Washington  - More than a year after its collapse crushed 13 people, a new Minnesota bridge across the Mississippi reopened Thursday.

First across the new span were the first responders to the August 2007 disaster, The New York Times reported.

The collapse of the bridge on a major highway through the city of Minneapolis shocked the country and awakened lawmakers to the country's ageing infrastructure and need for new investments.

The new 250-million-dollar bridge is equipped with special sensors to measure load distribution and surface conditions through Minnesota's deep-freeze winters and hot-house summers.

Earlier this year, investigators said a design flaw led to the bridge collapse that also injured 145 people. Steel plates that held the bridge's beams together at eight of its 112 joints were too thin, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

The collapse on the I-35W highway severed a major traffic link between the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul and set off debate about the state of US infrastructure.

Many parts of the 74,000-kilometre US national highway system are between 40 and 60 years old, but pouring tens of billions of dollars into renewal would mean unpopular tax hikes - notably on fuel.

The American Society of Civil Engineers last year gave much of the nation's infrastructure near-failing grades and estimated that 1.6 trillion dollars over five years were needed to bring it to "a good condition."

On Monday, President Bush signed a bill transferring 8 billion dollars from the Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund for such projects. (dpa)