Designers overestimated load capacity of critical FIU
pedestrian bridge section: NTSB update report
Florida Construction News staff writer
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
says in an investigative update about the fatal Florida In-
ternational University (FIU) pedestrian bridge collapse in
Miami that errors were made in the design of the 174-
foot span, and that cracking observed before the col-
lapse is consistent with those errors.
Six people died and eight others were injured when
the bridge collapsed on March 15, 2018. Eight vehicles
were crushed in the collapse, and seven of the vehicles
were occupied, the NTSB says in its mid-November up-
date. Munilla Construction Management built the struc-
ture based on designs from FIGG Bridge Group (FIGG).
Two days before the collapse, a FIGG engineer left a
voicemail for Florida Department of Transportation
(DOT) officials to report cracking had been found at one
end of the concrete span, but the company did not
think it was an issue, the Associated Press has re-
ported. State officials did not hear the voicemail until after
the collapse. University officials said DOT officials had
been included in a meeting to discuss the cracking
hours before the collapse.
The NTSB update states errors made were in the de-
sign of the northernmost nodal region of the span
where two truss members were connected to the
bridge deck. The design errors resulted in an overesti-
mation of the capacity (resistance) of a critical section
through the node, and, an apparent underestimation of
the demand (load) on that section.
The design review was conducted by the Federal
Highway Administration’s Office of Bridges and Struc-
tures in support of the NTSB’s ongoing investigation.
The Federal Highway Administration is a party to the
NTSB’s investigation.
The Turner-Fairbanks Highway Research Center, part
of the Federal Highway Administration, conducted nu-
merous tests and examinations of concrete and steel
samples taken from the bridge following its collapse.
The concrete and steel specimens tested by Turner-Fair-
banks Highway Research Center personnel met the pro-
ject’s build plans specified minimum requirements.
Findings from the materials tests include:
• Concrete core specimens from the bridge deck and
bridge canopy met the compression requirements in
the project plans;
• The design plans specified concrete used for the
project had to be in accordance with Florida Depart-
ment of Transportation specifications. All specimens
4 – DECEMBER 2018 - JANAURY 2019 — Florida Construction News
Samples of rebar recovered from the collapsed FIU pedes-
trian bridge, await transport to the Federal Highway Ad-
ministration’s Turner-Fairbanks Highway Research Center,
where the samples underwent materials testing as part of
the NTSB’s ongoing investigation of the March 15, 2018,
fatal, bridge collapse. (NTSB photo by Adrienne Lamm)
from the bridge deck and bridge canopy were within
the specified range for total air content; and
• Tension test results of size #5, #8 and #11 steel re-
inforcing bars revealed all met minimum yield and
tensile strengths and percent elongation at fracture,
for their respective sizes. Size #7 bars could not be
tested due to collapse-induced deformation.
The NTSB’s investigation of the bridge collapse is on-
going and the information contained in the investigative
update is preliminary and will be supplemented or cor-
rected as the investigation progresses. As such, no con-
clusions about probable cause should be drawn from
the information contained in the investigative update,
the agency says.
The investigative update is available online at
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Florida has seven of
the nation’s 10 fastest
growing construction
job markets: AGCA
Florida Construction News staff writer
Data recently released by the Associated General
Contractors of America (AGC) indicates that seven of
the 10 fastest-growing construction job markets in the
country are in Florida.
The Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island metro area
had the fastest rate of construction-employment
growth nationwide during the September-to-Septem-
ber period (27 percent). The Miami-Miami Beach-
Kendall metro area had the third-fastest growth rate
(22 percent). Cape Coral-Fort Myers had the fifth-
fastest rate (20 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 were the Orlando-Kissim-
mee-Sanford and Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-
Deerfield Beach metro areas, which, at 17 percent,
each tied for the seventh-fastest rate of job growth.
And the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach
and the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville metro areas
tied for ninth-fastest rate at 15 percent each.
Meanwhile, the state added 3,000 new construc-
tion jobs between September and October, according
to federal Labor Department data. However, this
growth – at 23rd in the nation – reflects a slow-down
from overall annual employment growth from October
2017, which had placed the state sixth nationally --
with an increase of 43,400 employees to a total of
552,000 -- an increase of 8.5 percent for the year.
“Construction activity continues to expand at a
steady clip, with employment growing by more than
10 percent during the past year in five states and by
more than five percent in another 18 states,” said
chief economist Ken Simonson. “As contractors pay
more for labor and most of the materials they use to
build, construction costs will climb, potentially damp-
ening future demand for their services.
Association officials said in a statement that wide-
spread construction employment gains are a sign of
strong demand for construction services in most parts
of the country. But they cautioned that without new in-
vestments in career and technical education, immigra-
tion reform and swift resolution of trade disputes,
labor and materials costs will continue to climb.
“Firms in many parts of the country are hiring as
fast as they can find qualified workers to bring on-
board just to keep pace with demand,” said Stephen
E. Sandherr, the AGCA’s chief executive officer. “But at
some point, the increasing costs of labor and con-
struction materials are going to drive construction
prices to the point where many customers reschedule
or rethink their projects.”
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Florida Construction News — DECEMBER 2018 - JANAURY 2019 – 5