The problem is the inspectors aren't even in a position to make a judgement call like that: they're given 100 pages of boxes to fill in and they have to color inside those lines. It's a systemic issue of how the jobs are split up and the communication works between them. (see the fact that the reviews did indeed trigger some work to be done that would actually make that judgement call... by an engineering firm that never actually saw the bridge and in part for that reason screwed up the call).