Article: Flaw caused Minn. bridge collapse: ; Plates that linked beams were worn down by years of heavy loads

A design flaw caused a Minnesota bridge to collapse last summer, killing 13 people and injuring 100 in an accident that focused renewed attention on the safety of the nation's highways and bridges, according to federal sources familiar with the investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to announce today that investigators have traced the failure to steel structures known as gusset plates that held together beams on the Minneapolis bridge, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the board's findings.

Some gusset plates on the bridge, which carried eight-lane Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River, ...

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