Congresswoman Addresses Bridge Disaster

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Betty McCollum is a Congresswoman from St. Paul, Minnesota. Many of her constituents use that bridge and some might well have been traveling across it last evening. She joins us from here in Washington, D.C., this morning. Hello.

Representative BETTY McCOLLUM (Democrat, Minnesota): Good morning, Renee.

MONTAGNE: Congresswoman McCollum, what are you hearing form your district? Do you know if any of your constituents were in fact involved in this collapse?

Rep. McCOLLUM: Well, there's going to be searches continuing. Again, of course, we're all upset and praying for the families of the victims and those who are in emergency rooms around the Twin Cities area. But we are very concerned that there still are many missing.

MONTAGNE: What are you hearing about what is now a recovery effort this morning?

Rep. McCOLLUM: Well, it became very dangerous as they lost light for the first responders, especially those who are working in the water area with the debris and limited visibility, to continue to be in and around the water. And that's why the rescue turned into recovery as night fell - the currents were starting to pick up in the river.

MONTAGNE: The idea being that they have retrieved some bodies, but that, presumably, those who are missing - those still in the river will probably be recovered?

Rep. McCOLLUM: That would appear - the fact that they went to recovery stage, but, you know, we all hold out hope.

MONTAGNE: Have you or your colleagues had any concerns about the safety of this bridge or other bridges in Minnesota?

Rep. McCOLLUM: This is a bridge that I drive on frequently and I had no concerns about safety. But transportation in general has been a major issue since 2000 in the gubernatorial races particularly. The Twin Cities area has just grown by leaps and bounds on both the east and the west metro. And as you know, this bridge is a main artery in Minneapolis. It's a national highway and it connects the Twin Cities primarily. And there had been concern in an inspection done in 2001, in which there was sighting of desk stress, of poor fatigue starting to show up on the bridge. So, we in the Twin Cities have been really struggling with what to do about the volume of traffic, what to do about transit, transportation.

So, in general, we've been having a lot of political discussions about what next for the Twin Cities in order to keep traffic moving safely, and this bridge will certainly highlight it.

MONTAGNE: How important is this bridge to the commute in the sense of what must they be going through today?

Rep. McCOLLUM: Oh my gosh. This is just - this bridge is huge, huge to the commute. A hundred and fifty thousand cars could be on that bridge throughout the day. There will have to be major traffic reroutes - I know there will be a lot of traffic rerouted to the city of St. Paul on streets that aren't designed to handle this type of flaw.

So Minnesotans will, you know, come together and quietly figure out how to do this in the next day or two. But this is going to be something that's going to have to be dealt with for years until a new bridge is put up. How the alternative transportation routes will be set up and the impact that they're going to have on citizens just in their daily life is going to take a while to get adjusted to.

MONTAGNE: Betty McCollum is a Congresswoman from St. Paul, Minnesota. Thanks very much.

Rep. McCOLLUM: Thank you.

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