Officials clear way for debris removal from collapse site

MINNEAPOLIS -- With all the victims believed to have been recovered, federal investigators gave state transportation officials clearance Tuesday to pull away the concrete deck of the collapsed interstate bridge.

The cleanup and rebuilding steps kicked into a higher gear a day after divers pulled the body of construction worker Gregory Jolstad from the Mississippi River, about three weeks after the eight-lane bridge fell Aug. 1.

"This community will now be on the road to recovery," U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said at a briefing near the collapse site.

Before all 13 known victims were accounted for, crews had proceeded delicately with debris removal.

Cranes and other heavy-duty equipment are now being moved in to extract bigger pieces.

With the recovery operation over, officials gave reporters and TV cameras their first close look at the collapse site Tuesday.

Much of the bridge decking still lies in broken pieces across the river, but all the vehicles have been removed except for a truck belonging to the construction crew that was working on the bridge when it collapsed.

A pedestrian bridge was reopened just a few hundred feet downstream from the collapse site, giving gawkers a better view. Still closed is a bridge that runs parallel to the interstate bridge; a city spokesman said a decision on when to reopen it would come in a few days.

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker, who joined Peters, said parts of the southern approach span and the concrete deck could be cleared away. Investigators want crews to move more slowly on the steel underpinnings of the bridge.

Construction cranes are being shipped into the collapse site on barges. They will be used to extract massive chunks of concrete from the bridge deck lying in the river and blocking the channel for boats.

The chunks of bridge are being moved to two sites, one just upriver and the other just downriver, where they'll be available to investigators.

The NTSB will have a crew on site into November, Rosenker said, but most of his staff has returned to Washington, D.C., to do lab analysis using computer models and more closely inspect parts already collected.