Newsday du lieu suivant : New York, New York • 3

4 I 1 3 MAINTENANCE RISK: Corrosion is evident on a beam that holds a traveler, a device that carries workers beneath the bridge. The traveler is out of service. Bridges, Flags and Politics Safety only part of the picture Second of two parte. By Anemona Hartocollis STAFF WRITER The lower roadway of the Manhattan Bridge is bo deteriorated that it can no longer carry vans, let alone trucks. Thousands of cracks riddle the steel beams supporting the span.

In the past four months, a state inspection has found nearly 400 red flags immediate threats to public safety on the bridge, more than all the other bridges in New York City combined. The sudden closing of one side of the bridge to subway traffic in December unleashed the Dinkins administrations most embarrassing contretemps to date a power struggle between the mayor and the City Council, and a barrage of leaked memos and counter-memos surrounding the dismissal of the citys top bridge official. The damage has raised fears that the 82-year-old bridge, one of the citys great engineering feats, could mlinpag, causing massive disruption and even loss of life. But interviews with engineers, inspectors and budget officials, and the review of hundreds of pages of city documents, show that the picture is not as bad as it appears to be. Behind the rusting steel and flaking concrete, there lies a bigger story of political intrigue and the battle of the people who run the citys bridges to create a constituency for bridges and a claim on the publics attention and purse-strings.

A closer look shows that much of the surge in red flags is artificial, caused by what one engineer calls "flag inflation, a decision by the state in 1989 to rlmngH the way it records problems on the bridge. Please see BRIDGES on Page 20 NEW YORK NEWSDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11. Gail Collins on City Improvements, Rage 8.