MINNEAPOLIS — The chairman of the House Transportation Committee criticized federal investigators Sunday after a published report said they have determined an original design flaw is the most likely reason for the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators believe the bridge’s original designers probably neglected to calculate the size of key gusset plates — devices that help connect steel beams — that eventually failed, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.
Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, was skeptical of earlier suggestions from the NTSB that gusset-plate design was responsible for the bridge collapse, and Sunday he held to that view.
“It stretches both credibility and past experience with bridge structural failure to find causation through a single factor,” Oberstar said, also criticizing the NTSB for what he said “appears to be a selective leak.”
