Feds say engineers didn’t heed alarms before FIU bridge collapse
MIAMI — In a damning new report, federal work-safety investigators conclude that engineers in charge of design and construction of the ill-fated Florida International University pedestrian bridge should have shut down Southwest Eighth Street because of growing cracks in the structure, but failed to recognize the span was in danger of imminent collapse.
The 115-page report by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, obtained Tuesday by the Miami Herald, finds plenty of blame to spread around for the collapse of the bridge last year while under construction, from a “deficient” design by Tallahassee-based FIGG Bridge Engineers that led to structural failure, to inadequate oversight by two engineering consulting firms that were supposed to act as a backstop on design and construction, Louis Berger and Bolton Perez and Associates.
The OSHA report also faults the bridge contractor, Munilla Construction Management, or MCM, for not exercising “independent judgment with regard to implementing necessary safety measures” after FIGG engineers dismissed concerns over the growing cracks during a meeting on the morning of the March 15 collapse. OSHA inspectors conclude in the report that the road should have been closed “immediately” and the bridge shored up to prevent collapse.
The OSHA report is the first time federal investigators have stated unequivocally that the roadway should have been closed in response to the cracking on the bridge, one of the principal points of public concern after the fatal accident.
The OSHA report confirms an indication contained in a summary of the meeting released last month that FIGG concluded the cracks 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. The report contains a series of emails and texts from construction crew members expressing alarm to superiors over the size and appearance of the cracks.
The engineers should have known the bridge needed to be shored up immediately “until final evaluations were done and remedial measures implemented,” the report says.
Construction workers began expressing concerns about cracking soon after the span was lifted into place over the road on March 10, the report shows. That day, Kevin Hanson, supervisor of a crew tasked with adjusting the tension of structural support elements of the bridge after the installation, sent a text message reporting cracks that had him “visibly disturbed,” according to accounts provided to OSHA.
“It cracked like hell,” he wrote in a text message accompanying a photo of the cracks. The text went to his boss at VSL, Sam Nunez.
Two days later, on March 12, at least one MCM employee expressed worry about the cracks photographed earlier by a “disturbed” crew member of a subcontractor.