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May 28, 2008

Gusset plates focus of bridge inspection

Engineers eyeball St. Peter span

By Dan Linehan

ST PETER — Engineers are scrutinizing a St. Peter bridge that’s one of seven truss bridges around the state that has the type of gusset plates fingered in a preliminary report as a possible cause of the I-35W bridge collapse.

Inspectors will come within a few feet of each segment of the bridge, but there will be more attention than usual paid to the plates, which hold parts of the bridge together. Some of the gusset plates on the I-35W bridge were about half as thick as they should have been.

There are hundreds of gusset plates on the Highway 99 bridge, said Larry Cooper, bridge supervisor Minnesota Department of Transportation’s 7th District. The bridge carries about 6,000 vehicles over the Minnesota River each day.

Two days into an inspection that will finish today or Friday, Cooper said he’s satisfied with the gusset plates, which can be several inches across with only a few rivets or many meters wide with dozens of rivets.



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