Construction Expert Denounces the NTSB's Report on the I-35W Bridge Collapse

New York, NY (November 2008)—It's been more than a year since the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. And now, the final report put forward by the National Transportation Safety Board has concluded from its investigation: (1) the steel gusset plates originally designed in the mid-1960s to reinforce the bridge's joints were half an inch too thin; (2) the probable causes for the collapse were additional modifications to the original design, which added substantial weight to the bridge, and the weight added by construction materials placed on the bridge by a contractor just prior to the collapse. That's it. And if you're thinking Surely, there was more to the collapse than that, construction expert Barry B. LePatner says you are right. And by ignoring the other (extremely critical) factors, the NTSB is perpetuating a problem that puts millions of Americans in danger every day.

"The NTSB is severely neglecting its duty to protect Americans," says LePatner, coauthor of Structural & Foundation Failures (McGraw-Hill, 1982, coauthored with Sidney M. Johnson, P.E.) and author of Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press, October 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-47267-6, ISBN-10: 0-226-47267-1, $25.00). "By placing the sole blame for the bridge collapse on the gusset plates and the added weight factor, the Board has ignored the inefficiency and irresponsibility among the government agencies responsible for the bridge, which also contributed to the disaster."

At the heart of many of these problems is the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which (and here's a scary thought!) has long been considered one of the better state transportation departments in the country. Basically, MnDOT failed to protect the public from a preventable disaster that was long in the making. And the problems faced by MnDOT are far from isolated. DOTs everywhere are struggling to keep the highways and byways that connect this nation in working order.

We must put these struggles in perspective: There are 12,000 bridges in our country whose designs are similar to the I-35W Bridge. Furthermore, according to statistics from a 2007 U.S. Department of Transportation/Research and Innovative Technology Administration report, there are over 72,000 bridges that are labeled "structurally deficient" and over 81,000 bridges identified as "functionally obsolete." Every one of these bridges needs detailed inspections to ensure their safety.