Miami Pedestrian Bridge Collapses, Police Say 'Mass Casualties'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast



A pedestrian bridge under construction in at Florida International University in Miami collapsed Thursday afternoon, killing “multiple” people, The Miami Herald reported. The bridge covers a major highway at Southwest 8th Street near 109th Avenue, and it runs through downtown Miami. Multiple people were trapped underneath in cars. The bridge, which was just installed over the weekend, was not scheduled to open until early 2019. Reporters on the scene said police moved the media further away from the bridge “just in case the rest falls down.”

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

READ IT AT MIAMI HERALD

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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/miami-bridge-collapses-police-say-mass-casualties?ref=home

[FM123]

1. It's just too much, we worry about our kids getting shot on campus and now this.

I live in Broward County where Parkland is a half hour away, next to Dade county where the bridge collapse in Miami is another half hour from me, I just can't even anymore.

[cilla4progress]

29. I'm so, sorry!

Your heart must be in so much pain. Mine hurts for you.

Long distance hugs.

Tragic.

[FM123]

48. thank you

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Engineers designed it, engineers approved it

engineers consulted on construction, an inspector probably certified it.

That's why it's safe. Whoops.

[jberryhill]

3. Notice the piece missing from the as-built picture

This is the conceptual drawing:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/west-miami-dade/wwwt0d/picture204506074/alternates/FREE_1140/IMG_View-1-comp__1__7_1_P9C6OBGT_L337097734

Apparently, someone believed the vertical column and rods were decorative.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/west-miami-dade/article204506084.html

[Blue_Tires]

21. Evidently nobody learned shit from the Kansas City Hyatt Regency

And I thought that case study was required teaching for construction engineers...

[jberryhill]

26. That was an on-site design change

This project appears to have proceeded according to spec.

[Blue_Tires]

35. I'm sure the common theme between the two will be

1. Seemingly insignificant procedural details were either sidestepped or done sloppily

2. 'Mistakes were made'

[MissB]

30. Well apparently we needed a refresher course.

The Hyatt Regency was in the too distant past apparently.

[hunter]

45. I'll bet this project went wrong from the start...

... nobody listened to the guy who said, "Let's start with a conventional bridge. We can decorate it any way you like."

There are thousands of existing bridge designs just like this that don't fall down.

Keep It Simple Stupid.

[Gore1FL]

4. I have to wonder if anyone bothered to maintain it.

Doing so with infrastructure went out of style with Reagan.

[jberryhill]

5. It is UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The span was put up a couple of days ago.

It is supposed to look like this:



What they had up was this:



Notice something missing?

[exboyfil]

9. No visible means of support?

[jberryhill]

10. Yup

It is OBVIOUSLY not designed to hold itself up.

Someone must have thought those cables were decorative.

[dchill]

12. They're on location, but not yet installed.

Accelerated Bridge Construction is not yet perfected.

[jberryhill]

13. It will be interesting to know the process

Of how the determination was made that it was capable of holding itself up.

[dchill]

15. Safety sacrified for speed. Plus, the street should always...

be closed for anything involving a crane.

[LisaL]

40. Yep, sure as hell isn't perfected.

Assuming that killing a bunch of people isn't part of the innovative installation.

[yardwork]

42. That seems to be what happened. Partial construction.

Why would they construct a phase that wasn't stable? And why would they let traffic go under it????

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. No? Surely you can see the temporary supports. . . . . nt

[jberryhill]

22. Those "supports" were removed

If you are talking about the red beams, they were part of the mobile platform that was used to hoist and move the span into position. The mobile platform was then removed, as the idea was to keep the street open for the remaining construction.

Someone with a license and degree had to have certified that the span would support itself in the interim. Someone else with a license and a degree had to have certified that it was installed to spec. One of those person(s) may end up in prison.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. Wow. Sure looks like you are right.

[jberryhill]

25. There's a time lapse video of the installation of the span

....which shows the mobile platform.

The idea was to close the street - apparently an important thoroughfare - only briefly.

So someone had to have certified the span would hold its own weight prior to installation of the pylon and cables.

[MissB]

31. Wonder if the vibration of the traffic was enough to move it off

the end supports.

[Gore1FL]

11. Oh, wow. I didn't know it was new construction.

Thanks for the clarification!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. It's brand new, wasn't complete and hadn't been opened for use.

It was a kind of bridge where they assemble most of it on the ground, then use cranes to put it in place. It was jut put in place last Saturday and they were still working on it.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. I didn't realize it was under construction either

but qualified people are involved at every turn, they just don't turn it over to laborers and say "here's the plans, get a move on."

[bluecollar2]

47. Then it was built by the lowest bidder...n/t

[csziggy]

6. Time lapse video of installation of span that collapse

It was just put across the road:

Community gathers to watch 950-ton bridge move across Southwest 8th Street
Posted by Clara-Meretan Kiah × 03/14/2018 at 11:57 am


Posted by Clara-Meretan Kiah × 03/14/2018 at 11:57 am

Twelve-year-old Michelle Flores shared a special moment with her family at FIU this past Saturday: She and her sister Gabriela joined their parents, FIU alumni Leonor and Henry Flores MIS ’01, to watch a 950-ton section of a pedestrian bridge swing into its permanent position across Southwest 8th Street.

Leonor Flores ’98 is a project executive and one of 63 FIU alumni who work for MCM, the construction firm building the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge, which will further connect FIU and its northerly neighbor, the City of Sweetwater. She was excited to share her work with her family, especially Michelle, who is interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in school.

