Foot bridge collapses at Florida university, several killed

[DP]

Reuters) - A pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed on Thursday at Florida International University in Miami-Dade County, trapping people and cars underneath the structure, with local media saying several people were killed.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/foot-bridge-c...52337.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-43418898

[mrbigstuff]

"Opened days ago..." wtf?

[steve...]

I think it was just installed on Saturday and they were still working on it. One worker was on the bridge and a witness in her car said 7-8 cars were crushed when it fell.

[lost in space]

It was under construciton as of August 2017

goomaps

[3d]

Dang.

FIU touted the bridge to be a first of its kind, tweeting that it swung into place on Saturday. According to an FIU press release, the 174-foot, 950-ton bridge was just installed "in a few hours" using "accelerated bridge construction" methods, which the university said "reduces potential risks to workers, commuters, and pedestrians and minimizes traffic interruptions."

The move was the largest pedestrian bridge move via Self-Propelled Modular Transportation, in U.S. history.

[mrbigstuff]

lost in space wrote:
It was under construciton as of August 2017

goomaps

Holy sh@t, right at a traffic signal, too

[pdq]

Touted as an “instant bridge,” the 950-ton pedestrian walkway was installed in a single morning...

More like "instant karma" for engineering hubris. Early reports say one of the two pillars supporting the bridge "collapsed to the side".

What a tragedy.

Edit: Yikes! Just five days ago they were crowing about this:

The innovative installation method significantly reduced risks to workers, pedestrians and motorists and minimized traffic disruptions, FIU said.

[Acer]

I'm reminded of that The Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse in 1981. The contractor requested a change that seemed innocuous, the engineer said "whatevs" without running the numbers, and 114 people died in a blink. My office pool bet says something similar happened here. We'll see.

[mikebw]

Acer wrote:
I'm reminded of that The Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse in 1981. The contractor requested a change that seemed innocuous, the engineer said "whatevs" without running the numbers, and 114 people died in a blink. My office pool bet says something similar happened here. We'll see.

I read about that in an engineering book years ago. Tragic.

[davemchine]

That is just awful. A lot of finger pointing but it sounds like they don't really know what happened yet.