Steel remnants from the collapsed I-35W bridge have returned to Minnesota after being investigated in Washington, D.C.
The remnants were delivered by semi trucks over the weekend and are now being housed in a new warehouse at the MnDOT Oakdale facility.
The National Transportation Safety Board had kept the pieces in Washington, D.C. during its two-year investigation. That investigation is now over, but the pieces must be preserved.
"There's litigation taking place regarding the bridge collapse and all of the steel ... is considered evidence in that litigation," says MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht. "Consequently, we are required by law to preserve the evidence."
Lawsuits related to the collapse are not scheduled to begin until March 2011.
The Oakdale facility is housing numerous pieces of steel, including the faulty gusset plates thought by federal investigators to have caused the collapse.
MNDOT also moved some pieces -- mostly beearings -- from Bohemian Flats along the Mississippi River into the storage facility a week and a half ago. Those bearings had been sitting outside for the past couple years. Moving them inside will hopefully prevent the steel from rusting, which further damages the evidence, Gutknecht says.
Larger pieces from the bridge are still at Bohemian Flats. Gutknecht says those pieces cannot be moved without cutting them, so they'll remain along the Mississippi River until the lawsuits are complete.
The Oakdale facility is about 5,000 square feet and cost more than $200,000 to build. It will be used for other purposes once the steel is gone.
Click here for KARE's story of the NTSB investigation from 2007
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