Bridge rubble removal is postponed

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Navy divers continued probing the wreckage of a collapsed bridge for bodies Wednesday, and officials said they expected removal of heavy debris to begin later than expected to give the divers time to do their work.

At the dive site, two large cranes were ready to go. But they sat idle as divers returned to the water about 7 a.m., doing “a very meticulous, hand-over-hand search of the scene,” saidspokesman Senior Chief Dave Nagle.

Navy and FBI dive teams are trying to go deeper into the debris of the Interstate 35W bridge than the local dive teams that have worked since the Aug. 1 collapse, police Capt. Mike Martin said.

Debris removal had been expected to begin this week. The State Patrol said 88 vehicles have been at the collapse site, including those in the Mississippi River.

Meanwhile, the company that was working on the bridge rejected a report that one of its workers had noticed unusual swaying of the bridge in the days before the collapse. Progressive Contractors Inc. had said that it didn’t believe any of its work contributed to the bridge failure, but the company hadn’t responded directly to claims of wobbling.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said reports of wobbling will be part of its investigation. The agency issued a brief update of its work Wednesday, saying helicopter observations had found several “tensile fractures” in the superstructure on the north side of the bridge, but nothing that appeared to show where the collapse began.

Five people are confirmed dead in the collapse, with at least eight others missing and presumed dead. At least eight people were still hospitalized Wednesday, one in critical condition.