Angry, I am angry

As many know already a brand new, not yet opened, 960 ton concrete pedestrian walkway bridge dropped 40 feet onto a line of cars waiting at a red light Thursday afternoon in Miami, FL. Florida International University had the bridge over the 8 lane road underneath built. The University has been expanding and the classrooms are on one side of the busy street, but new student housing is on the other side of the street.

In the past several years several students had been hit by cars while attempting to run across the street either to get to class or to get back to their dormitory. The building of a pedestrian walkway passing over the traffic was an obvious solution. The bridge was built as a pre fab structure and lifted into place just this past weekend. A grand opening was supposed to be in a few days.

A decision was made to stress test the bridge. A local engineering company was hired to do the stress testing. Back in 2000 or so I had been employed with such a firm and we did stress tests on foundation bolts and support beams routinely so I do have some experience in the field. Always, safety was paramount and anytime we were tugging on a bolt or a support beam with 20,000 or more pounds of force we made very sure that not only us but also any bystanders were no where near the operation. When you run a hudraulic ram generating 20 - 60 tons of pressure, that is a lot of energy. If a bolt or an industrial epoxy or a support beam does fail, you can expect a projectile or three to travel someplace at high velocity. Likewise, hydraulic lines blow (hydraulic oil at 5,000 psi will penetrate your clothes and then your skin and trust me, you do not want your arteries or veins to be suddenly injected with red hot hydraulic fluids), gaskets blow, supports can crumble, sometimes a cable or a chain snaps and becomes a high speed steel whip capable of beheading someone, etc. So safety first. No one near the test but the inspectors doing the test. Proper safety gear, shields, etc. So what witnesses are saying this 'engineering company did was to hook the bridge up by cables to 3 big cranes. Each cable pulled in a different direction. In theory all forces would balance while also subjecting the bridge supports to way more stress than 1,000 pedestrians walking would generate.

Here is what makes me angry. There was no thought about what could go wrong. The company made a decision to not block traffic on the busy street while the test was underway. In the following video most of the flattened cars you will see were simply sitting at the red light on the cross street with the drivers totally unaware of the test, or that over 900 tons of steel and concrete were about to crash down on them.

In the video you will see a red crane. The test was underway with all 3 cranes pulling. Witnesses are saying the hawser on the red crane suddenly just snapped with a loud bang. This instantly allowed the forces being generated by the other cranes to bring the bridge crashing down on the cars and pedestrians below.





At least 4 are known to be dead, about 10 have been transported to hospitals with critical injuries. An unknown number of persons may still be underneath the bridge or it's concrete roof. The Director of Miami police said in a press conference at least 8 vehicles are under the bridge.

It seems I am not the only person who feels traffic on the street below should have been stopped while the test was underway and until an inspection could be completed. The Director of the Miami Police today announced his Homicide Squad will be the lead local agency investigating.