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Minneapolis

Questioned bridge over Minn. freeway to open with less blacktop

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(AP) - Minnesota bridge inspectors found no safety threats Tuesday when they examined a bridge that sagged a day earlier over a busy freeway.

The problem forced the closure of Interstate 35W for about 2½ hours during Monday's afternoon rush hour. It happened about six miles south of the collapsed Mississippi River bridge on the same freeway.

Minnesota Department of Transportation spokesman Kent Barnard said the sagging bridge will be repaved with less blacktop and the median barriers will be adjusted.

The bridge is expected to carry traffic by early next week after inspectors found no problems with a beam that bent slightly under the weight of fresh asphalt. Crews scraped much of the blacktop off.

"The bridge will be very safe for the motoring public," Barnard said.

The bridge will carry westbound traffic on Highway 62 through the fall of 2009 as part of a major construction project in a tangle of roads known as the Crosstown Commons.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)