Thread by @FreedomFriesInc

(1) Here we go again. Despite being a new bridge, this Miami walkway collapsed, tragically causing multiple fatalities.

I speak from industry experience when I say: Someone failed to do their job properly.

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(2) I will provide links and updates in this thread over the coming days. The regulation and enforcement of safety standards relies, ultimately, on political will.

Thoughts and prayers with those affected.

(3) Live updates here: fox13news.com/news/florida-n…

(4) A news conference is about to begin in Miami. Local TV live stream: wsvn.com

(5) Tweeted by the university on March 11th. They may end up deleting this later but it will still be available somewhere.

All testing & inspections MUST be completed BEFORE a road is opened! Same thing happened in recent Amtrak derail in WA state.

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(6) "The bridge was still months away from opening to foot traffic."

Then you don't open the 4 lane street underneath it, fools!

I think the federal government needs to call a moratorium on such projects until construction safety plans are reviewed by PROFESSIONALS.

(7) The lead construction company was MCM, the others were FIGG and Bolton Perez and Associates. (It's quite normal to have several companies involved, I'm not concerned).

The first two have already made a statement, the third has not yet. Source: fox61.com/2018/03/15/1-d…

(8) After surviving an earthquake in 2011 that killed 185 people & injured hundreds more, I became hypervigilant around tall buildings, old brick buildings, and car parking buildings. The latter simply pancake onto you, like this bridge did. The hazard is UNDERNEATH them.

(9) Prediction: We will eventually learn that this bridge's basic design was fundamentally flawed, it should never have been approved for construction, and the city certainly should never have allowed traffic to flow under it until ALL testing & signoffs were complete.

(10) Watch this video:

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(11)

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(12) Sundance brought us the best information about the crooked #CowardsOfBroward and the 17 Parkland deaths they allowed to happen. Here's his live updates article about this Florida failure (he lives in the state):

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(13) Allowing traffic under a suspension bridge that doesn't have its cables in place, then stress testing it while there is traffic flowing underneath: unconscionable.

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(14) Another good source of information:

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(15) The definitive official source for incidents like these. In the recent Amtrak derailments, the NTSB came through with damning information very quickly. These days they don't hold back once they know.

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(16) The district's Congressman, a Republican:

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(17) The US Department of Transportation contributed to the bridge project with a grant (probably during the Obama admin). Funders rely on state and local regulators to ensure safety plans are adequate and followed. IMO the bridge is necessary to prevent pedestrian traffic deaths

(18) It's clear the firefighters are trying to help people who are still alive and trapped under the bridge. Compression Syndrome is a real risk: that's when the weight is taken off and blood flows back into the limb that was crushed.

(19) Please DO NOT donate to any gofundme campaigns because of the HIGH risk of fraud. The American Red Cross is assisting, there are charity foundations with each of the Police, Fire departments. And often a Mayor opens a fundraiser too. Hold your horses before donating.

(20) Source: CNN (Due to lack of a better source available atm: If you have one, please reply with the link).

10 in hospital, incl 2 critical. PD said earlier they estimate 8 vehicles trapped underneath structure.

(21) Small lawsuit over the injury of one person on another MCM site in Florida. I am looking for info about any other legal action in the company's history too.

Source: edition.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/…

(22) NSTB briefing coming up in 30 minutes or so.

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(23) This rendering tells you everything you need to know about the likely first cause of the failure. Installing the longer span without the necessary diagonal supports in place. The second cause of the tragedy was re-opening the road to traffic DURING construction & testing.

(24) They only closed the road for the weekend. Yes, detours are annoying and costly. But they are made for good reason.

More details here: miamiherald.com/news/local/com…

(25) As I said earlier, the logic for installing a bridge here is sound. But I think FIU was carried away with the high tech features of the project instead of making safety at ALL stages of it the number one priority. A pedestrian bridge doesn't need to weigh 950 tonnes.

(26) Another design risk in this bridge was that once built, people would be able to easily scale the barrier & self-harm onto the roadway below. This is extremely traumatic and dangerous for road users. Modern bridges should be built to reduce this risk. Esp. on a campus.

(27) Source for the excerpt at Tweet # (25): miamiherald.com/news/local/com…

The CAD animation video shows the barriers would be about 8' or so high. Easy to scale either with or without a small ladder or a chair to help.

(28) In my experience, even if you build a $14 million pedestrian overpass, there are still going to be people who don't want to use it who will run the gauntlet in the traffic. This impacts others. We are all pedestrians some of the time and need to #think before we take risks.

(29) The Miami Herald website only tells you AFTER you've read your 5 free articles per month that you have to pay to read more. Gotta love that, LOL. So, use your 5 sparingly unlike me.

(30) The Miami-Dade County Mayor and Deputy Mayor got their stories a bit mixed up early on. This is why it's best practice to say nothing until you've got proper confirmation and agreement.

miamiherald.com/news/local/com…

(31) Mayor Kemp was trying to sound "in control" here, IMO. Rescue crews on the ground know to do this and would not have needed the Mayor's advice or approval from Hong Kong. He should have instead said "my Deputy Mayor is in charge of this."

(32) Emergency plans are meant to make the chain of command clear. In the US this is esp. important bc you have layers of actors: LEOs: campus, city, county, state, federal. Political leaders: college, city, county, state, congressional. And multiple private companies involved.

(33) This photo was taken as the bridge collapsed. You can see the tension cables hanging from the crane. I'm guessing the person was already taking photos of the new bridge, or it's a still from a dash cam.

(34) Happening now: NTSB briefing from DC. These guys are good at what they do. The first team will arrive approx 10.30pm. Follow them at @NTSB_Newsroom.

They're not giving any useful details yet.

wsvn.com

(35) Info from the WH. Also, local Police briefing coming up soon.

(36) Sundance explains in his thread which component failed: the concrete/steel anchor for the eventual suspension cables, that was being tested at the time.

They could have tested this before the bridge was moved over the roadway!

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(37) I don't it takes engineering training to be able to see what happened here.
>Span was built beside the bridge site
>Span was moved to its final location
>Road was opened to traffic
>Cable anchor point was tested
>Anchor point failed

There were many ways to prevent this.

(38) Gov Scott spoke at the Police press conference as night falls on the rescue scene. Sen Rubio also spoke. He has close connections with the FIU.

(39) FIU President Mark Rosenberg giving a political speech about how sad they are etc etc. Ultimately, the decision to select this particular bridge design rested with him. He will have relied on engineering advice, but still. The buck needs to stop with someone.

(40) Oh boy. This press conference has been managed badly. I lost my audio feed so will have to watch the video later. No one person was running the Q&A part of the presser & some of those responding to questions did a bad job of it.

(41) FIU owned this project, not the FL DoT. Here's just one of the many points where FIU failed:

Source edition.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/…

(42) Often a major project is a joint venture between two or more companies. FIU should not have contracted with FIGG. They had a duty to do due diligence, to discover FIGG's previous citation in 2012, even if FIGG tried to hide it.

wsvn.com/news/local/com…

(43) Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Dave Downey said at least 4 people were killed. "We have located victims, but we're unable to identify them or have any confirmation," he said.

(44) It's 11.39pm local time in Miami and I'm moving to Thread #2 for the next set of updates:

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