Construction Bulletin welcomes the new commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Tom Sorel. Sorel knows and understands what Minnesota needs in its infrastructure, transportation and budget that will build and repair the state's roads and bridges without cost overruns.

He has degrees in civil engineering and business administration along with certificates in conflict management and project management. Sorel worked as an administrator in Minnesota for the Federal Highway Administration and coordinated the federal transportation response to the I-35W bridge collapse.

With this appointment, the three-state Construction Bulletin region has leaders in the departments of Transportation who are qualified and experienced in roads, bridges and transportation. In North Dakota, Francis Ziegler, director of the Department of Transportation, is a civil engineer with many years of experience in the department. Darin Bergquist, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Transportation, is an attorney who joined the Department of Transportation in 1998 as an assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. He became program manager in the Office of Right of Way, director of Operations, and was appointed secretary in October 2007.

They will manage their respective agencies without fanfare and controversy to keep regional infrastructure in top shape given their budgets.

The first of three investigative reports about the I-35W bridge collapse concluded that the Minnesota Department of Transportation missed opportunities to detect potentially fatal problems, lacked money which led to poor decisions, did not have the leadership to properly address a variety of projects, and did not document or follow up on its inspections of the bridge.

The Minnesota legislature retained Gray Plant Mooty, a Minneapolis law firm, to conduct an independent investigation on its behalf about the I-35W bridge collapse and whether the collapse might be related to policies or practices that the legislature could address. The $550,000 paid to retain these services could be better used on bridge reconstruction.

In addition, the Democratic legislature hired a Democratic law firm whose conclusions are not totally objective. Would a Republican law firm conducting the investigation and writing this report have come to the same conclusions?

Gray Plant Mooty's report said the Minnesota legislature chose the firm "to examine the condition, not of our roads and bridges, but of the Minnesota Department of Transportation ("MnDOT") which oversaw the physical condition of the Bridge."

In the report, MnDOT was portrayed as an agency that needed an overhaul. When the agency was decentralized, some operations became uncertain, such as who and what department should deal with "big-ticket" repair projects, such as the I-35W bridge. In 1991, MnDOT officials downgraded the bridge, engineers studied the bridge, inspectors examined it, and MnDOT hired consultants to work on it. However, no one ever developed a plan to repair the bridge and increase its rating.

Missing or incomplete information about the bridge was scattered among several departments. Consultants' recommendations could not be found, no one asked for more money to repair the bridge, and bridge experts and inspectors were in different offices miles apart.

Gray Plant Mooty's report pointed to funding as the major influence of decisions made about the bridge. Before the bridge collapsed, "funding considerations deferred work on the bridge that would have improved its structural integrity, not just maintain its drivability," according to the report.

Its conclusion is that the state needs sensible fixes and needs legislators' help to fund this bridge repair and other infrastructure. In addition, MnDOT must improve its operations.

This report is not about an independent investigation. A state law firm with ties to the legislature should not have been selected to conduct the investigation for the legislature. A truly independent investigation would be conducted by people and organizations that have no ties to Minnesota and its politicians. Would Minnesota allow a private law firm to tell its politicians what to do? Apparently, it would.

The public already knows MnDOT needs more money to fix roads and bridges. The 15-inch report only confirms the public's knowledge. People surmise from the news that internal mismanagement at MnDOT caused budget problems, bad decisions and no action to fix the bridge.

Minnesota residents are fuming that three studies are being conducted on the bridge and millions of tax dollars are wasted to fund these studies. Two additional investigations and reports will be released in August and later this fall. We hope these reports are not redundant.