Posted on 03/15/2018 2:07:05 PM PDT by Morgana
FULL TITLE: 'Up to 10' people crushed to death as 950-ton pedestrian bridge collapses on top of cars and pedestrians on Florida college campus - just five days after it was installed
Up to 10 people have been killed when a newly installed pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday.
US Senator Bill Nelson of Florida told local TV station CBS Miami that between six to 10 people died.
The 174-foot 'instant bridge' hailed as a feat of engineering and safety, was installed Saturday morning but was not due to open to the public until 2019.
At least six injured people were taken away from the scene and eight vehicles were trapped in the bridge wreckage, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in an interview with CBS Miami.
One person was suffering from cardiac arrest, Gimenez said.
Television images captured from helicopter show numerous cars crushed by the weight of the bridge.
Images also show a number of emergency rescue workers crawling along the rubble in an attempt to spot survivors.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Agreed. I wonder if the design engineering firm is the same one that was doing the construction inspection. There are pros and cons on having the same company do both or split the work up.
In any case, whoever gave the go-ahead to put the partially built span up without a center support will be looking for a different profession. That goes without saying. The engineers in the K.C. walkway collapse never worked as engineers again (both the design and construction inspection was done by the same firm in that case). And, they may possibly have criminal charges brought against them.
Oops, s/b 2004. I was led astray by a specious mention of the 2017 date in the Wikipedia article.
Two Billion dollars-worth every year!
Miami-Dade buses instructed their drivers to close the doors, and not to let anyone on the bus following ANY accident—and that was 30 years ago!
Teacher317 wrote:
What the FINISHED bridge was planned to be:
Mind boggling stupidity, and you are correct - people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
meatloaf wrote: “I’d be interested in where the cable was made.”
Yes, and what was the final reading on the dynomometer.
Rumors abound that testing or tensioning was going on AT THE TIME of this failure yet not a word from those doing the testing onsite at the time. The hydraulic crane shown in the shot from across the intersection shows the rigging swinging wildly as the chokers ripper away from what ever they had been attached to.
Were they really flexing the structure by lifting up on the span and tensioning the post-tension cables with pedestrians and vehicular traffic present and now covering that inconvenient fact up?
Looking closely at photos it looks like the concrete exploded right were that crane was lifting. It is the only area where the concrete failed in this manner. Cable snap? This would have put the entire weight on the crane rigging which failed before pulling the crane over.
SS1
If the bridge sagged and was supported by the crane anywhere but the ends, that alone would induce tensile loads in the bottom causing failure.
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