The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will release their final report the week of Nov. 10 on 2007’s fatal highway bridge Collapse in Minneapolis.
According to a preliminary announcement, the NTSB is expected to reveal that the collapse was due to a design flaw that left the steel bridge weak at critical points.
The results are likely to initiate calls for more spending on the nation’s bridges, say civil engineering groups.
The investigation "did focus attention on the conditions of bridges across the country," said Andrew Herrmann, an engineer at the firm Hardesty & Hanover and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers board of directors. "Hopefully, it will lead to more funding for deficient bridges."
Several issues argue for additional spending on bridge safety, according to leading engineers, including University of California-Berkeley engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh, who works for a law firm that represents victims in the collapse.
Among some of the potential issues: