Bridge Collapse

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Officials have set the date and the scene for the opening of the new Interstate 35W bridge: Thursday morning when a slow procession of state troopers leads commuters across the Mississippi River where 13 people died in the collapse 13 months ago.

With the hum of construction equipment behind them, government officials gathered Monday to announce the opening and unveil the design for a permanent memorial to the dead and 145 injured from the disaster that also cut off a major Minneapolis artery.

"Getting this bridge built and getting it built quickly will help heal a wound, but it will never heal the pain from last August," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. "These lanes will forever be sacred because of the 13 people who lost their lives here."

The new concrete span includes high-tech sensors and backup features lacking in the 40-year-old steel truss bridge it replaces. The $234 million bridge was fast-tracked to restore the traffic route that accounted for 140,000 trips a day.

"Out of mind-numbing tragedy has come an engineering marvel," said Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the transportation committee in the U.S. House. "Out of the rubble of the failing of a bridge has come a lesson for the future of bridge engineering and construction."

The builders are in line for a bonus up to $27 million for completing the project more than three months early. Minnesota Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel said the contractor must complete some minor work before the award size is determined.

The new bridge was completed 11 months after work began and about 13 months after the collapse. In contrast, work on the original bridge began in 1964 and finished 1967.

When the new bridge opens at 5 a.m. Thursday, the troopers will line up across the lanes at each end, allowing traffic to line up behind them. Once construction barricades are removed, the troopers will slowly drive across the bridge, allowing commuters to follow them.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the arrangement is meant more for safety than ceremony. "We're not going to have a race or a rush for people to be the first to drive across the bridge," he said.

But Andy Gannon, whose car plunged 42 feet when the I-35W bridge fell, said he wants to be among the first to cross. He recently found the crumpled directions from his trip that tragic day -- a route that was to take him to a wake for a friend's father. He will follow those directions when he heads out Thursday even if the wake was well in the past.

"For me, I have to complete where I was going," he said.

The memorial to the collapse will be in a nearby park. A bubbling fountain will be surrounded by 13 I-beams, each engraved with the name of one of the dead. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak announced a $1 million fundraising campaign to pay for the construction and upkeep of the memorial.

Collapse victims face an Oct. 15 deadline to submit claims for compensation from a special state fund. Attorney Susan Holden, who heads a panel administering the fund, said only one claim has come in so far. She said most victims and their lawyers are still putting together the medical documentation for their claims.

The National Transportation Safety Board is close to determining what caused the first bridge to collapse, and the board plans to discuss its findings at a public hearing in Washington in November.

In January, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said a design error was "the critical factor" in the collapse, pointing to too-thin gusset plates -- which helped connect the bridge's steel beams.

The NTSB has also focused on the weight of construction materials on the bridge for a resurfacing project.

Gannon said he has full confidence in the new bridge's safety.

"There will be a lot of eyes on this bridge," he said. "For something to go wrong, I just don't see it."

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The original I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River opened in November 1967 and was 1,907 feet in length. The replacement bridge opened in September 2008 and measures 1,216 feet in length.

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