The Bridge Collapse One Year Later: You Get What You Pay For

A year has passed since the August evening when the 35W Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, leaving 13 dead and 145 injured. So where are we today?

The lives of those who survived may never be the same. But they did get a $36.6 million compensation package from the State of Minnesota in exchange for not suing them.

The cause of the collapse (speculation has centered on rusted-out gusset plates) has still not been determined by the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB did, however, beat back a challenge by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) to open public hearings before making its findings known.

Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who initially rode the wave of bi-partisanship in the days following the collapse before the finger-pointing began, vetoed a bill which would have raised the state gas tax by 20 cents for inspecting and improving bridges and highways. The Legislature thought otherwise, overriding the veto. Six Republicans who dared to vote for the override got the cold shoulder from the governor's party.

That's just one of the 34 bills Pawlenty vetoed in the last legislative session, more than any governor in Minnesota history. (There is an excellent article on this that can be found at citypages.com) It seems Pawlenty, a possible running mate for Senator John McCain on the GOP presidential ticket, cares more about pleasing his "no new taxes" political cronies than in serving his state.

The governor also had to replace his state Department of Transportation commissioner. It seems Carol Molnau, who also holds the title of lieutenant governor, did not do a very good job of managing MnDOT and was the scapegoat for the sorry state of the state's roads. The Legislature gave Molnau the boot, and she was replaced by Tom Sorel.

Remember Sonia Pitt, who went AWOL from her MnDOT job in the weeks following the bridge collapse? The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in Thursday's edition that Pitt has resurfaced at the Department of Homeland Security, working for the Transportation Safety Administration. I wish I had made that one up.

With the influx of cash coming from the new gas tax (and for who knows how much longer, considering that it now costs at least $50 to fill your tank?), more bridges and roads are being inspected and repaired. Unfortunately, they forgot to check the Maryland Avenue bridge in St. Paul. Twelve hundred pounds of concrete chunks fell from it onto 35E last weekend. Traffic was snarled, but no one was injured.

The 35W bridge itself? It's being rebuilt as we speak, and should be done by sometime in the fall--two months ahead of schedule. The new bridge, at a cost of $235 million, will have more lanes and room for light rail transit.

Through all the tragedy, the politics and the rebuilding, once the bridge reopens and traffic returns to what is considered normal, how many will be thinking about what it takes to get from Point A to Point B without falling into Point C?

UPDATE: The Department of Homeland Security must've caught wind of Pitt's past misdeeds because, as the Star Tribune reports in its Friday edition, she's been fired after a few months on the job. The DHS doesn't always employ the brightest bulbs on the planet, but at least they caught this one.