A year after the worst U.S. bridge collapse in (Minneapolis) brought calls for immediate repairs to other bridges, two of every three of the busiest problem bridges in every state have had no work beyond regular maintenance.

A review of repairs on each state’s 20 most-traveled bridges that have structural deficiencies found just 12 percent have been fixed. In most states, the most common approach was to plan for repairs later rather than fix problems now.

The bridges reviewed by the AP – 1,020 in all – are not in imminent danger of collapse but the officials acknowledge the structures need improvement…many sooner rather than later.

The collapse of the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge into the Mississippi River on Aug. 1, 2007 killed 13 people.

The failure to follow through was not because of lack of effort, however, according to officials. Soaring construction costs, budget shortages, election-year politics, a backlog of bridge projects, competing highway repairs and bureaucracy has held bridge work to small progress.

The AP findings:

Sixty-four percent of the bridges received no work beyond regular maintenance. Most were slated for some kind of future work.

Twelve percent had their structural defects fixed – mostly by major rehabilitation or complete replacement.

24 percent more have seen a partial improvement, either through a short-term repair to temporarily address the defect or an ongoing project that is not finished.