Report finds money, maintenance woes in Minnesota bridge collapse

(CNN) - Financial woes and poor maintenance plagued the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed in August 2007, killing 13 people, according to an independent report released Wednesday.

The report, commissioned by Minnesota's Legislature and conducted by a Minneapolis law firm, took the state Department of Transportation to task for insufficient inspections that often alerted the state to dangerous structural problems with the I-35W bridge.

The department failed to follow its own policies regarding inspections at the bridge, which was determined to be in "poor" condition for 17 consecutive years, the report found. But Gov. Tim Pawlenty's office said a federal investigation into the collapse is ongoing and that the direct cause of the collapse has not been identified.

"Until the cause of the collapse is determined, it is not possible to know whether anything in this report is relevant to the bridge collapse," Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said.