<SNIP>

The pedestrian bridge, which crosses Southwest 8th Street at the 109th Avenue intersection, will provide a safer crossing of the eight-lane thoroughfare for the 4,200 FIU students living in Sweetwater. Between its walkways and plazas, it will also provide 9,900 square feet of gathering and event space.

Residents of the City of Sweetwater will have increased access to all that FIU has to offer the community, including: free programming and exhibitions at the Frost Art Museum; walking trails through the FIU Nature Preserve; sports games; musical and theatrical performances at the Wertheim Performing Arts Center; and the FIU Health faculty group practice located on 109th Avenue.

More: https://news.fiu.edu/2018/03/community-gathers-to-watch-950-ton-bridge-move-across-southwest-8th-street/120395

[pintobean]

7. I hope thoughts and prayers are allowed for these victims.

[LanternWaste]

17. I hope they're effective.

I hope they're effective.

[exboyfil]

8. Cache from contractor's website

MCM Awarded the FIU Pedestrian Bridge Project

After a grueling 18 month selection process, three submittals and many sleepless nights, the MCM Civil Department secured another win! This $9.3 million project will be an iconic cable-stayed pedestrian bridge, connecting the city of Sweetwater with the northern entrance of Florida International University (FIU) over 8th Street.

This our first Design-Build with FIGG Bridge Engineers, a nationally acclaimed, award-winning firm based out of Tallahassee. FIGG has designed iconic bridges all over the country, including Boston's famous Leonard P. Zakim Bridge and Florida's Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

We're very excited about this challenging project and look forward to fostering a long and prosperous relationship with the FIGG team!

The MCM Team's blog

[AtheistCrusader]

27. 9.3 million is pretty cheap for that thing.

Well, it was, until it fell down and killed people anyway.

[PoliticAverse]

32. "cable-stayed pedestrian bridge" - uh - where were the "cable stays"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable-stayed_bridge

[LisaL]

41. Looks like they haven't installed those yet at the time of the collapse.

[Boxerfan]

14. No center support collum-even UNDER the structure...

Stupid design-

The original used the cable support aka GG bridge. Without that any center support at all I can not imagine what dolt thought that would be Ok.....
Then line up multitudes of Dolts and you have this.

A basic chassis welder would have said no effin way.

[jberryhill]

23. Here's the design

[Gore1FL]

44. Beautiful design.

Poor implementation, to be sure.

I appreciate your posts on this thread. They have been informative.

[LudwigPastorius]

16. A 950 ton, cable-stayed span without the pylon or cables installed...

What would they think would happen?

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the construction company was ordered to prematurely remove the supports under the bridge by some local government mucky muck so he wouldn't get complaints about traffic being impeded.

...just horrible.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

20. Little Marco is on the scene for his photo op with "thoughts and prayers."

[exboyfil]

43. Munilla Construction Management

The general contractors were Rubio supporters. They hosted a fundraiser for him.

http://politicalpartytime.org/party/40278/

[GreydeeThos]

34. Under the Trump Administration, America's infrastructure is literally falling apart

Trump does not believe in Government inspections or infrastructure spending. Welcome to life under Trump.

[PoliticAverse]

36. These deaths actually seem to be the result of infrastructure spending - it's a new bridge. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

37. Explaining Accelerated Bridge Construction, the technique used for the collapsed Miami bridge

By ABC NEWS Mar 15, 2018, 6:07 PM ET



The technique used to build the bridge that collapsed in Miami today was intended to cause less disruption and make installing new bridges easier.

The bridge that fell near Florida International University was put in place using Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) methods, and there is a school at the university dedicated to advancing those techniques.

Accelerated Bridge Construction a process where planners actively consider how bridge construction impacts local traffic flow and try to shift as much construction to be done in advance and off-site before moving those pieces onsite.

The Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration calls ABC "a paradigm shift in the project planning and procurement approach."

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/explaining-accelerated-bridge-construction-technique-collapsed-miami-bridge/story?id=53777995

[LisaL]

39. Yea, they were trying "innovative" installation.

Innovative isn't always good. Causing mass casualties obviously isn't part of the plan.

[Strelnikov_]

46. Moment failure

Pictures in this thread have brought it home.

Will turn out to be a design error, in that the design was not adequate in the simple span interim configuration.

[PoliticAverse]

49. It seems that they really needed temporary supports installed until the cable suspension system

was erected. Did someone miscalculate in the design or was there some error in implementation?

[ucrdem]

50. Strange that they'd go with such a heavy material.

Concrete isn't light and it's an odd material to pick for a pre-fab bridge that had to be lifted into place under tight constraints. Usually concrete is poured into place after a steel framework, which is lighter and more readily prefabricated, has already been constructed.

[ga_girl]

51. Pylon and "cable stays" were decorative, not required for bridge support

You have to dig through the project proposal documents, but it's clear that the pylon and "cable stays" are almost decorative. The "cable stays" are in fact hollow steel tubes, bolted onto the blisters on top of the bridge and on the pylon with four bolts at each end. (pdf pg B-16)

There is no structural steel involved in the pylon and "cable stays". In fact, those were stage 5 & 6 in the erection sequence. (pdf pg B-27, B-28) Those pieces were intended to control the harmonic loads (bouncing) on the bridge from pedestrians walking back and forth. (pdf pg 18, 63)

Turns out that the bridge itself is designed as an I-beam. The canopy is the top of the I-beam, the walkway is the bottom, and the angled supports are a open plan center web of the I-beam. (pdf pg 47)

As to the cause of the collapse, the NTSB will have to determine that. But anyone who talks about the missing top work is wrong.

http://facilities.fiu.edu/projects/BT_904/MCM_FIGG_Proposal_for_FIU_Pedestrian_Bridge_9-30-2015.pdf