March 21, 2008
Fox News: Minnesota Highway Bridge Closed After Safety Concerns
A bridge that runs over the Mississippi River in St. Cloud, Minnesota has been shut down after inspectors found slight bending in four gusset plates. The gusset plates, which help connect the bridge's girders, are distorted by about a quarter of an inch. Sverdrup & Parcel designed the bridge as well as the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed last year, killing 13 people and injuring over 100. Dan Dorgan, the state bridge engineer, was asked whether the 35W bridge collapse affected his decision to shut down the Mississippi River bridge and he said, "Yes. It did. Our approach is very conservative given the tragedy we experienced last year." Acting Transportation Commissioner, Bob McFarlin, said it wasn't clear when or how the bridge would be repaired, but it will be closed until it is considered safe and if repairs cannot be made, then it will remain closed until it can be replaced.

March 18, 2008
Associated Press: Congressman Wants Bridge Hearing
Representative Jim Oberstar, head of the House Transporation Committee, plans to write a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to ask the board to reconsider holding a public hearing into the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. The bridge collapsed last year, killing 13 people and injuring over 100. The NTSB decided this week that they will not hold a public hearing. NTSB spokesman, Ted Lopatkiewicz, said that the board doesn't do public hearings on most major accidents and that none were conducted last year. Oberstar stated, "The board can teach the public how it investigates a tragedy of this magnitude and the discussion of the data that's been gathered may yield new information." The NTSB has found that too thin steel gusset plates, construction project weights, and the fact that there was more than 191 tons of construction material that had been piled on top of the weakest areas of the bridge were factors in the collapse.

March 3, 2008
Star Tribune: If you're near the new bridge, get out your earplugs
The next phase of construction for the replacement of the I-35W bridge will involve installing steel supports on the north side. Also starting this week, crews are operating a concrete crusher which will break up pieces of the old roadway. Crews are going to be using this for the base of the rebuilt roadway. The I-35W bridge collapsed last year, killing 13 people and injuring over 100.

February 22, 2008
Associated Construction Publications: I-35W Bridge Collapse - Week 28
A Minnesota House committee approved a bill on February 18, 2008 to compensate victims of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, which killed 13 and injured over 100 people last year.  The catastrophe fund was modeled after the September 11 victims' compensation package.  It will remain in place for future catastrophes and covers compensation for lost wages, burial costs, medical expenses and other expenses that are not covered by other sources.  Claimants to the fund would agree not to sue the state and they would not be subject to the  $300,000.00 state liability cap.  The fund will have between $30 million to $60 million to pay the claims of the bridge victims.  The bill was referred to the House Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee.

February 5, 2008
Kansas City infoZine: MoDOT Completes Preliminary Study of Minneapolis-Type Bridges 
Missouri Department of Transportation bridge engineers announced that preliminary studies of all Missouri bridges with gusset plates are complete and several were confirmed as safe.  Further studies will be done on 76 remaining bridges.  The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) recommended that studies of all truss bridges, like the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed in Minnesota last year, be studied to determine they are still safe since the weight they carry has significantly increased since they were built.  The average age of Missouri's truss bridges is 67 years old.  Steel beams are joined together by steel gusset plates to support truss bridges.  The Interstate 35W bridge most likely collapsed because of it's original design which couldn't support increased loads on the bridge deck.  Thirteen people were killed and over a hundred were injured when the bridge collapsed.

January 30, 2008
KARE Channel 11: Minnesota lawmakers trying to protect bridge awards from insurers
Minnesota lawmakers are now working on legislation that will ensure survivors of the August 1, 2007 Minneapolis Interstate 35W bridge collapse will actually receive compensation and not allow any of the settlement money to go to health care insurers to pay medical liens.  Certain types of health plans are putting liens on money their members have won in court or other settlements, for medical bills, pain and suffering or other reasons, attorneys have said.  Rep. Ryan Winkler has introduced a bill to create a 9-11 type compensation system. Sen. Ron Latz, St. Louis Park, is also sponsoring a bridge fund bill.  "All we can do is try our best to formulate this compensation in such a way that the money will be able to stay with the victims, " he said.

January 22, 2008
MSNBC: Minn. bridge collapse victims prepare lawsuit
Preliminary paperwork has been filed with the state of Minnesota for potential claims of personal injury and wrongful death which occurred when the Interstate 35W bridge running over the Mississippi river collapsed last summer.  Thirteen people were killed and 145 were injured.  Attorneys involved described the notices which have to be filed by January 27, as a formality, but the number of notices indicate that many victims are considering their options.  As of January 18, 2008, Attorney General Lori Swan's office had received notice of potential claims from 73 injured bridge victims and their family members.  Families for six of the dead also filed plans to sue the state.  Twenty two of the notices were filed on behalf of children, many of which were passengers on a school bus.  Per a state law, the government's liability is only $1 million per incident, however, lawmakers are considering a compensation fund that would offer more to victims as long as they give up their right to sue.

