Search continues for missing after Minneapolis bridge collapse
John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association, said this morning that officials had asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to temporarily allow commercial trucks to enter the city on Interstate 35 East, where big rigs are normally forbidden.
The Trucker News Services
8/2/2007
MINNEAPOLIS – Authorities say four people were killed yesterday and as many as 20 are missing after a Minneapolis bridge collapsed and sent drivers and vehicles into the Mississippi River below.
The death count was originally put at seven, then later taken down to four, but CNN reported that the numbers of dead could rise as the search continues.
John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association, said this morning that officials had asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to temporarily allow commercial trucks to enter the city on Interstate 35 East, where big rigs are normally forbidden.
As of 10 a.m. CDT, the governor had not responded to the request
Hausladen said another major north-south route, Highway 280, was being touted as an alternative route. He said all stoplights on the highway had been turned off today making for a smoother flow, but as a result, cautioned truckers to be very careful if they chose to travel that route today.
Hausladen strongly encouraged truckers to visit www.511mn.org for the very latest in road information in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
As many as 62 persons may have been injured, according to CNN, and as many as 50 vehicles are thought to be trapped in rubble in the 7 or 8 feet of water below the collapse.
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters today announced that, based on Minnesota’s request, $5 million in federal relief will be available to the state to repair the I-35 bridge. Peters is in Minneapolis touring the bridge site, viewing the damage, and meeting with Minnesota officials.
“We are going to make sure that last night’s damage and debris soon become a thing of the past. We will rebuild this bridge and repair this horrible hole in the heart of this community,” Peters said.
According to Reuters reports, the 40-year-old steel truss bridge buckled without warning during rush hour, just after 6 p.m.
The bridge carries U.S. 35 West traffic.
A 2005 U.S. Department of Transportation report marked the bridge for replacement, rating it in the “failed” zone, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported, but the bridge had passed local inspections in 2005 and 2006.
Among the survivors were 52 children and nine adults aboard a school bus who were coming back from a swimming field trip. The bus stopped against a bridge abutment just short of where the bridge collapsed. Eight of the children, ages 5 to 14, were hospitalized.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers workers are to use barges to remove debris from the closed section of the river, a part of the waterway that’s normally an important commercial artery.
Authorities say it may take as many as five more days to clean up the debris because of strong water currents in the river that are moving around portions of twisted steel and pavement from the collapse.