I-35 bridge firm settles suits

Progressive Contractors Inc., the company that was resurfacing the Interstate 35W bridge when it fell two years ago, has reached settlements with collapse survivors and the state of Minnesota.

Terms of the settlement with survivors, approved Friday by a judge, are confidential. Kyle Hart, an attorney for PCI, said the company's insurers "tendered the limits of PCI's liability insurance at the time," while Chris Messerly, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, indicated that it was not a huge sum compared with what might be sought in suits against other players in the disaster.

Hart said that the company believes that the National Transportation Safety Board's findings "cleared PCI of any wrongdoing" in the Aug. 1, 2007, collapse and "this settlement allows PCI to put this matter behind it."

Messerly, who is representing 103 people as part of a consortium of lawyers working pro bono, said the settlement "falls far short of fully compensating the survivors and families of those who did not survive," but the plaintiffs believe that the agreement "is in their best interests under the circumstances."

"This was a secondary defendant without a lot of assets and resources," he said, adding that PCI is "not the primary wrongdoer."

Suits involving URS, a consultant that advised the Minnesota Department of Transportation on the bridge's structural condition, and Jacobs Engineering, the successor to the company that designed the bridge in the 1960s, are still pending, with a trial before Judge Deborah Hedlund set for March 2011. URS and the state are suing each other, while the survivors are suing URS and Jacobs. The state is also suing Jacobs.

A spokesman for URS said Friday that the firm had no comment.

The various suits against PCI alleged that its placement of 287 tons of gravel, equipment and other materials on the bridge's center span contributed to the collapse, which killed 13 people and injured 145. In its final ruling, made a year ago, the NTSB said the 40-year-old bridge fell because some of its steel plates were half the thickness they should have been. The board also cited the weight of the construction materials as a likely factor.

A separate settlement, also approved by Hedlund, requires PCI to pay the state $1 million to resolve claims against the company. The state had sued PCI in an effort to recover some of the nearly $37 million that was paid to survivors and families from a special fund set up by the Legislature. PCI, meanwhile, had sued the state, accusing it of failing to warn the company about the bridge's problems. Survivors can't sue the state because they accepted payouts from the fund.

Hart said that dividing up the PCI settlement for survivors had been left to the plaintiffs.

Jennifer Holmes, whose husband, Patrick, died in the collapse, said she hasn't been told yet what to expect from the settlement but she is eager to put the bridge lawsuits behind her.

"The whole situation will never, ever be over because it affected mine and my kids' lives for the rest of their lives," Holmes said. "It'll just be nice someday to not have to think of litigation and all that kind of stuff."

'Mediation track' worked

Jim Schwebel, who represents 34 of the bridge victims and their families, said that the court had instructed parties in the numerous suits to "work on a mediation track" while the discovery phase of the litigation proceeded.

"I think that was an outstandingly intelligent thing for the court to do because in many cases the lawyers take depositions for two years, spend an enormous amount of time and money, and then they go into mediation," Schwebel said.

Not all of the suits appear to be headed for mediation, however. Messerly said that his group of lawyers had made a settlement offer to URS but was turned down. "We'll get justice for the victims when we have a chance to talk to a jury," he said. "We tried to settle it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Jim Foti • 612-673-4491