FIU Bridge Engineers Should Have Stopped Traffic: OSHA

MIAMI, FL — Engineers working on the failed Florida International University pedestrian bridge should have "immediately" ordered traffic be stopped and the structure shored when an inspection was conducted hours before the March 2018 collapse that killed six people, including a bridge worker and five others, according to a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"FIGG Bridge Engineers ... the Engineer of Record ... failed to recognize that the bridge was in danger of collapsing when it inspected it hours before the collapse," the report said. "The concrete truss had developed numerous wide and deep structural cracks jeopardizing the integrity of the bridge. The EOR should have immediately instructed that the bridge be shored at appropriate locations and SW 8th Street be closed."

The 115-page report was prepared by Mohammad Ayub, director of the office of engineering services within OSHA's Directorate of Construction. It was released Tuesday.

FIU declined to comment on the report, pointing to an ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. "Given the ongoing NTSB investigation, FIU is not in a position to comment at this time," FIU spokeswoman Madeline Baró told Patch Wednesday.

Students and faculty of FIU recently marked the one-year anniversary of the bridge collapse with a moment of silence. Eight other people were injured in the tragedy.

Photographs released earlier by the National Transportation Safety Board showed large cracks that had been documented in the pedestrian bridge days before the massive structure came crashing down.

The 174-foot-long main span failed on March 15, 2018 not long after the main 950-ton main span of the bridge was lifted from its temporary supports, rotated 90 degrees across the eight-lane road and lowered into its permanent position in a matter of hours over busy SW 8th Street.

"The bridge had structural design deficiencies that contributed to the collapse," the OSHA report concluded. "The cracks on the bridge occurred due to deficient structural design."

On the morning of the collapse, the engineer of record held a meeting after evaluating the cracks over the course of two days but did not know why the cracks were occurring.

"Despite these admissions and the knowledge that the cracks were growing in size, EOR stated more than once that the cracks did not present any safety concerns," the report said, referring to the engineer of record.

The report also blamed Munilla Construction Management, the design-build contractor, for not notifying the engineer of record that the cracks had gotten larger since they were initially spotted.

Moreover, the report was critical of Networking Engineering Serivces Inc. The firm was doing business as Bolton Perez and Associates Inc., which served as the construction engineer and inspector for the project.

"With intimate knowledge of extensive cracking on the bridge, BPA [Bolton Perez and Associates] failed to recognize that the bridge was in danger of collapsing, and did not recommend to FIU, MCM or others to close the street and shore the bridge, regardless of the opinion" held by the engineer of record, the report said.

OSHA said the bridge truss was designed in a manner that was non redundant and "if one diagonal member failed, the entire bridge could collapse."

The report noted that "given the nature and extent of the cracking and the non-redundancy of the bridge design, necessary safety precautions should have included closing the roadway below the bridge and immediately providing shoring to the bridge at suitable locations until a complete evaluation was done."