# Instant bridge--just add disaster. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 15, 2018, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618 "2018-03-15T19:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/121 "2018-11-30T04:10:10Z")
[Another update](https://archpaper.com/2018/11/design-errors-responsible-for-deadly-bridge-collapse-in-miami/). Tl;dr: NTSC says that the bridge designers done fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/122 "2019-06-12T15:41:00Z")
Updated: [OSHA](https://us.cnn.com/2019/06/12/us/fiu-bridge-collapse-ignored-cracks/index.html) says warning signs were ignored. FIGG Bridge Engineers disagree with the OSHA report. Yeah, they did everything absolutely correct :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/123 "2019-06-12T16:47:56Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Updated: > > [OSHA](https://us.cnn.com/2019/06/12/us/fiu-bridge-collapse-ignored-cracks/index.html) says warning signs were ignored. FIGG Bridge Engineers disagree with the OSHA report. > > Yeah, they did everything absolutely correct :dubious: Res ipsa loquitur. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/124 "2019-06-12T18:50:22Z")
I’m just a senior undergrad engineering student, not an engineer. And mechanical, not Civil, although i did quite well in statics. But from the very first time I saw that bridge, it just rubbed me the wrong way. It doesn’t even LOOK right, engineering wise. And why would you go through the trouble of cosmetically making it look like a cable stayed bridge? Just make it a cable stayed bridge!! It would have been much more structurally sound and you would have had a much easier time with the funky truss angles. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/125 "2019-06-12T23:53:32Z")
> [@](#): > > The cables that suspend the #Miami bridge had loosened & the engineering firm ordered that they be tightened. They were being tightened when it collapsed today. Reminds me of this: > **[West Gate Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Gate_Bridge)** > > The West Gate Bridge is a steel, box girder, cable-stayed bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, spanning the Yarra River just north of its mouth into Port Phillip. It carries the West Gate Freeway and is a vital link between the Melbourne central business district (CBD) and western suburbs, with the industrial suburbs in the west, and with the city of Geelong 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the south-west. It is part of one of the busiest road corridors in Australia. The high span bridge was buil... Just trying to lock it in place — and then it killed 35. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/126 "2019-06-13T12:54:31Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > I’m just a senior undergrad engineering student, not an engineer. And mechanical, not Civil, although i did quite well in statics. But from the very first time I saw that bridge, it just rubbed me the wrong way. It doesn’t even LOOK right, engineering wise. I don’t even have those credentials and it didn’t look right to me, either. Until I read the original article in the OP, looking at the pictures I figured they were just some kind of esthetic embellishment, not a load bearing part of the bridge. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/127 "2019-06-13T13:35:54Z")
Engineering News Record has an [article](https://www.enr.com/articles/47044-osha-investigation-slams-figg-for-fiu-bridge-collapse) with a few more details, and a link to the full report. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/128 "2019-06-13T13:42:43Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > And why would you go through the trouble of cosmetically making it look like a cable stayed bridge? Just make it a cable stayed bridge!! It would have been much more structurally sound and you would have had a much easier time with the funky truss angles. I never realized until this morning that the finished bridge was going to have a tall tower with fake cable stays ([see schematic here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_International_University_pedestrian_bridge_collapse#/media/File:NTSB_Investigator_in_Charge_Robert_Accetta_used_this_elevation_of_the_pedestrian_bridge_at_FIU_to_explain_its_structure_to_reporters_during_a_NTSB_media_briefing.jpg)). This was the first time that all those oddball angles of the diagonal truss elements made sense. The Wikipedia does confirm that it was going to be a “faux” cable-stay tower, so apparently all of the structural strength was in the existing truss. The non-repeating angles of the truss elements do make it look “not right” in the absence of the bogus cable stays, but it seems like it should have held up, provided the elements of the truss had adequate tensile/compressive strength as needed (they did not). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/129 "2019-06-13T14:29:48Z")
Maybe I’m tone-deaf but the only thing that seemed off to me is the fact that the top of the bridge was so much narrower than the bottom. The cables didn’t look any weirder or uglier than other cables around the area, fake or real, and if there had been no cables and the concrete were a little rawer it would have looked like a perfectly respectable modernist structure. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/130 "2019-10-22T23:01:32Z")
[The latest findings](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article236483393.html). (tl;dr: just about everyone involve done fucked up.) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/131 "2019-10-26T17:03:04Z")
The NTSB is completing its report: > [@](#): > > The National Transportation Safety Board determined, during a public board meeting held Tuesday, that load and capacity calculation errors made by FIGG Bridge Engineers, Inc., are the probable cause of the fatal, March 15, 2018, Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapse in Miami. > > Contributing to the collapse was Louis Berger’s inadequate peer review, which failed to detect FIGG’s calculation errors in its design of the main span truss member 11/12 nodal region and connection to the bridge deck. The FIGG engineer of record’s failure to identify the significance of structural cracking observed in this node before the collapse, and failure to obtain an independent peer review of the remedial plan to address the cracking, further contributed to the collapse… > > The failure of FIGG, MCM, Bolton Perez and Associates Consulting Engineers, FIU and the Florida Department of Transportation to cease bridge work and close SW 8th Street to protect public safety contributed to the severity of the collapse outcome, said the NTSB during the meeting. [https://ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20191022.aspx](https://ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20191022.aspx) Here is an abstract of the report: > **[2019-HWY18MH009-BMG-abstract.pdf](https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Documents/2019-HWY18MH009-BMG-abstract.pdf)** > > 15.30 KB The final report will be published in a few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/132 "2019-10-27T21:02:31Z")
[NTSB Summary of the report on Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBjntrebxj8) [They also uploaded over 3 hours of hearings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdUf-_el9vA) ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2019, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618/133 "2019-10-28T04:13:00Z")
> [@txjim](#): > > [NTSB Summary of the report on Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBjntrebxj8) This is a short and useful video. It points out that cracks developed in the highest-stress point of the bridge (the base of member #11) before the bridge was moved onto its piers, and how they steadily widened and spread over the 5 days before the collapse. The pictures of the extensive cracks taken shortly before the failure make you wonder how anyone could believe this was anything other than an imminent disaster. It was a “single point of failure” bridge design - those cracks (in an area that ought to have been pristine) were far past the “time to run screaming down to the road and close it immediately” stage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/instant-bridge-just-add-disaster/810618.md?page=6)