In Minnesota’s effort to rebuild its collapsed I-35W bridge, there is one unusual characteristic: speed.

Five days after the accident, President Bush authorized $250 million in emergency relief to be paid to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Two days later, the state agency called for applications to rebuild the 1,907-foot span. Within nine days—and before any money had been appropriated by Congress—the agency received a $60 million cash advancefrom the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

It is looking like at least some lessons were learned from Hurricane Katrina. Just hours after the Minneapolis bridge’s collapse, Bush, who was widely criticized for dragging his feet after Katrina, had appointed Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to coordinate the multiple federal agencies involved. Rather than declare a state of emergency, which would have triggered a call to the much-maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty turned to the FHWA, which has a history of responding with relative efficiency to catastrophes. (Five days after a 165-foot section of roadway collapsed in San Francisco in April, the FHWA gave California a $2 million cash advance; the road was rebuilt within 26 days.)

Meanwhile, Minnesota estimates that the economic impact of the disaster is $400,000 a day. And though reconstruction of the bridge is scheduled to be completed by December 2008, Flatiron Constructors, the selected contractor, expects that the final tab will be upwards of $294 million. That could mean going back to Congress for more money.

The Spending Plan

Where the federal government’s $250 million will go.

Construction: $190 million

Demolition and rebuilding: $50 million

Emergency traffic maintenance: $5 million

Increased public transportation: $5 million