OSHA regulations require you do not have an unsecured load over live traffic, so any operation where something has any chance of falling on traffic below, requires closing the lanes so no traffic is below the bridge during that ork.
A plan for this temporary work has to be signed and stamed by a licensed engineer. Then whoever is overseeing the job, they must review the plan and when satisfied with it, Their Florida State licensed engineer must sign off the plan and stamp it with their engineering seal.
Now, after ALL. That, it is up to someone who is administering the contract to enforce the OSHA rule and prevent the contractor from violating the approved signed and stamped plan.
I thought I read that the University did not hire the contractor. I don’t know if it was the State of Florida, the City of Miami, or who. But whoever it was who awarded the bid to the contractor, it is ultimate their decision and responsibility to close the lanes if necessary. The Contractor is the one who is supposed to ask to close the lanes, but they don’t have authority. It is either the State or County or City that owns the right of way for the highway, and only they can accept or deny the Contractor’s request to close highway lanes. Lets just say it was the city of Miami that put out the job and is aying for it, then they would be administering the contract.
So if the City of Miami told the contractor not to loosen cables that day because they denied a request to close the lanes, then the contractor is 100% at fault for violating the City’s direction not to work. If on the other hand, if the City approved the work over live ve traffic lanes, then both are to blame for violating the approved plan and the OSHA rules.
The Florida State enginee would have stayed it approved. He didn’t prepare the design or supervise it during the preparation. Only the lead engineer for the design company would have stamped and signed it. That is the requirement that the plans were prepared by a licensed PE.