Washington: The Bush administration said structural deficiencies were found two years ago in highway bridge that crashed in Minneapolis and it was the state’s responsibility to fix them. Congress started working on a $250 million package of federal assistance.

President Bush, who will also visit the scene of the disaster on Saturday, said the federal government would assist rebuild the bridge in city that will host next year’s Republican National Convention.

After a Cabinet meeting, Bush said, “We in the federal government must respond, and respond robustly, to help the people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity - that bridge - gets rebuilt as quickly as possible.”

Bush talked with state and local officials in Minnesota, and the administration dispatched officials to the scene.

There are 75,422 bridges nationwide that are structurally deficient. That’s out of about 600,000 bridges, according to Federal Highway Administration.