Mndot

In a 44-22 vote by Minnesota’s state Senate today, Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau was removed from her post as Commissioner of Transportation.

The Senate declined to confirm Molnau, who has been under fire for her response to the Interstate 35W Mississippi River Bridge disaster and for subsequent media revelations about the state of MnDOT management under [...]

Cartoonist Craig Livingstone depicted state Sen. Steve Murphy, D-Red Wing, in the uniform of a Nazi “brownshirt” saying, “Ve vill round up all Republican bridge engineers who vorked at MnDOT since… 1967.” The cartoon, which ran in the print edition of the Red Wing Republican Eagle on Jan. 19, elicited a disapproving letter to the [...]

Rep. Jim Oberstar, D- Minn., has delivered a strongly worded letter to National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker for announcing the cause of the I-35W bridge collapse at the NTSB’s Jan. 15 press conference, despite the fact that the board has made no such determination.

Oberstar, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, [...]

Before she was lieutenant governor and transportation commissioner, before she beat Jesse Ventura in a keg-tossing competition, and before she was a politician, Carol Molnau was a “dedicated farm wife” and national arm-wrestling champion.

Because she is once again in the spotlight, the Chaska Herald has graciously reposted its post-championship profile of Molnau from Wednesday, Oct. [...]

Now’s the time to buy earplugs if you live or work near the north end of the I-35W bridge construction site.

Workers will start drilling foundation shafts there sometime in the middle of next week. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says the drilling will create “noticeable noise” because of the site’s elevation and three large air [...]

Editor’s note: As we count down the final days of 2007, we look back at some of the most interesting or important stories of the past year. Here’s the third in this ongoing series.

The last year has been marked by three separate but significant failures of state government: the collapse of the 35W bridge, [...]

The Rules Committee of the Minnesota state Senate has approved $250,000 for a joint committee investigation of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). The House is expected to follow suit and approve an additional $250,000 for the investigation. The $500,000 will be paid to Minneapolis law firm Gray Plant Mooty, which was selected to aid [...]

Embattled Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau has responded to preliminary findings of the State House Commerce and Labor Committee’s investigation into the construction of the new Wakota Bridge. In a 14-page letter addressed to the attention of the committee chair, Rep. Joe Atkins (DFL-South St. Paul), Molnau defended the handling of the project by the [...]

Anyone curious about construction of the Interstate 35W bridge replacement will have a chance to question officials at a series of weekly walking tours. Flatiron-Manson construction and the Minnesota Department of Transportation held the first of these “sidewalk superintendent talks” this morning.

The guided walks above the construction site on the 10th Avenue bridge will take [...]

Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, who serves as commissioner of transportation, and Met Council Chair Peter Bell have recommended that “no further study” be done on adding a possible light rail extension to the new 35W bridge, a decision that’s drawing fire from pro-transit activists.

A statement issued by Laura Baenen, communications director for Central Corridor LRT, [...]