By Mike Kaszuba

Barry LePatner, a New York lawyer and construction industry advisor, is not yet done with the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.

In a new book released last week, "Too Big to Fall: America's Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward", LePatner takes aim at the National Transportation Safety Board's conclusion that the August 2007 tragedy in Minneapolis was primarily caused by a 40-yar-old design flaw regarding the bridge's gusset plates. In Minnesota, the NTSB's findings have been repeatedly cited by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and others as evidence that the fatal collapse had little to do with the bridge's maintenance by state officials. But LePatner, citing the collapse as a symbol of the country's infrastructure problems, said the NTSB ignored the findings of regular state maintenance reports, was "negatively influenced" by politics and wrongly exonerated the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The NTSB, said LePatner, "dismissed any connection between the bridge's collapse and MnDOT's maintenance of the bridge, or its poor condition." He said the NTSB report "said nothing about MnDOT's decision-making process or whether MnDOT had acted prudently. . .to protect the well-documented fragility of the bridge." "Based on the maintenance history of the [bridge's] extensive wear and tear, corrosion, and signs of incipient failure for many years prior to the collapse, dismissing MnDOT of any responsibility for its collapse is inexcusable," he said. As far as politics, LePatner said: "It was no small matter that the head of MnDOT was Gov. Tim Pawlenty's lieutenant governor, Carol Molnau, who herself was not an engineer experienced in infrastructure management." In an interview this week State Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel, who succeeded Molnau in the job, said he still supported the NTSB's conclusion. "I go back to what the NTSB report said, and that [the primary cause was] a design error in the gusset plate," he said. Did the maintenance of the bridge play any role, he was asked. "No, I think it's that [the gusset plate]," Sorel replied.