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Elizabeth Baier
ROCHESTER, Minn.

Worker falls from I-90 bridge in Minn.

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A construction worker fell about 40 feet while working Wednesday on a portion of the I-90 bridge over the Mississippi River in southeast Minnesota.

The worker suffered life-threatening injuries after falling into the Pier 2 cofferdam, a temporary, airtight enclosure from which water is pumped, allowing for construction work on the bridge. He was trapped for more than an hour, said La Crescent, Minn., Fire Department Captain Tim Moore.

The Dresbach bridge construction is part of a multi-year project to build two parallel bridges connecting La Crescent and La Crosse, Wis.

Work on Pier 2 has temporarily stopped while the incident is being investigated, but work on the rest of the project is continuing and traffic was not affected, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said in a statement. The worker was employed by Ames Construction.

"Right now our immediate concern is the health and welfare of the injured worker," Mark Anderson, MnDOT project manager, said in the statement. "This was the first lost-time incident on the project."

Anderson praised the work of first responders, who were transported by boat to the rescue site, "where they were able to rescue the worker from the coffer dam and quickly transport him to a local hospital."