As you look down on the West River Flats from the Washington Street Bridge, you'll find dozens of mangled and twisted steel strips. They're closely guarded by Minneapolis Police on the banks of the Mississippi River. These are the pieces of steel that could be the key to the I-35 bridge collapse investigation.
The area is known as the Bohemian Flats. Eunice Eckerly has lived here for decades.
"I walk by here because I love the river, it is an energizing force to me," she said looking down on the twisted steel. "It has just been coming down the river, everyday it seems like there's more," Eckerly remarked.
Just up river, from the 10th Avenue Bridge, KARE 11 got a good look at what demolition crews and NTSB investigators were working on Monday. Crews hammered away at the South end of the bridge, pounding through feet of concrete. A MnDOT spokesperson says that section of concrete isn't a key ingredient in the investigation, but crews were saving the steel support beams for closer inspection.
"That center section that's underwater, they have to retain, take the concrete chunks and save those pieces," Donna Lindberg with MnDOT explained.
Divers were also underwater cutting chunks of steel. The beams were lifted by crane onto a barge, then brought downriver to the Bohemian Flats.
One thing Carl Bolander and Sons contractors are trying to do is clear a channel for boat and barge traffic on the river. That could be done by mid-September if crews can clean up all the steel and concrete in a 15 foot deep, 60 foot wide channel where the bridge collapsed.
KARE 11 also noticed crews setting up concrete barricades on the 10th Avenue Bridge. Piled up along those were yards and yards of chain link fence. We're told 10th Ave. near the I-35 Bridge may reopen Friday, and will almost certainly be open by Labor Day.
"One lane of traffic in each direction, or two lanes then and then the pedestrian walkway on the Westside," Lindberg said.
(Copyright 2007 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
