Pawlenty already scrambling to cover his ass.

He doesn't want the Federal government to be the only ones
investigating, hires private firm to give him results he might
like better.

---

Pawlenty orders review; long, slow recovery effort resumes

Pioneer Press

TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated:08/02/2007 03:55:35 PM CDT

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_6525097?nclick_check=1

An outside firm will be hired to conduct a separate investigation into the collapse
of the Interstate 35W bridge, the busiest bridge in the state.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that although he has faith in the investigation by the
National Transportation Safety Board, he wanted a parallel investigation. A forensic
engineering firm, Wiss, Janney and Elstner, will lead the investigation.

"We want redundancy," Pawlenty said, at an afternoon press conference.

Pawlenty also said the Minnesota Department of Transportation will hire an outside
firm to evaluate its inspection practices and conduct emergency inspections of three
similar bridges: trunk Highway 23 in St. Cloud, trunk Highway 123 in Sandstone and
trunk highway 243 is Osceola/St. Croix.

The 35W bridge was the busiest bridge in the state, with 141,000 cars traveling on it
every day.

Dan Dorgan, bridge engineer for MnDOT, said the bridge has been inspected yearly
since 1993. In 1999, it was classified as "structurally deficient."

That didn't mean it wasn't safe to use, Dorgan said.

Inspections in 2005 and 2006 inspections found no evidence of additional cracking or
growth of existing cracks.

"For those reasons, we considered the bridge fit for service," Dorgan said.

Looking ahead to 2020, the long-term plan was to replace or redeck the bridge.

An outside study suggested two alternatives: 1) add steel plates or 2) do a thorough
inspection of the wells. MnDOT decided to go the inspection route, which began in
May.

The inspection was partially finished and was expected to be done in the fall. It had
found no evidence of additional cracking or growth of existing cracks.

Recovery efforts at the site of Interstate 35W bridge collapse continue at full
throttle today, but dive teams were pulled from their work less an hour after
entering the water due to debris and fast-moving currents.

Earlier, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Nolan said the recovery of wreckage from the
river and the surrounding banks would be slow.

"We're dealing with the Mississippi River. We're dealing with currents," Dolan said.
"We're going to have to do that slowly and safely."

Late Wednesday, seven people were reported dead, 20 were missing and more than 60
were injured, authorities said. This morning officials lowered the number dead to
four, but they expect the death toll to rise as the search effort turns to recovery
today.

People pinned and dying in the wreckage of the 35W bridge Tuesday night asked rescue
workers to say their goodbyes to their families, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan
said Thursday morning.

"There's people pinned, severely injured. We couldn't move them. It was an obviously
dangerous situation with stuff still falling." Dolan said. "The decision was made to
leave them."

Dolan said number vehicles remain in the river this morning.

"We have all the license plate numbers of cars we can see," Dolan said, adding that
divers would try to collect that information from submerged cars.

The Coast Guard has closed the Mississippi River for five miles both upstream and
downstream from the site.

Near the collapse site, more than a dozen recovery workers including divers from a
variety of agencies gathered around for a briefing early this morning.

A Coast Guard boat patrolled the river. The Army Corps of Engineers is analyzing the
remaining bridge structure to see if it's safe for divers descend on the wreckage,
according to sources near the collapse site. Dolan said the corps has surveillance
footage of the actual bridge collapse.

Recovery boats continued this morning to survey the wreckage. Divers were expected to
soon enter the water, sheriff officials said just before noon. Dolan said crews were
first plotting the location of the submerged vehicles.

Crews are taking some kind of sonar reading to get a sense of what structure remains
underwater, a rescue worker said.

Dolan estimated the river depth at 7 to 8 feet at the collapse site at a press
conference.

There are at least a dozen vehicles visible in the water, with some totally submerged
and others seen sticking out of the river, said Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek.

Authorities have tried to regulate the flow of water through the nearby loch, but
Stanek said the currents are strong and unpredictable because of the structure in the
water.

Authorities are still trying to sort out the number of missing. Dolan said they're
using estimates of the number of vehicles on the bridge at the time of the collapse,
information from families, number of injured and license plate number.

"We are estimating 20 to 30 people who could be unaccounted for," Dolan said.

The bridge spanning the Mississippi River collapsed around 6:05 p.m. Tuesday near the
height of rush hour traffic. Portions of the massive bridge plummeted 64 feet.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, Gov. Tim Pawlenty, state and federal authorities
descended on the collapse site today. They are touring the disaster site this morning
with officials from several federal agencies.

