The difficult job of extracting tons of broken concrete, metal bridge beams and submerged cars from the Mississippi River was moving forward this morning, six days after the Interstate Highway 35W bridge suddenly collapsed.

Divers were scheduled to head back into the river to search for the missing, possibly with help from the FBI and Navy dive teams.

City residents, meanwhile, faced the challenge of commuting into downtown without a major freeway.

The bridge had carried up to 140,000 vehicles a day before it fell in the river Wednesday evening during rush hour. Cars tumbled into the swift current and onto broken concrete, killing five people and leaving eight missing and than 100 people injured. Five people remained hospitalized in critical condition Monday morning.

NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said the city had been given permission for a contractor to begin removing the bridge remnants, a long and costly process that will begin with the staging of four cranes and then the start of the removal. Inspectors will examine the removed debris to determine exactly where and why the bridge came apart.