Usually this type of project is done through a joint venture between a contractor and an engineering/design firm.
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I think the engineering firm must have been a moslem affirmative action recepient.
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I would agree that this is more common in bridge construction in the last 15 years.
There still is a liability issue that is affixed differently between the Design side partner and the Construction side partner due to the difference in (another term of art) "standard of care" as the designer is a licensed professional engineer with a longer and more detailed standard of care required compared to the Construction Manager or the Concrete Contractor.
There was some talk about liability insurance earlier saying one million or two million was all that was there other than the net worth of the parties involved. I don't feel that paints a proper picture.
First of all the Owner is likely to also be sued by the injured and killed parties. I don't know if Florida has participatory negligence where the judge apportions the fault amongst the parties but many states do have that. The Owner has risk of ownership and may have requested aspects of construction that increased risk or dictated design aspects. Assuming the Designer and the CM are a JV under one overall contract, the lead partner probably required the design team be covered by what's called an E & O Policy (Errors and Omissions) and that will come into play behind the designers liability and the C/M General and Comprehensive Liability. Workmen's Comp will come into play for employee's injured and that has state dictated limits separate from the liability. Generally in a project like this the Liability limits are 3 Million minimum with an Umbrella all-risk policy over the whole JV team that can range from ten to fifty million although sometime the actual policy is more that what is called for under the contract executed with the Owner.
Additionally we are hearing the contractor side of this referred to as a Construction Manager. That may be just part of their corporate name and they may not be performing as a C/M. If they were performing as a CM, the trade contractor's contracts for concrete work, slide placement etcetera might be direct with the Owner.
State projects sometimes do that but rarely on bridges to my recollection.
So you have:
Designers Professional Liability 1MM
Consultant Designers' Professional Liability 1MM for each involved
Construction partner's General and Comprehensive Liability 3MM (+/-)
The JV (if that is indeed the case) may have a project specific Gen Liability Policy
The probable Umbrella policy, let's say 30 million as that is fairly common for bigger firms.
Workmens' Compensation Insurance for all workmen killed or injured with statutory limits barring special negligence or circumstances.
Add it the insurance of any party, Owner, testing lab, manufacturer or subcontractor found to have a percentage of fault assigned and you have a pretty big insurance coverage even before you get to the net worth of the parties or "pierce the corporate veil" and go after stock holders and individuals.