WASHINGTON - Minnesota Democrat Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, fired off a critical letter to the head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Wednesday, saying it was "highly inappropriate" for him to dismiss corrosion and poor maintenance as possible causes for the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.
Oberstar, in a rare public rebuke, told NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker that he had "serious concerns with some unfortunate comments" Rosenker made in tracing the accident to a design flaw in the bridge, even as the board has made no final determination of its cause.
"The board has not determined whether the design of the plates was the primary cause of the accident compared to other possible causes such as corrosion and poor maintenance," Oberstar wrote.
Rosenker, who announced the NTSB's preliminary findings last week, was not available for comment. An NTSB spokesman said Rosenker wanted to respond directly to Oberstar before making any public remarks.
In issuing an NTSB safety warning about possible design errors in other bridges around the nation, Rosenker minimized the areas of cracking and corrosion found in the 40-year-old Minneapolis span, saying "there is no indication that any of those areas played a significant role in the collapse of the bridge."
A design flaw would give Oberstar and other DFLers less of an opening to hold officials at the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Gov. Tim Pawlenty responsible for what they view as a lack of inspection and proper maintenance on the bridge.
Talking to reporters about the letter, Oberstar attributed Rosenker's statements to inexperience, noting that he has been serving as board chairman only since March 2005.
"He hasn't managed a major issue of this kind before," said Oberstar, who has spent 25 years on panels overseeing aviation or major transportation calamities. "I think he has overstepped his bounds."
Rosenker, a retired major general in the Air Force Reserve, joined the NTSB board in 2003 and has been on the scene of several major transportation mishaps, including the 2004 derailment of Amtrak's City of New Orleans in Mississippi; the 2004 crash of a charter jet on its way to pick up former President George H.W. Bush, and the 2005 capsizing of a tourist boat on Lake George, N.Y., which killed 20 people.
In a recent interview with the Star Tribune, Rosenker said the I-35W bridge collapse resulted from the failure of a series of undersized steel gusset plates. "That's what broke," he said.
What remains to be determined, he added, is "what is the straw that broke the camel's back." One possible cause, he suggested, was the addition of extra weight of construction equipment that had been placed on the bridge shortly before it collapsed on Aug. 1.
Rosenker dismissed any political calculation in the NTSB investigation. "It's just what the facts are, and we don't shade them in any way," he said.
Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753