January 17, 2008
St. Louis Post - Dispatch: MoDOT tests spans here for Minneapolis bridge's flaw
Other states are now checking their bridges for similar gusset plate deficiencies, similar to 16 gusset plates which failed on the 40 year-old Minneapolis Interstate 35W bridge, which collpased on August 1, 2007 when it couldn't hold the extra 300 tons of construction equipment and materials it was carrying.  It was also heavier due to two earlier renovations.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is now looking for design flaws in the 232 bridges similar to those of the 35W bridge and Illinois officials are deciding if they should be reviewing their 300 bridges that also have steel gusset plates.  In addition to the design flaws, bridge engineers are going to evaluate how much weight each bridge can hold.

January 15, 2008
Fox News: Investigators Find Design Flaw to Blame for Minneapolis Bridge Collapse
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a congressional official says he was briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and was told there was a design flaw in the 35W bridge which collapsed in August of last year in Minneapolis.  The collapse killed 13 people and injured over 100.   Investigators found that the gusset plates were about half the thickness they should have been because of a design error. Gusset plates are steel plates that tie the steel beams together.   Late in December 2007, President Bush signed a spending bill which included $195 million to help replace the bridge.

The NTSB is urging that approximately 465 other steel-deck truss bridges in the U.S. should be checked to ensure they don't have the same design flaw

November 19, 2007
KXMC CBS Channel 13: Minn. judge to rule next month on release of bridge data...
District Judge Herbert Lefler of Hennepin County Minnesota, will rule by December 3, 2007, as to how much data thus far gathered in the Minnesota 35W bridge collapse will be released.  A lawyer for Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) says federal regulations allow the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to withhold data on active investigations. Minnesota law presumes data is public unless a government entity can present a compelling reason to keep it private. The August 1, 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge killed 13 people and injured 100.

November 9, 2007
CBS Channel 3 Action News: Minnesota lawmakers weigh fairness
of compensating victims of interstate bridge collapse
A joint House-Senate subcommittee is meeting today and will be hearing from Minnesota bridge victims, lawyers and state officials.  Kenneth Feinberg, who ran the September 11th federal compensation fund will also attend.  Two Minnesota legislators have proposed establishing a similar fund for the victims of the bridge collapse.  Thirteen people were killed and 144 were injured.  Minnesota law limits the state's liability to $300,000.00 per person and $1 million per incident.  The victims' losses could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, according to attorneys involved.  If the state does not set up a special fund, the victims would push for a settlement above the liability caps and possibly face years of legal battles.

October 18, 2007
Minneapolis - St. Paul Star Tribune: Did heat, rusted plates doom bridge?
After ten weeks of investigation into the collapse of the Interstate 35W Minnesota bridge, investigators are intensifying their inspection on a gusset plate that was located in the section of the bridge that fell.  Runoff of de-icing chemicals and salt could have contributed to the corrosion of the gusset plate.  Structural engineers were recently interviewed and said fatigue cracking is not at the forefront of the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation, but gusset plate inspection and how the temperature of 91 degrees might have affected the bridge on that day. Thirteen people were killed and 144 others were injured on August 1, 2007, when the Interstate 35W Minnesota bridge collapsed during rush hour in Minneapolis.

October 17, 2007
Minnesota Public Radio: Three investigations search for cause of I-35W bridge collapse
There are three separate investigations ongoing in the I-35W Minnesota Bridge collapse:  1) The National Transportation Safety Board investigative team includes 30 people.  They are looking at possible causes of corroded gusset plates, construction materials that might have been overweight or an unstable bridge deck among several other possible causes;     2) Gene Corley, who is the Vice President of CTLGroup has been hired by a private party.  CTLGroup does construction, engineering and research services.  Corley will not divulge who his client is,  but he is a highly experienced engineer who helped investigate the World Trade Center collapse and the Oklahoma City bombings; 3) The state of Minnesota has also been investigating the bridge collapse. Thirteen people were killed and approximately 100 were injured. The investigative process will be a long one. 

Minnesota Bridge Collapses During Rush Hour

On August 1, 2007, the eight lane Interstate 35W bridge collapsed during rush hour in Minneapolis, plunging dozens of cars into the Mississippi River. The collapse also caused a school bus full of children to plummet 60 feet on top of tons of falling concrete, but miraculously the bus was saved from plunging into the river because of a side rail. Thirteen people died and local hospitals have reported at least 110 injuries. Read More