NEW YORK - A U.S. senator says the collapse of an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis underscores a need for the federal government to devote more funding to the “urgent maintenance” of the nation's aging bridges and less to building new ones.

With the Brooklyn Bridge serving as a dramatic backdrop, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told a news conference Sunday that he will introduce legislation next month to double a proposed transportation bill appropriation from $5 billion to $10 billion for that sole purpose.

“The urgency of maintenance has been made apparent by the Minneapolis tragedy,” Schumer said. “This disaster must be a wake-up call to get our nation's transportation infrastructure in order.”

He said that for “far too long, highways and bridges in New York and other older areas have been allowed to degrade to the point of dangerous repair” while federal subsidies went to a small number of new facilities in less populous states.

Schumer cited recent studies by two federal agencies to support his position.

He said a U.S. Department of Transportation report showed that while bridge maintenance funds dropped from $12.5 billion in 2004 to $12.4 billion in 2006, new highway and bridge spending went from $52.9 billion to $58.8 billion.

Meanwhile, he said, an Office of Management and Budget study predicted the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for improvements, could become insolvent by $4.l billion in 2009 and have a deficit of $8.1 billion by 2010 unless money is restored.

A least five people are known dead, eight missing and 24 still hospitalized since last Wednesday's rush-hour collapse of a bridge carrying Interstate 35W over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis.

The eight-lane bridge was a vital traffic artery in the Twin Cities.

“We need a comprehensive effort at the federal, state and local levels to ensure that this type of collapse never happens again,” Schumer said.

In New York City alone, about 35 percent of some 2,600 bridges are “structurally deficient,” an aide to Schumer said.

Bridges include on and off ramps and other vehicle accesses more than 20 feet long, he said.

The 124-year-old Brooklyn Bridge was one of three city spans recently given a “poor condition” rating, but federal and city officials have said the bridge's poor performance on inspections was due largely to deterioration of its newer approach ramps in Brooklyn and Manhattan, which are already scheduled for reconstruction in 2010.