AUGUSTA (AP) – Some state lawmakers say last week’s collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis shows that Maine should spend more on bridge maintenance.

The Maine Department of Transportation plans to spend $133 million to replace or rehabilitate bridges in the two-year budget cycle that began July 1, according to Deputy Commissioner Bruce Van Note.

He said that represents 21 percent of the department’s budget for highway and bridge improvements, up from 17 percent of that budget during the two-year cycle that ended June 30.

In June, voters approved a $113 million transportation bond.

Gov. John Baldacci directed the state Department of Transportation last week to conduct an analysis of bridge safety.

Maine voters will consider a $29.7 million transportation bond next year, but the House chairman of the Transportation Committee says the Legislature should consider asking voters to borrow more.

“I think it makes financial sense to do these things, but the Legislature needs the political will,” said Rep. Boyd Marley, D-Portland.

Maine has roughly 3,800 bridges. Federal data categorizes more than 300 as structurally deficient.

Nearly 300 Maine bridges must be repaired or replaced within the next decade to avoid being closed or weight-restricted, state officials say.

“We can’t afford not to” spend more money on bridge maintenance, Rep. William Browne, R-Vassalboro, the ranking Republican on the Transportation Committee, told the Portland Press Herald.

“We know we have a backlog” of bridges that need work and that the $113 million bond that voters backed in June is “just a down payment,” said Baldacci spokesman David Farmer.

Farmer said Baldacci, who has ordered state transportation officials to study the issue and report back to him by early November, will “wait and see what the analysis comes up with” before deciding how to proceed.

The Maine Better Transportation Association issued a statement Wednesday citing Federal Highway Administration figures on the status of bridges.

“If you look at the age of our bridges and the numbers involved, the safety risk is significant here in Maine,” said Maria Fuentes, the group’s executive director.

“We know that it will take about $500 million in today’s dollars to replace these aging bridges, and if we wait, it will cost even more,” Fuentes said.

AP-ES-08-09-07 0854EDT