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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday June 13 2019, @02:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the a-bridge-too-far dept.

Florida International University ("FIU") needed a foot bridge to cross a canal and busy street. An FIU committee selected a design without redundant structural support because they were wanting a dramatic landmark (the bridge looked like it was a cable stayed design, but it wasn't -- the faux cables were almost entirely aesthetic). The original specs had called for structural redundancy so that the failure of one structural member would not cause a collapse -- the committee ignored this requirement in favor of visual appeal.

The engineering firm selected for the bridge (FIGG) made an error in calculation for a critical member at the end of the span. The engineering firm providing peer review of the design (Louis Berger) has refused to turn over to OSHA, certain documentation regarding what it was supposed to evaluate and what it actually did. When the bridge section which had been built on the side of the road was moved into place, experienced workers became extremely worried about cracks that started appearing and made their worries known to those up the chain. A FIGG engineer examined the cracks but determined they "did not present a safety concern even though its engineers did not know what caused them — and despite clear evidence that they were growing daily." Apparently, the guidelines are that cracks deeper than a half inch are to be taken seriously and these were much deeper and growing daily -- one photo shows a crack 4" deep.

The final bridge would have two sections -- the long section over the roadway and a short section over the canal. The canal section was to be built in place and tied into the long section. Had the canal section been built first, the risk of collapse for the section over the roadway would have been reduced because it would have shored up the longer road section.

The bridge collapsed killing six and permanently disabling another.

Article regarding the OSHA report: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article231428938.html
Article regarding independent engineering review with some good explanations which I, as a non-engineer, found informative: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article212571434.html
Time Lapse Video of Bridge Collapse (released by FIU): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBOF2jugFM
Original Soylent item: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/19/1746219
Link to the OSHA report itself: https://www.osha.gov/doc/engineering/pdf/2019_r_03.pdf


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Thursday June 13 2019, @05:22PM

    by RS3 (6367) on Thursday June 13 2019, @05:22PM (#855207)

    I don't think you're troll, but you're being a bit too absolute. It has been proven that technology can be designed and constructed to be extremely beneficial and reliable.

    I see the problem as being political. No, not Ds and Rs, but corporate structure politics. The very wrong people are usually in charge of making critical decisions. I don't want to be the guy who stops the giant project, but I sure want to be the guy who people listen to when I see a problem and bring it to their attention, and then when colleagues agree about the problem, sorry, but project might have to be put on hold.

    My problem has been that I don't understand the other side- the side that wants to ignore problems and push ahead with projects. I remember the Challenger disaster- big launch review meeting, the engineers said "do not launch- it will blow up" and the managers overruled. Right there is where I have the problem. Managers overruled the engineers? Give the engineers the final say, and honor and respect them for caring to do the best possible job. I think the Europeans are far ahead of USA in this regard.

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