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Friday, March 16, 2018

Pedestrian bridge linked to Florida International University collapses

Por Feco

The collapsed bridge was installed on Saturday at 109 West Avenue in Miami. It sought to give pedestrian access from the headquarters of the Florida International University to the Sweetwater area, where nearly 4,000 students live in the residential buildings of the FIU. Its inauguration was scheduled for 2019. The causes of the collapse are yet unkown.

A bridge that was under construction in Miami, Florida, collapsed on Thursday, leaving several dead, injured and trapped cars, according to what Florida Highway Patrol confirmed to Univision 23 Miami. The infrastructure, which weighed about 950 tons, linked the Florida International University (FIU) with the city of Sweetwater, in southwestern Miami-Dade County. Images of the incident show several cars crushed under the structure. Emergency teams are in place serving injured people. "The cars are completely under the bridge", Katrina, a young driver who survived the accident, told Univision.

She also said she saw people trapped under the collapsed bridge. She got out of the car and managed to escape from under the structure before it fell off. After the fall, traffic was closed in the area. The live images show several workers trying to enter under the bridge and, apparently, locate people under the structure. The Miami-Dade Fire Department said on its Twitter account that there are "multiple injured people", although the total number was not confirmed. Up to this moment, the reasons for the fall of the bridge, which happened around 2:00 pm, are still unknown.

The bridge project was initiated to avoid runs over since with the expansion of the university there were several deaths on the road. Univision 23 reported Friday the placement of the bridge, which had been assembled with an accelerated construction method. The bridge was assembled in another place and its 950 tons of structure were moved for the installation once finished, according to a FIU document.

The mobilized segment has dimensions of 174 feet long (53 meters), although the total structure would have a dimension of 289 feet long by 31.67 feet wide, including its stairs and elevators. The method used was that of Self-Propelled Modular Transportation and the university assures that it is the longest pedestrian structure that has ever been transported in the United States, although it is not the first time they use this construction procedure. Among its main characteristics, it was also able to withstand a category 5 hurricane.

Another of the innovations highlighted by FIU is that its construction was made with a concrete that cleans itself, removing pollutants from the air and decomposing ultraviolet radiation. The Florida International University asked its students and teachers to avoid the area. In a statement, the academic institution was "saddened by the tragic events that are happening." The note stressed that "at this moment we are still working to rescue people and gather information."