Designer Of Doomed Mpls. Bridge Seeks Legal Waiver

Hedlund's eventual ruling matters to a maze of lawsuits attempting to assign blame and damages from the Aug. 1, 2007 collapse during rush hour:

—So far, 21 lawsuits from some of the 145 injured and families of the 13 killed in the disaster have been filed against two companies doing engineering and repaving work on the bridge. Dozens more cases are expected to be filed this month.

—Those companies — URS Corp. and Progressive Contractors Inc. — want to draw the design firm in so it would share in any potential costs.

—The state of Minnesota is suing and being sued as well.

The confluence created quite a scene in court Friday. Ten lawyers sat elbow-to-elbow at two tables before Hedlund in her Hennepin County courtroom. They spoke over one another when summoned to the bench for an off-the-record meeting to map out depositions and document exchanges.

None of the cases are expected to go to trial before late 2010.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined late last year that the bridge collapsed because some steel gusset plates that held the bridge's beams together were designed to be only half an inch thick, when they should have been an inch thick.