Brainerd Dispatch.com
BRIAN BAKST
Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — A pivotal decision on lawsuits seeking to punish a contractor for the deadly collapse of a Minnesota freeway bridge hinges, in a judge's words, on what safety engineers knew and when they knew it.
Nearly three years after the Interstate 35W bridge crumbled into the Mississippi River, the legal fight flared Thursday in a Hennepin County courtroom. Judge Deborah Hedlund must determine whether engineering firm URS Corp. can be hit with punitive damages if it loses a case scheduled for trial next year.
The collapse during rush hour on Aug. 1, 2007, killed 13 people and injured 145.
Victims' attorneys argued that URS, the consulting firm hired years before the accident to analyze the bridge, didn't heed warning signs such as bowing in connector plates that federal investigators later pinpointed as the origin of the collapse. Lawyers for the California-based company told the judge that engineers didn't know of an original design flaw that left the bridge with gusset plates that were too thin.
"We didn't know until after the bridge collapse, like everyone else," URS lawyer George Eck said.
Hedlund aggressively questioned Eck over steps URS engineers did take to assess the bridge's strength and photographs they took showing deformities in the plates... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Mon, July 19, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski