IEEE (PI)² Austin August 25, 2020 Virtual Technical Meeting “The Florida International University Pedestrian Bridge Collapse: How did Engineers Allow this to Happen?“

Dean Van Landuyt and Mark J. Bloschock provided a terrific tag-team presentation on the the events leading up to this event on March 15, 2018, when a 175-foot-long span collapsed while under construction at Florida International University.  Surprisingly, the bridge was in severe distress a few days before the collapse and engineers and workers were actively trying to strengthen the structure at the time of failure.  The talk examined the mistakes that experienced bridge professionals made that resulted in the deaths of one worker and five motorists.
The cause analyses showed that even experienced professionals can get lost in the weeds of intense detail and unexpected events, when going back the the basics of statics with hand calculations could have revealed the design flaw, allowed preventative measures and road closure and prevented the death of 6 individuals. Indeed, improved independent design reviews by a third party could have found the design flaw before construction and allowed for design changes, that, while at increased cost and possible design esthetic, could have saved lives and significantly higher costs as well as the legal proceedings and business interruption for the company. 

Dean Van Landuyt, left, an engineer with the Architectural Engineers Collaborative in Austin, and Mark Bloschock, right, a consultant for VRZ, Inc, an engineering and architectural firm in Plano, tag-teamed their way to a terrific dive in to the roots of this failure that claimed the lives of 1 construction worker and 5 motorists. Key takeaways were:  when something goes awry, first keep the public and workers safe – STOP WORK and close the highway; second, engineers need to take a step back to the basics (in this case basic statics and dynamics) to look for solutions instead of searching for bandaids; third, ask for help, consult with others, be willing to listen; and fourth, and perhaps most important, know the most critical stages of the construction (in this case when the tensioners we being applied) and have an independent thorough design review before drawings are issued to prevent failures during construction. Mark and Dean clearly identified how broadly, thoroughly and collaboratively engineers need to conduct the engineering process, in order to prevent deadly incidents such as this bridge collapse