Local 49 member believed to be among missing I-35W

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2007/08/02/local-49-member-believed-be-among-missing.html

Local 49 member believed to be among missing

By Barb Kucera , Workday Minnesota

Union members among victims, rescuers.

Operating Engineers Local 49 believes one of its members is the construction worker missing after the collapse of the I-35W bridge, while AFSCME and the Laborers union confirmed that members working on the bridge were injured.

Labor organizations expressed shock over the disaster and sympathy for all the victims and their families. The bridge, which spans the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis, fell about 6 p.m. Wednesday, killing at least four people, injuring scores more and leaving an estimated 20-30 people missing and likely trapped in vehicles beneath submerged pieces of the bridge.

The missing 49er was employed by Progressive Contractors, Inc., a St. Michael-based company that was resurfacing the bridge at the time of the collapse. Ron Sundboom, dispatcher for Local 49, said the local "did not know anything definitive" but believed the worker was missing.

Sundboom, who said he could not disclose the worker's name, said he had driven across the bridge about 10 minutes before it fell.

"The bridge was jampacked with traffic when I went across it," he said. "I was southbound and looked across and saw him (the missing worker) riding a bobcat." No bobcat can be seen in the wreckage above the water, Sundboom noted.

FULL story at link.