And in the coastal state of Vargas, residents say the government never completely repaired the roads damaged by huge mudslides in 1999.  Infrastructure was a forgotten issue during Venezuela's 30-month political crisis, which included an oil industry shutdown and botched coup d'état as part of opposition efforts to force Mr. Chávez from office. Now, the possible collapse of the bridge -- known as Viaduct No. 1 -- is a major issue for Venezuelans from all walks of life.  Hospital workers in Vargas are putting in overtime hours because commuting doctors cannot arrive on time. Fishermen along the coast say the price of bait has tripled and fewer trucks are available to ship their catch to Caracas. Authorities at Maiquetía International Airport say the number of arriving flights has fallen by 9 percent. The cost of transporting merchandise to the capital from the coast increased 30 percent to 40 percent within two weeks of the bridge closure.  Dulce Navarro, 36, a school counselor who lives in San Onofre, a slum on the outskirts of Caracas, described the situation as critical.  "The road is overflowing with traffic, it's completely chaotic," she said, adding that many other services like electricity, water, gas and trash collection have suffered as a result of the bridge problem. Engineers discovered in 1987 that the pillars of Viaduct No. 1 were moving as a result of soil erosion.  Successive administrations, however, did nothing about the problem. Erosion worsened as thousands of poor families built homes on the precarious hillsides. By Jan. 5, engineers found that the bridge pylons were slipping rapidly and they could no longer guarantee the bridge's safety.  Mr. Chávez's critics have blamed him for the problem.  "This government has not had any specific plan for maintenance of public works, and the result is that the country's road system is facing a serious crisis," said Enzo Betancourt, president of the Venezuelan College of Engineers, the country's main engineering group and a consistent critic of Mr. Chávez.  Venezuela's largest business group, the opposition-affiliated Fedecamaras, warned that the problem could reduce the expected growth of nation's gross domestic product to 4 percent in 2006 from 7 percent.  Mr. Chávez insists that previous governments are equally responsible for the declining state of the country's roads and that opposition leaders exaggerate the extent of the problem.  "Some perverse and wretched minds take this as a good thing so they can blame the government, and most of all Chávez," he said during his weekly Sunday broadcast after the bridge was closed.  Mr. Chávez has approved a $24 million tax exemption for coastal businesses, offered subsidies of up to $68 a day to public transit vehicles and has promised that an alternate route around the bridge will be completed by February.  Despite an onslaught of attention in the news media, the problem is not likely to exact a heavy political cost from Mr. Chávez. His strong following among the country's poorest residents has allowed him and his allies to win repeated electoral victories, including a sweep of last December's legislative elections. Most of his supporters are considered unlikely to turn against him even if they grumble about the bridge failure.  Only a small number of Caracas residents have no complaints about the bridge closure.  "It gives us so much room to play!" said Enderson Ozuna, 8, of El Limón, taking advantage of the empty highway to fly a homemade kite made from a plastic bag and a pair of sticks. Not far from him, a group of two dozen eight-foot concrete tubes stashed by the side of the highway have become a sort of jungle gym.  Graciela Velandiz, 48, a homemaker, watched the children playing from the shoulder of the highway. "It's so beautiful to see these kids with so much space to run around," she said with a smile. "But the situation is just horrible. They need to fix that bridge as soon as possible."  Correction: February 1, 2006, Wednesday Because of an editing error, an article on Jan. 22 about Venezuela's abundance of cash from high oil prices referred incorrectly to the recipients of subsidized Venezuelan heating oil in some American cities this winter. Venezuela did offer to subsidize heating oil for Chicago, as reported, but the city did not accept because many homes there are heated with natural gas. (Venezuela later sought to provide diesel fuel for Chicago's public transit system, but no agreement on this has been reached.)
Venezuela is awash in cash from high oil prices, but it is also mired in infrastructure problems; Pres Hugo Chavez has been spending billions of dollars in oil profits to provide education, health and social services to millions of poor Venezuelans, while roads and electrical grid have been suffering; normally bustling highway connecting capital Caracas and port city of La Guaira has been virtually empty since government closed unsafe bridge early this month, turning 45-minute trip into three-and-a-half-hour detour; photo; maps (M)