No, I believe it was gussett failure. What I have posted many times is that there were yearly inspections going back for years that pointed out large and serious cracks in them and serious corrosion in many places (the gussett that failed had corroded to the point where it was 1/2 of its original thickness). In addition, several additional lanes were added, which obviously increased stress in the structure. This was all ignored.
There was a plan to reinforce these places, and it actually went out for bid, but it was put on hold at the last minute. Instead, the bridge was resurfaced, which means that they planned to keep the bridge in service for at least another 15 years WITHOUT reinforcing it.
Who made those decisions? WHY did they make such stupid decisions? If they are still in a decision making position in the MNDOT, WHY are they still there? Those are the questions I would like answered. Instead, the whitewash blamed people who are dead or long retired for mistakes (which may or may not be true) and absolved the people who much more recently made much more serious mistakes.
Those are all very good questions, and I agree we need answers right away.
More than likely, some politician over-rode the decision of an engineer.