State: Voicemail About Cracks 2 Days Before Bridge Fell

KSTP.com ^ | 3/16/18 | AP

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

An engineer left a voicemail two days before a catastrophic bridge failure in Miami to say some cracking had been found at one end of the concrete span, but the voicemail wasn't picked up until after the collapse, Florida Department of Transportation officials said Friday.

The voicemail left on a landline wasn't heard by a state DOT employee until Friday because the employee was out of the office on an assignment, the agency said in an email.

In a transcript released Friday night, Denney Pate with FIGG Bridge Group says the cracking would need repairs "but from a safety perspective we don't see that there's any issue there so we're not concerned about it from that perspective."

[Crucial]

I don’t want to immediately blame a guy trying to do his job when n one else did. I don’t want to jump to conclusions about what caused the collapse.

[bluejean]

Phenomenal, mind-boggling incompetence on so many levels.

[BradyLS]

See something. Say something...to a human being.

[Phillyred]

Voicemail????? How about email??? Text???

[philman_36]

If a contractor works a State employee should be on site to document the work so the contractor gets paid.

Or do they just take the contractor's word that they worked at all.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It was supposed to be a cable-stay bridge — except the cables and tower weren’t installed. It will be very interesting to learn why.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It was supposed to be a cable-stay bridge — except the cables and tower weren’t installed. It will be very interesting to learn why.

[DoughtyOne]

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[cynwoody]

All this proves is, the construction company was clueless. Cracks seen, not to worry. Boldface added:

In a transcript released Friday night, Denney Pate with FIGG Bridge Group says the cracking would need repairs "but from a safety perspective we don't see that there's any issue there so we're not concerned about it from that perspective."

[trebb]

Let’s see - they used extra thick and heavy concrete instead of bolstering it with steel, the concrete develops cracks, and they see it as “not a safety issue”......Is this guy really an engineer or is he a affirmative action ‘engineer’???

[csvset]

Unbelievable. What the hell were these idiots doing ? Exhibit A in the upcoming trial?

FIU Bridge Collapse Caught on Dash Cam

[mewzilla]

The voicemail left on a landline wasn't heard by a state DOT employee until Friday because the employee was out of the office on an assignment, the agency said in an email.

IOW, the employee has remote access, but couldn't be bothered to check...?

[Reno89519]

It is not just the voicemail! The engineers met at the site two hours prior to the collapse to discuss the cracks, then went ahead with stress test without shutting down traffic underneath. They should be charged with murder!

[Lurker]

“The voicemail left on a landline wasn’t heard by a state DOT employee until Friday because the employee was out of the office on an assignment.”

All of my voicemails are saved as .Wav files and forwarded to my company email account 3 seconds after the caller hangs up. I can listen to them from the front seat of my car using my iPhone.

Almost every single phone system installed in the last 20 years has this capability. I know. I’ve beem in that business for 25 years.

L

[Lurker]

“Leaving a voice mail is no more reliable than putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the sea.”

See my response below. ANY commercial grade phone system installed in the last 20 years or so has “voicemail to email” capabilities. They also have a “Find Me-Follow Me” functionally which can be enabled by the SysAdmin or the User.

For example, my phone is set to ring my desk phone 2 times, then my cell phone 2 times, then pull the call back to Company voicemail. The VM is covered to a .Wav file and sent to me company email as an attachment.

The subject of said email is the Caller ID with name and number. It can even be tagged as “Urgent” if the caller wishes.

I’ve been designing and selling phone systems made by 4 different premise based companies and 3 different Hosted providers for 25 years. The days of having to go back to the Office, seeing the flashing light on your phone, and dialing into the system have been over for decades.

Hell, it’s almost impossible for me NOT to get a phone call from customers or colleagues unless I specifically tag myself Unavailable in the system which, by the way, automatically cross checks my Calendar to see what I’m doing at that particular time.

So unless the California DOT bought their Enterpise grade phone system from WalMart there’s no excuse for this. None.

L

[ROCKLOBSTER]

unless the California DOT bought their Enterpise grade phone system from WalMart there’s no excuse for this.

Not to mention Florida.

[Lurker]

Crap. Sorry.

Maybe the Florida DOT did. It is Floriduh after all.

L

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Well other than that it was a very good post.

[Ozark Tom]

Cracking is the nature of concrete. That’s why steel re-bar was invented.

[dsc]

That’s all very nice. We agree that it was inexcusable, just for different reasons.

I’m retired and not on my phone every ten seconds. If I get out of my chair and go to the bathroom, and while I’m gone a voice mail arrives, I might not even become aware that I have a voicemail for days.

And...four rings, then to voicemail?

Back in the dim recesses of antiquity, when a phone was a black bakelite lump tethered to a wall, the rule was to let it ring 10 times before giving up.