The pedestrian bridge under construction in Sweetwater, Fla., a suburb of Miami, collapsed at 1:30 pm, Thursday, March 15. A suburb of Miami. Crushed under the rubble may have been up to 10 vehicles. 10 people were taken to the hospital. Six people have died.
A 175 ft long 950 ton concrete section, part of a bridge to let pedestrians cross a busy highway, collapsed on March 15, 2018. The road had been open to traffic during construction. Six people dead. (Image courtesy of local10.com)
Engineers study disasters with the hope of understanding how new designs, construction methods and processes can fail, or if best practices were observed. While the full facts of the case may not be known for over a year, many engineers have begun studying the drawings and video of the bridge disaster to try to understand what went wrong and shed light on possible causes. Their discussion starts here.
The bridge was to have provided students from Florida International University’s (FIU) Sweetwater campus safe passage across the eight-lane SW 8th St (aka “SR41”). A student had been killed by a motorist last August trying to cross the busy highway. About 4,000 of FIU’s students live off campus in the town of Sweetwater. Due to be completed in 2019, the bridge would have connected the campus to a complex of student apartment towers being planned.
FIU and the town of Sweetwater obtained a $14.2 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to create the bridge,…