A joint Minnesota House and Senate committee looking into the Interstate 35W bridge collapse wants to hire a team of investigators to examine state Department of Transportation decision-making in the months and years leading up to the Aug. 1 collapse.

Likening it to a special counsel, Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, the committee's co-chairman, said he wants to hire an investigator with a legal background, as well as staff. If approved, the investigation would join several public and private inquiries into the cause and circumstances surrounding the Minneapolis collapse, which killed 13.

"We want to know whether poor decisions led to that bridge falling down," said Murphy, who also heads the Senate Transportation Committee.