Wobbling bridge finally fell

This seems to be rather revealing: apparently the 35W bridge was felt to wobble by construction workers resurfacing it on the days preceding its collapse.

Here's a letter to the Star Tribune editors, talking about that point:

The bridge had been wobbling

In the Aug. 4 front page article "Disbelief gave way to action for first responders," there was a recounting of information gathered from Minneapolis Police Sgt. Tim Hoeppner. On page A11, the continued article reads, "Hoeppner talked to construction workers who survived the fall. They had been doing repair work but expressed concern to him that the bridge had been wobbling several days before it collapsed."

What?! This is shocking! It goes on to say, "Every layer of concrete the workers removed, the bridge would wobble even more, they told Hoeppner."

Can Star Tribune reporters find out if these workers passed this information to supervisors, MnDOT or to other government representatives?

The headline should have been, "Wobbling bridge finally fell."

LAURA THOMAS, MINNEAPOLIS

Sure enough. I just re-read that article, and here's what it said:

At the site, Hoeppner talked to construction workers who survived the fall. They had been doing repair work but expressed concern to him that the bridge had been wobbling several days before it collapsed. Every layer of concrete the workers removed, the bridge would wobble even more, they told Hoeppner.

I think that's a pretty good clue that further investigation should have been done.