Fatal bridge collapse: Minneapolis

The Associated Press: [1]

MINNEAPOLIS (Aug. 1) - An interstate bridge suddenly broke into huge sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River during bumper-to-bumper traffic Wednesday, killing at least six people and sending vehicles, tons of concrete, and twisted metal crashing into the river.

The New York Times [2]:

A 2001 evoluation of the bridge, prepared for the state transportation department by the University of Minnesota Civil Engineering Department, reported that there were preliminary signs of fatigue on the steel truss section under the roadway, but no cracking. It said there was no need for the transportation department to replace the bridge because of fatigue cracking.

2001 Minnesota Department of Transportation "Fatigue Evaluation" [3] of the bridge:

Mn/DOT does does not need to prematurely replace this bridge because of fatigue cracking, avoiding the high costs associated with such a large project.... fatigue cracking is not expected during the remaining useful life of the bridge....

The Minnesota City Pages, [4], January 19, 2005:

In some ways the checkered two-year reing of Tim Pawlenty has looked less like an exercise in governance than a deliberate and increasingly harrowing game of chicken. Since famously signing on to the Taxpayers League of Minnesota's "new new taxes" pledge during his 2002 gubernatorial run—a classic instance of a politician being led in shackles to exactly the spot where he meant to stand all along—Pawlenty has remained steadfast in his commitment to austerity now and forever. His first budget cycle, in 2003, found the state facing a $4.2 billion hole in his finances that Pawlenty himself, as a tax-hawking member of the state legislature, had been instrumental in creating.

Pawlenty balanced that first biennial budget with a flurry of fiscal derring-do that left many legislators and onlookers alike to sort out later what had actually happened:

• $2 billion in cuts to state services...

• more than a $1 billion taking of onetime monies, most of it from the tobacco settlement fund...

• and the juggling of millions more dollars through accounting shifts and delayed payment arrangements...

Any "delayed payment arrangements" to the Minnesota Department of Transportation?