US ROAD REPAIRS COULD COST MORE THAN S&L BAILOUT

``America's bridges are falling down and America's roads are crumbling,'' and needed repairs will cost more than the savings and loan bailout, a new study says. Jake West, president of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Iron Workers, makes the claim in a study, ``Legacy of Neglect: America's Decaying Roads and Bridges.''

The report says 41 percent of the nation's 577,700 bridges are either deficient or obsolete. Rebuilding the bridges, Mr. West says, will cost $748.5 billion, far more than the government's estimate of $500 billion for the S&L bailout.