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BREAKING | FDOT was warned about FIU bridge cracking two days before collapse - but didn't hear voicemail until today
Engineers for the pedestrian bridge at Florida International University warned state officials about cracking two days before Thursday's fatal collapse, but no one at the Florida Department of Transportation heard the voicemail until today, FDOT said Friday evening.
Engineers also had a permit to close the road below the bridge, but never made the request, FDOT said.
"The department was also not made aware by the FIU design build team of any scheduled 'Stress testing' of the bridge following installation and has no knowledge or confirmation from FIU's design build team of "stress testing" occurring since installation," FDOT said in a statement. "Per standard safety procedure, FDOT would issue a permit for partial or full road closure if deemed necessary and requested by the FIU design build team or FIU contracted construction inspector for structural testing."
FDOT also released the transcript of a voice mail left on March 13 by W. Denney Pate, FIGG's lead engineer for the pedestrian bridge project, to an FDOT employee.
The employee, who was out on assignment, didn't hear it until Friday.
Here is the full transcript, as submitted by FDOT.
"Hey Tom, this is Denney Pate with FIGG bridge engineers. Calling to, uh, share with you some information about the FIU pedestrian bridge and some cracking that's been observed on the north end of the span, the pylon end of that span we moved this weekend. Um, so, uh, we've taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done but from a safety perspective we don't see that there's any issue there so we're not concerned about it from that perspective although obviously the cracking is not good and something's going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that. At any rate, I wanted to chat with you about that because I suspect at some point that's gonna get to your desk. So, uh, at any rate, call me back when you can. Thank you. Bye."
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