FIU pedestrian bridge collapses days after installation; police say multiple deaths, cars trapped – By Andres Viglucci, Monique O. Madan, Douglas Hanks And Daniel Chang (miamiherald.com) / March 15 2018
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A pedestrian bridge under construction collapsed Thursday, just days after crews had dropped an elevated 950-ton span in place in a project that was intended to give Florida International University students a safe route across the busy roadway.
The bridge gave way suddenly while the traffic light for motorists on Tamiami Trail was red and the concrete span flattened a row of at least eight stopped vehicles. Police on the scene said at least six people could be dead but the exact number of victims remained unconfirmed.
Motorists scrambled out of their cars to help. At least one woman, Katrina Collazo, escaped from a half-crushed car, pulled out unscathed by rescuers.
“Thank God … my daughter is alive,” said her mother, Ada Collazo, in Spanish, after rushing to the scene. “I thought my granddaughter was in the car, but she wasn’t. She’s in school.”
Collazo said her daughter had been on campus for a nursing meeting. She had stopped at a red light when she said she heard what sounded like small rocks falling on her car. As she turned around, the massive span flattened the back of her car like an aluminum can. The car next to her was not as lucky. It was buried.
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The bridge — in a catastrophic and sudden failure — crashed down across six lanes of heavily traveled Tamiami Trail. It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse of a structure that had been touted as an innovative “instant” bridge because of how quickly it could be constructed. Authorities stressed that it could take days or more to determine what went wrong. Several witnesses reported that workers were on the bridge, which was not expected to open to foot traffic until 2019, when it crumbled.
Designed as a cable-supported bridge, the $14.2 million project was a collaboration between MCM Construction, a prominent Miami-based contractor, and Figg Bridge Design, based in Tallahassee. Figg is responsible for the iconic Sunshine Skyway Bridge across Tampa Bay.
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Figg issued a statement Thursday saying the company was “stunned” by the collapse and promising to cooperate with every authority investigating the collapse.
“In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before,” the company’s statement said. “Our entire team mourns the loss of life and injuries associated with this devastating tragedy, and our prayers go out to all involved.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who is in Hong Kong on a trade mission, said in a telephone interview that he instructed county rescue workers to identify license plates from the trapped cars as quickly as possible so that families could be notified.
Gimenez said he was aware of one person killed, one person who had a heart attack on the way to the hospital and six victims in serious condition. He expected the official death toll to rise.
“We fear there are other fatalities under the bridge,” he said.
Gimenez added that the bridge had undergone testing before the collapse.
“There was some sort of test going on this morning,” Gimenez said. “Some kind of work was going on at that bridge, a stress test.”
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Miami-Dade County police and fire rescue said at least eight cars had been crushed under the walkway but crews with specially trained dogs and listening device were poring over the wreckage, hoping to find survivors. About two hours after the collapse, crews also brought in heavy equipment to lift sections of the shattered span.
“I don’t know what’s under the bridge, under the rubble,” said Lt. Alex Camachoof the Florida Highway Patrol. “It’s impossible to see.”
The injured were transported to the trauma center at Kendall Regional Medical Center. A hospital spokesperson said Kendall Regional received 10 trauma patients ranging in age from 20- to 50-years-old, including one man whose heart had stopped beating when he arrived.
Doctors revived the man, who was not identified, and wheeled him into the operating room. He is listed in critical condition with head and chest injuries.
A second patient arrived comatose with severe injuries that required orthopedic and neurosurgery, the hospital spokesperson said. The remaining eight patients are in stable condition with injuries ranging from scrapes and bruises to broken bones.
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Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez said he believed there were multiple people trapped under the collapsed bridge. He wouldn’t venture to guess at the number because first responders were having trouble getting to the vehicles.
Police said FIU’s Student Academic Success Center would function as a “family reunification” area. Police chaplains awaited the families. Those concerned should call 305-348-3481 if they are searching for a family member.
The collapse was clearly a major failure but there was no immediate explanation for what brought the structure down shortly before 2 p.m. Maurice Kemp, the deputy mayor who oversees the police and fire departments, cautioned that information the Mayor Gimenez provided about a potential stress test before the collapse was “very preliminary.”
Kemp declined to identify the source of the information, but said he had conversations about workers “possibly adjusting tension lines on the bridge” before the accident.
MCM Construction Management, which is building the bridge, posted a message to the company’s Facebook page after the collapse promising “a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong.”
BDI, the engineering firm responsible for monitoring the structure, said the company would release a statement regarding the bridge collapse later Thursday.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the bridge collapse. Nelson posted a message to Twitter just before 4 p.m. that he spoke with NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, who guaranteed he would lead the probe.
FIU spokesperson Maydel Santana-Bravo issued a statement, even as rescue crews were still working the scene.
“We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater Bridge,” she said. “At this time, we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information. We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene. We will share updates as we have them.”
FIU students are on spring break this week, but traffic was expected to be heavy with the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair nearby scheduled to open at 3 p.m. today.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott issued a statement that he had spoken with Miami-Dade County Police Chief Juan Perez, whose agency dispatched homicide detectives to the scene, which occurs during all mass casualty events.
Scott’s office said the governor will visit FIU today to be briefed by police and university officials on the collapse.
White House Press Sec. Sarah Sanders said President Donald Trump is “aware” of the deadly pedestrian bridge collapse and will “offer whatever support is needed” to local officials.
The pedestrian walkway was installed in a single morning at Southwest 109th Avenue on Saturday, intended eventually to link FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus to the small suburban city of Sweetwater, where the university estimates 4,000 of its students live.
Before Saturday’s installation, FIU said the pedestrian bridge used an innovative approach under which a 175-foot section of the overall 320-foot long bridge was fabricated by the side of the Trail while support columns were erected in place.
Over a few hours on Saturday morning, the 950-ton span was lifted off the ground by a mechanical transporter, swung into position across the Trail, then lowered into place over the support columns.
That reduced to a minimum the time the trail had to be closed to traffic, and minimized risks to workers and people in the vicinity, FIU said.
The university’s engineering school has an “accelerated bridge” program that develops techniques to speed up bridge construction. The program consulted with builders, designers and engineers early in the process, but was not closely involved in the pedestrian bridge program, a spokeswoman said last week.
There were as yet no stairs or ramps to the bridge, which was not open. Opening was scheduled for early next year.
The bridge partners, MCM and Figg, are part of a consortium that has mounted a legal challenge of the Florida Department of Transportation’s award of the Interstate 395 reconstruction project to a rival team, holding up the plan for months.
A citizen panel judging the 395 bids on aesthetic grounds overwhelmingly preferred Figg’s design for a signature bridge over Biscayne Boulevard, a key element in the project. But MCM’s team alleged that FDOT changed the scoring method to favor the other team’s submission. Figg’s design for a bridge suspended from cables features two support towers that resemble dancers.
Students and faculty have long been clamoring for a bridge at the 109th Avenue crossing, where students on foot have to get across seven lanes of jam-packed traffic that divide the campus from Sweetwater. Though FIU provides shuttles, many students prefer to walk. In August, FIU undergraduate Alexis Dale was hit and killed by a motorist while crossing the intersection.
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