"The recovery efforts are going forward," Rybak said. "The longer, more important
work is going to be giving support to family and loved ones."

"We had just a horrific, awful situation," Pawlenty said.

The 64-foot-high bridge was undergoing maintenance and had a Minnesota Department of
Transportation crew on it when the collapse occurred shortly after 6 p.m.,
authorities said. It was unclear Wednesday night the full number of cars or people
affected by the collapse.

A school bus also was on the bridge at the time it fell, according to officials.
Sixty children were taken from the bus. Up to 10 were transported to area hospitals.

Aerial shots showed the entire span of I-35W had crumpled into the river below. Some
of the injured were carried up the riverbank, while emergency workers and volunteers
tended to others on the ground. A BNSF train was on the tracks below the bridge and
hit by pieces.

It was unclear Wednesday night the total number of cars or motorists involved in the
collapse.

"Obviously, this is a catastrophe of historic proportions for Minnesota," Gov. Tim
Pawlenty said.

While authorities didn't rule out any cause Wednesday, they indicated structural
failure as the likely cause. Federal transportation officials are expected to arrive
today to investigate.

Contradictory reports surfaced Wednesday about the bridge's inspection history.

Inspectors in June 2005 reported the bridge might be in need of replacement,
according to data from the Federal Highway Administration.

Pawlenty said the bridge's three spans were inspected in 2005 and 2006, and no
structural deficiencies were found. The bridge deck was scheduled to be replaced in
2020 at the earliest, the governor said.

Contractors were doing concrete, lighting, guardrails and joint repair work on the
bridge Wednesday. All but one contractor had been accounted for as of 9 p.m.

The heavily traveled bridge gave way at 6:05 p.m., dumping at least 50 vehicles into
the water and onto the river's banks, 64 feet below.

Travelers included daily commuters, fans heading to a Minnesota Twins baseball game
at the Metrodome and a bus carrying kids returning from a field trip.

The scene just east of downtown Minneapolis defied belief.

Cars lay smashed amid jutting concrete and steel or submerged in the river as rescue
workers and volunteers raced to pull people from the wreckage. Black columns of smoke
rose from a burning tractor-trailer rig wedged under a collapsed section of concrete.
Ryan Hagness, 23-year-old University of Minnesota student, heard the collapse. He and
five other students rent a house on University Avenue that directly overlooks 35W. He
was home at the time of the collapse.

" I felt it. The whole house shook," Hagness said. "I went out and I got an idea of
what happened. I am still a little in disbelief. The bridge isn't there any more.
It's kind of a scary feeling."

The media is now camped out on Hagness's front lawn with TV trucks parked in the
driveway.

Janet Stately, of Minneapolis, was driving southbound on I-35W from Duluth with her
daughter, Brianne. Stately said she exited onto University Avenue just before
reaching the bridge. On the overpass, she heard the cracking of the structure and saw
smoke rising from below.

"I was driving the car, and I screamed when I heard it crack," Stately said. "It's
like it went in slow motion. I heard the crack and I saw the cars going straight in.
There was not a space between the cars on that bridge. I tried to tell people on the
road if you can swim get down there and help."

Bicyclists rode down to the scene, Stately said. Motorists were honking their horns.

"I just saw concrete dust and I don't know if it was water flying up in the air,"
Stately said. "And the noise, I don't even know how to describe it to you."

Stately broke into tears thinking about a school bus with children driving next to
her on I-35W before she exited.

"I kept screaming, 'There's kids on that bus!' " she said. "I just said, 'That bus is
going to go in.' I hope those kids are OK."

According to officials, 60 children were taken from the bus, which did not land in
the river. Up to 10 were transported to area hospitals.

"It sounded like a huge rumble, like two big airplanes were flying overhead at the
same time," said Kathleen Joseph, who lives on the top floor of the Riverview Tower
and has a bird's-eye view of the bridge.

Michael Vechell, 25, of Minneapolis, was traveling along I-35W heading into
Minneapolis when traffic came to a dead stop.

"There was a huge dust cloud moving to us," he said.

When he saw what was happening, he went to help get people out of their cars and
later, with others, helped carry injured people to ambulance. He described seeing
cars in the river with huge cement slabs on them.

"It's pretty sad, man," he said.

Officials dismissed the notion that the disaster was anything other than an accident.
"It is not likely that this was a terrorist incident," Pawlenty said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff issued a statement late Wednesday saying
there was no indication of terrorism.

