Florida officials knew about bridge crack
Badhon : Florida officials were told ‘there were no safety concerns’ about a crack in a Miami university bridge, hours before it collapsed killing six people. Florida International University said a meeting on Thursday morning involved the engineering and construction companies, as well as Florida’s transport department. (BBC)
An engineer told officials it ‘did not compromise the structural integrity’. The bridge fell on eight vehicles about three hours later.
In a statement, the university said the ‘engineer of record’ from the contractor FIGG gave a technical presentation regarding the crack, in a meeting which lasted about two hours. It comes after it emerged that Denney Pate, the lead bridge engineer, had warned of a crack in the structure two days earlier in a voicemail left with the state’s department of transport. He also said he believed there was no concern ‘from a safety perspective’.
Department employees said on Friday they did not hear the message until after the bridge fell. But there was no mention of the meeting held on the morning of the collapse. The number of victims is thought likely to rise as workers clear the rubble from the 862-tonne structure, which was erected days before as a walkway for university students.