Should management of bridges and tunnels be left to private business or local government?

Private business is concerned first and foremost with the bottom line. The public has withstood one disaster after another at the hands of big business. Has everyone forgotten the Firestone debacle, and the recent mass recall of Matel toys containing lead paint. They consider public safety to be a PR issue rather than a moral one. However it would be unrealistic to think private business could turn a profit and be responsible for lifetime maintenance of every bridge. In order for private business to turn profits they would somehow have to pass maintenance costs onto the public via construction costs or toll booths.
Would the public be safer if bridges were managed by the government? Not necessarily. In our current political climate with mass spending for the War On Terror budget cuts at the local level are occurring in record numbers. Federal monies previously allocated for education, bridge and road repairs, and health care are being diverted to military budgets. I have heard this referred to as a “simplistic idea” and that is absolutely correct. In researching my local city budget I found that property tax revenues were up 12% and the cost of annual bridge and highway repairs were up 3 to 4% annually or 11.5% in three years. While the amount of federal grant money was down 22%.
The answer would be to have a division of local government that was made up of experts in this field headed up by structural engineers, (not accountants) that would be responsible for bi-annual inspections. There responsibilities would include notifying the private company that constructed the bridge of maintenance problems due to faulty construction and requiring the company to make repairs within an allocated time. If the company failed to make the repairs then the inspectors would issue fines and notify the public. The responsibility of maintenance due to normal wear and tear would be handled by local government via permanent staff or subcontracted out to the private sector.
Americans are all about “freedoms”, if we were kept informed on the conditions of the roads and bridges we travel than we could make informed decisions on whether or not we CHOOSE to travel specific routes.