The steel arch truss bridge was built in 1967 and stretched 1,900 feet, including a
458-foot main span across the river.

Eighteen workers from Progressive Contractors Inc. of St. Michael, Minn., had been
repairing the eight-lane bridge's surface as part of improvements along that stretch
of the interstate. Two lanes were closed in each direction.

As of 8 p.m., one worker was unaccounted for and three injured, said Tom Sloan, head
of the firm's bridge division.

PCI workers rolled down the bridge as it collapsed. At least one worker fell into the
water and managed to swim to the surface.

"What my workers went through and witnessed is incomprehensible," Sloan said.

Sloan said there was at least one Minnesota Department of Transportation official at
the scene inspecting their work when the bridge collapsed.

PCI officials said they could think of no reason why their work would have caused the
bridge to collapse, said David Lillehaug, the company's attorney.

The survivors, pulled from crushed cars and carried from the river, were taken away
by emergency personnel and volunteers, loaded on backboards and in the back of pickup
trucks.

There were scenes of people rushing to the bridge to help. Crews from area police and
fire departments gave them grateful taps on the back.

A few were helping unload the injured from rescue boats. One group, from the
Maranatha Christian Fellowship Church, set up water coolers to provide ice water to
anyone who would need it.

"We're out here because we think that's what Jesus would do," said John Gill.

Jay Reeves was no more than 150 yards from the bridge on West River Parkway when it
collapsed. Reeves, the public safety director of the American Red Cross Twin Cities
chapter was driving home from work on West River Parkway. He was heading west and
about to drive under the bridge.

"It basically collapsed right in front of me," Reeves said. " I thought, 'This isn't
happening because this doesn't happen,' "

He described seeing green metal from the trusses of the bridge and a plume of
rust-colored dust. When he got out of his car, he heard kids screaming.

He helped children get off a bus that was on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

"I whistled as loud as I could," Reeve said. "I said, 'if you can hear me and you can
walk, get out.' "

Reeve said he heard the bridge groaning. He didn't know what would happen and he
feared for good Samaritans running toward the bridge. He was trying to move people
away from the bridge.

"Good intentions, but you've got to get away. Move way," Reeves recounted.

A Twins game against the Kansas City Royals went on after the collapse.

With rescuers rushing to the collapsed freeway bridge just four blocks from the
Metrodome, "the last thing those first responders needed was an audience," Twins
president Dave St. Peter said.

Today's game, however, won't be played until the Royals return to Minneapolis in a
month. After consulting with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, St. Peter
said, the team postponed the finale of the four-game series.

No decision has been made about this weekend's four-game series with Cleveland.

St. Peter said all of the team's front-office employees and the players' families had
been accounted for. But he acknowledged that the bridge was likely carrying several
carloads of fans headed for the baseball game, and he said there were concerns that
some concession employees may have been involved.

"Certainly there were Twins fans impacted by this," St. Peter said. "Yeah, it's a
tough night to play baseball."

Groundbreaking ceremonies at the site of the Twins' new stadium, planned for Thursday
afternoon, have also been postponed.

In response to the disaster, Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor canceled
tonight's scheduled news conference, which had been called to introduce players
acquired in Tuesday's trade of Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics.

Taylor's eyes welled up as he met with the media at Target Center not long after the
bridge collapse. He said his granddaughter was near the scene but was safe. Taylor
didn't elaborate.

Following the collapse, the pedestrian bridge to the south of the accident filled
with bicyclists, inline skaters and pedestrians - many of them students at the
University of Minnesota.

"It's weird. It's not comprehensible," said Tessa Gudmestad, 20, of Minneapolis. The
University of Minnesota student said that she instinctively called her mother when
she saw the aftermath of the collapse.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis planned two prayer services today at noon
for the victims, survivors and families of the bridge disaster, at St. Olaf Catholic
Church in Minneapolis and the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Steve Treichler, senior pastor at Hope Community Church in downtown Minneapolis,
showed up at the Holiday Inn Metrodome to help survivors.

The pastor said that more than a dozen other spiritual leaders had shown up to lend
an ear.

"Mostly, you just listen. ... We live in a world that's not perfect," he said.
"They're asking 'Why me?' "

The landmark bells of the Minneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse will
ring from noon to 1 p.m. Friday in remembrance of the casualties of the collapse.

The last major bridge collapse in the Twin Cities happened on April 24, 1990, when
the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul. One person
died in the collapse.

This story contains information from the Associated Press