A message that could have save people
The construction of a bridge can save a geographical feature such as a river, a valley, a road, a canyon, a road, a railway, a body of water or any other physical obstacle. The design of each of them varies depending on the function that is going to have once finished and the nature of the land where it is going to be built.
The preparation of a bridge project and its calculation belong to the structural engineering, being numerous the types of designs that have been applied throughout history, influenced by the available materials. When the group of specialists meets to analyze the design of a bridge, they take into account the quality of the soil or rock where it will have to be propped up and the regime of the river or way over which it will pass, are aspects to take into account to guarantee the durability of it.
The chief engineer of the firm, designer of the pedestrian bridge that was destroyed in Miami (six dead) recently, announced two days before the collapse that the work, in development, had cracks.Although to consideration of the engineer these valuations did not constitute a danger.
From his point of view, some repairs were pertinent, however, from a security perspective he did not believe that there would be any problem.So it was recorded in the message I'm going to leave in the voicemail of the Florida Department of Transportation specialist Denney Pate.
The employee of the department that received the warning was not in the office and did not hear the message until the day after the bridge collapsed.In the midst of the commotion caused by the disaster and the pressing questions for the reason of the collapse, the Department of Transportation has made this detail public.The pedestrian bridge was a huge concrete structure of 970 tons that had been installed last Saturday. On Thursday afternoon, suddenly, broke and fell on a busy highway crushing a dozen vehicles, leaving six dead and ten injured.The Department maintains that the responsibility for "identifying and addressing" construction risks was entirely with the construction company, FIGG Bridge Group, a Florida company specializing in bridges.
The work, with a budget of 14 million dollars, had been commissioned by the International University of Florida (FIU) to facilitate a safer passage to its facilities, avoiding the dangers of the Tamiami Trail highway.The firm in a statement issued to the press is declared destroyed by the loss of lives and injuries and ensures that it will investigate the steps taken by its team during the work.In relation to the notice of his chief engineer, he reaffirms that the evaluation of the cracks had been rigorous and did not present any objective risk of collapse. Police in Miami-Dade County, the center of metropolitan Miami, has opened a criminal investigation.
This Saturday night the rescuers removed the sixth and last body from under the rubble of the bridge. Five have been identified: FIU student Alexa Durán, 18; the worker Navaro Brown, 37, who worked on the job; Rolando Fraga, 60 years old; Osvaldo González, 58 years old; and Alberto Arias, 54 years old.A federal agency for transport safety is conducting technical investigations to determine the cause of the collapse.
The investigation could last up to a year and a half. One of the hypotheses that circulate, spread by the Republican senator from Florida Marco Rubio, is that the collapse could have been due to a tensioning operation of the cables of the bridge structure that was being carried out on the same day of the collapse. Authorities have acknowledged that these works were being carried out on Thursday, but have not confirmed that they encouraged the bridge to break.
