CHICAGO – The state transportation department will temporarily close some bridges undergoing repairs to inspect them in the wake of last week’s deadly bridge collapse in Minnesota, officials said Thursday.

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Milton Sees said officials want to make sure bridges can safely carry traffic while work is under way.

Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said the closures will be brief.

“One day or a couple of days if it’s a very large structure,” he said. “We’re not talking about weeks here.”

He said he couldn’t rule out the possibility that bridges would be closed for longer periods of time.

The inspections will take place before rehabilitation work is begun to determine if additional structural support will be needed during construction, Claffey said.

The Minnesota bridge was undergoing repairs when it plunged into the Mississippi River last week, killing at least five people. The bridge had been deemed “structurally deficient,” but Illinois officials cautioned that the term can be broadly used to cover many different conditions, from minor issues to major safety problems.

The first Illinois bridge to be closed is in the northern Chicago suburb of Glenview. Claffey said repairs already were scheduled on the bridge and are not taking place because of the Minnesota collapse. The high-volume bridge is a railroad overpass that Claffey said carries 40,000 cars a day.

The transportation department maintains almost 8,000 of the state’s 26,000 bridges. Of those, 37 have weight restrictions, and officials said that number could increase if more bridges are allowed to fall into disrepair.

See said that is sure to happen without adequate funding.

“In the absence of a capital bill, bridges with weight restrictions will become more commonplace, and critically needed improvements will be infinitely delayed,” he said in a statement.

Transportation advocates said the possible state budget passed by the House Thursday doesn’t do enough to address their concerns.

After the Minnesota collapse, Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered inspections of Illinois’ high-volume bridges and those with designs similar to the one that gave way in Minnesota.