Bloomberg
URS Corp., an engineering and construction company, agreed to pay more than $52 million to settle claims that it failed to spot problems with a Minnesota bridge that collapsed and killed 13 people three years ago.
The company’s insurers will pay the settlement, which covers 145 people injured in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge outside Minneapolis along with the families of those killed, San Francisco-based URS officials said in a statement.
“I’m happy that the lawsuit has reached this conclusion, but there’s no doubt in my mind that any of us would trade this settlement for a bridge that was structurally safe in the first place,” Garrett Ebling, a survivor of the collapse, said at a news conference today.
The August 2007 collapse of the 40-year-old bridge was one of the worst U.S. bridge failures in the last 30 years, according to environmentalgraffiti.com, which tracks such disasters. The failure led to widespread concern over the safety of U.S. bridges.
URS officials, hired by the state of Minnesota to assess the safety of its bridges, didn’t know about a design flaw in the structure that left it vulnerable to collapse, the company said in the e-mailed statement. National Transportation Safety Board officials found in 2008 that the bridge’s steel plates weren’t hardy enough to handle traffic flow on the structure.
‘Protracted Litigation’
“We believe we have exposed exactly why the bridge fell,” said Chris Messerly, a Minneapolis-based lawyer for the bridge victims. He said victims are holding URS responsible for its role in the collapse through the settlement.
“We can’t directly change how corporate America conducts its business and treats people,” Messerly said in an interview today.
URS officials said the settlement wasn’t an “admission of liability or fault” on behalf of the Minnesota concrete contractor and engineering firm.
“URS believes it is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to resolve this matter and avoid the cost and distraction of protracted litigation,” officials said in the release.
Victims sued URS in state court in Minneapolis in 2009. The case was set for trial in April. In March, URS agreed to pay $5 million to the state of Minnesota over its claims.
Messerly said Judge Deborah Hedlund gave final approval to the settlement Aug. 14 after the parties concluded negotiations.
The case is In re I-35W Bridge Collapse Litigation, 27-cv-09-16985, District Court of Hennepin County, Minnesota (Minneapolis).
The company’s insurers will pay the settlement, which covers 145 people injured in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge outside Minneapolis along with the families of those killed, San Francisco-based URS officials said in a statement.
“I’m happy that the lawsuit has reached this conclusion, but there’s no doubt in my mind that any of us would trade this settlement for a bridge that was structurally safe in the first place,” Garrett Ebling, a survivor of the collapse, said at a news conference today.
The August 2007 collapse of the 40-year-old bridge was one of the worst U.S. bridge failures in the last 30 years, according to environmentalgraffiti.com, which tracks such disasters. The failure led to widespread concern over the safety of U.S. bridges.
URS officials, hired by the state of Minnesota to assess the safety of its bridges, didn’t know about a design flaw in the structure that left it vulnerable to collapse, the company said in the e-mailed statement. National Transportation Safety Board officials found in 2008 that the bridge’s steel plates weren’t hardy enough to handle traffic flow on the structure.
‘Protracted Litigation’
“We believe we have exposed exactly why the bridge fell,” said Chris Messerly, a Minneapolis-based lawyer for the bridge victims. He said victims are holding URS responsible for its role in the collapse through the settlement.
“We can’t directly change how corporate America conducts its business and treats people,” Messerly said in an interview today.
URS officials said the settlement wasn’t an “admission of liability or fault” on behalf of the Minnesota concrete contractor and engineering firm.
“URS believes it is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to resolve this matter and avoid the cost and distraction of protracted litigation,” officials said in the release.
Victims sued URS in state court in Minneapolis in 2009. The case was set for trial in April. In March, URS agreed to pay $5 million to the state of Minnesota over its claims.
Messerly said Judge Deborah Hedlund gave final approval to the settlement Aug. 14 after the parties concluded negotiations.
The case is In re I-35W Bridge Collapse Litigation, 27-cv-09-16985, District Court of Hennepin County, Minnesota (Minneapolis).
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