

"We had no choice," Rendell told the Tribune. "The Birmingham Bridge was a lesson to all of us."

In February, the Birmingham Bridge, a crossing between South Side and Oakland, partially collapsed.

When some state legislators questioned the wisdom of borrowing money for the bridge repair, Rendall recalled last year's bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed 13 and injured 100. "I don't think anybody in Minnesota thinks they shouldn't have borrowed money to fix that bridge," he said.

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