On Saturday, Florida International University in Miami installed an “instant bridge” — a 950-ton span to allow students to more safely cross the Tamiami Trail.
The $14 million pedestrian structure, funded by the federal government, whose main span went up in a single day, was scheduled to open next year.
Today, five days after its rapid rise, it came crashing down on the busy eight-lane highway below.
Still a developing story. Fatalities, but number unknown.
Apparently the “instant” installation technique was developed at the university:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/03/15/new-pedestrian-bridge-collapses-at-florida-international-university-injuring-several/
Accelerated Bridge Construction has been around for years. FIU may work on it, but this bridge was designed by FIGG Engineering.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that the school invented the technique. Only that they were developing it. Perhaps developing adaptations of it for this particular bridge? Something else? I don’t know.
Looks like somebody didn’t check off on specifications – or maybe they did, since govt. money was involved. It certainly wasn’t made from Rearden Metal (as in “Atlas Shrugged”).
That’s a lot of damage, both human and structural.
They put the span up BEFORE the cable suspension, and expected it to hold up on its own????
I wondered about that, too, when I saw drawings of the design. I’m no engineer, of course. But it seemed odd.
According to this article, the cables were in place, but being worked on.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/west-miami-dade/article205316174.html
Wow. Captain Obvious says, “Somebody’s getting sued.”
Wonder how many lawyers were injured in the stampede?
An Engineering professor friend of mine has a favorite response to incorrect answers:
“If you build bridge, and bridge fall down, NO partial credit!”.
A quick search on MCM turned up this: https://infoforyour.com/mcm-munilla-construction-management-5-fast-facts-you-need-to-know/
May be relevant, maybe not. http://forums.leoaffairs.com/showthread.php?755992-Munilla-Construction-Management-Gimenez-Pal-s&s=036d449aca55e3fb3e10c9832b72e13e
I used to work with electrical engineers on a regular basis. One in particular was fond on drawing quick pictures of physically impossible solutions on his clipboard and saying “just do this”
One day an old timer snatched away his clipboard, drew a circle on the middle of the page and tossed it back to him.
Engineer looked and said ” what’s that?”
Old man said “I drew an $sshole, you make it sh&t”
Never saw that engineer on any of our job sites again.
Wired.com has an article entitled “The Ordinary Engineering Behind the Horrifying Florida Bridge.” Their articles usually are excellent. It looks like I’ve used up my freebies for now. https://www.wired.com/story/ordinary-engineering-florida-bridge-collapse/