WASHINGTON - Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday that the state only recently decided to sue an I-35W bridge consultant with whom it has millions of dollars in contracts, and that the state's relationship with URS Corp. "may change."
Pawlenty, in Washington for a meeting on education, told the Star Tribune in an interview that the decision to sue URS was made by the Minnesota attorney general and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) only in the last month.
Since the collapse of the I-35W bridge in 2007, state transportation officials have awarded more than $55 million in contracts to URS and Progressive Contractors Inc., two companies they now hold at least partly responsible for the disaster. URS' most recent contract, a $99,892 Twin Cities traffic simulation project, was authorized on July 23, just a few days before the state filed suit against the San Francisco-based company.
"There have been deliberations about it for months," Pawlenty said, "but the decision to sue them was made, I think, in the last month."
Pawlenty said he'd defer questions about the details of the lawsuit's timing to the attorney general and MnDOT. "That's not something I manage day to day," he said.
The state's lawsuit accuses URS of negligence in failing to adequately inspect and analyze the bridge and of failing to detect under-designed gusset plate connectors.
A November report by the National Transportation Safety Board found pointed to those connectors as a reason for the bridge's collapse.
"I think the lawyers for the state believe it is worth at least pursuing whether URS should have discovered that earlier," Pawlenty said.
He said it would have been difficult for the state to sever its business relationship with URS until it was committed to sue.
"Until recently, both from a legal and practical standpoint, it wasn't clear that the state was going to sue URS," Pawlenty said. "That was under a lot of legal and practical consideration for many months. Now, the nature of that relationship may change."
Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753
