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Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, Gov. Pawlenty, Sens. Coleman and Klobuchar, Rep. Ellison and US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters finished a news conference about half an hour ago.

One of the first questions asked was about the 50 rating that the Transportation Department gave the bridge. Sec. Peters immediately clarified what that meant, saying that that didn’t mean it was unsafe. Gov. Pawlenty said that the rating meant that the bridge would have to be replaced by 2020:

Engineers determined that the ill-fated span, part of the Interstate 35W highway, would need replacement only in about 2020, he said. “Structurally deficient does not mean immediately close the bridge,” Pawlenty told Fox News television.

Here’s what Secretary Peters said about the rating:

“It by no means that this bridge was not safe,” said US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who traveled to the disaster site. “None of those ratings indicated that there was any kind of danger here.”

The economic impact that this collapse will have is major. Not only is I-35W a major highway but the Mississippi River is a major source of commerce, too. With the bridge laying in the water, barge traffic bringing commodities into the Twin Cities will have to be rerouted.

The cause of the collapse is still unknown:

NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker, head of the government’s National Transportation Safety Board, said it was too early to say what caused the disaster. Experts will review video of the collapse and may reconstruct part of the bridge to understand what happened, he said.

What is certain is that it’ll take several years to rebuild this bridge. Like I said, the economic impact on Minnesota will be felt for quite some time.

UPDATE: One of the things that was pointed out at this morning’s news conference was that Minnesota has a very good rating in terms of bridge maintenance. Rep. Jim Oberstar, (D-MN), says that about 40 percent of bridges nationwide have a rating in the 50 range. Gov. Pawlenty said that only 3 percent of Minnesota bridges have that low of a rating.

Here’s what the Hartford Courant has to say about Minnesota’s inspection standards:

All bridges in the state are supposed to be inspected at least once every two years, in line with standards set by the Federal Highway Administration and the recommendations of bridge safety experts. And of Minnesota’s nearly 14,000 bridges, the state inspects almost a third of them more often than that federal standard, with many undergoing routine inspections every 12 months or less.

This speaks well of Minnesota’s transportation system. It also speaks well of the job that Carol Molnau has done as Lt. Gov./Transportation Secretary.

UPDATE II: KSTP has some fantastic interviews & videos up. Be sure to check them out. This video isn’t for the fainthearted though.

Technorati Tags: Tim Pawlenty, Norm Coleman, Amy Klobuchar, Keith Ellison, Mary Peters, Mark Rosenker, NTSB, Mayor Rybak, Minneapolis, Economy

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Economy, Investigations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.