MINNEAPOLIS - 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," said their spokesman, 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. He said he expects it to be at least a week before cranes start regularly hauling out large pieces of debris.
The FBI team had to abandon the use of the larger of its two unmanned submarines, agent Paul McCabe said Wednesday. The remote-controlled vehicle -- equipped with a camera, sonar, lights and a grabbing arm -- was too big to maneuver amid the unstable, twisted bridge wreckage and vehicles in the cloudy water, he said.
Instead, FBI divers will try their smaller sub, a shoe-box-size vehicle equipped only with lights and a camera. Its smaller thrusters make it more difficult to navigate the Mississippi River's stiff river currents. The water where the divers are working ranges from 2 to 14 feet deep.
Debris removal had been expected to begin this week. The State Patrol said 88 vehicles have been located 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.
"We have now met with every single worker who was on the bridge when it collapsed," Tom Sloan, vice president of the company's bridge division, said in a statement. "None of them observed or reported any unusual swaying."
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.
Investigators said they have also found design issues with gusset plates -- steel plates that tie steel beams together -- but gave no other details. The update said investigators were verifying loads and stresses on the beams, as well as materials in the plates.
Officials of the Minnesota Department of Transportation wouldn't comment on the significance of the gussets in the bridge's collapse.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters cautioned states Wednesday to consider the additional weight placed on bridges during construction or repair projects.
"Given the questions being raised by the NTSB, it is vital that states remain mindful of the extra weight construction projects place on bridges," she said in a statement.
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.
U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who is chairman of the U.S. House Transportation Committee, on Wednesday proposed a temporary gas tax increase of 5 cents a gallon. It would pay for a new trust fund to repair and replace structurally deficient bridges on the National Highway System.
The trust fund would be modeled on the federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for building and repairing roads and bridges through the gasoline tax. Money in the new trust fund could not be used for any other purpose than bridges.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to support legislative efforts to repair the nation's aging bridges, roads and schools.
"Our sadness must at least be met with a commitment to address our infrastructure shortcomings. It's a huge task," the California Democrat said Wednesday at a meeting in Massachusetts of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Flags flew at half-staff Wednesday -- the one-week anniversary of the collapse -- at the state Capitol in St. Paul.
