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All I know is, America has a lot of foot bridges. Most don't appear to be as massive, as heavy and so on. All the students needed was a simple basic bridge, that bridge looked like overkill (no pun intended).
FIU (and the local gov) wanted some ridiculous bridge that was "more than a bridge" complete with tables and wifi, like an elevated concrete park. Many people were against it and wanted either no bridge, or a simple one as seen every where else. The 14 million was mostly DOT funds, which should have been used for other, more vital things besides a fancy bridge.
And yea, they hyped this bridge up saying crazy things like this will be the gateway to Sweetwater, this marks the epicenter of new economic development here, etc. Goodness, it is a damn bridge, and it is not even linking an area that was inaccessible, there is a crosswalk and shuttle buses.
FIU (and the local gov) wanted some ridiculous bridge that was "more than a bridge" complete with tables and wifi, like an elevated concrete park. Many people were against it and wanted either no bridge, or a simple one as seen every where else. The 14 million was mostly DOT funds, which should have been used for other, more vital things besides a fancy bridge.
And yea, they hyped this bridge up saying crazy things like this will be the gateway to Sweetwater, this marks the epicenter of new economic development here, etc. Goodness, it is a damn bridge, and it is not even linking an area that was inaccessible, there is a crosswalk and shuttle buses.
I saw this in the plans and thought it was kind of ridiculous. What do they think it is, the High Line? From what I understand, its purpose was to get students safely from one side of the highway to the other. All they needed was a basic bridge, and was a cover even necessary? I know it's FL and it rains a lot, often every day in the summer, but I'm sure the students carry umbrellas because they are used to it. Do they walk around covered with concrete roofs everywhere on campus? No. IMO they didn't need one on their bridge.
There was nothing wrong with the design of the bridge. As has been said by experts and even some in this thread, the problem was with the construction procedure.
The experts say that as soon as the bridge was lifted into place the cable stays should have been attached, that is the normal bridge construction procedure. They were nowhere near ready to attach cable stays – the tower they were to be attached to wasn't even in place.
Senator Rubio and many reports said that they were tightening the cables that suspend the bridge. This was incorrect. Assuming they were tightening something, they were actually tightening the cables that ran from one end of the bridge walkway to the other. They were under tension and embedded in the concrete and added to its strength.
There was nothing wrong with the design of the bridge. As has been said by experts and even some in this thread, the problem was with the construction procedure.
The experts say that as soon as the bridge was lifted into place the cable stays should have been attached, that is the normal bridge construction procedure. They were nowhere near ready to attach cable stays – the tower they were to be attached to wasn't even in place.
Senator Rubio and many reports said that they were tightening the cables that suspend the bridge. This was incorrect. Assuming they were tightening something, they were actually tightening the cables that ran from one end of the bridge walkway to the other. They were under tension and embedded in the concrete and added to its strength.
No matter what, they should have stopped traffic during the time of tightening cables or other means of attaching the bridge...seems like that would have been a no-brainer.
To me, the design appears to have been a suspension bridge. A tower was supposed to be in the center with cables from the top of the tower helping to hold the weight of the bridge. This is 'classic' design used in the Verozano Narrows bridge, the golden gate bridge and so on. It appears this span was put in place and the tower and supporting cables were not. I am certainly not a bridge engineer but putting that span in place without the suspension seems counter intuitive.
The NTSB will conduct a thorough investigation with actual experts and we'll know what went wrong in a couple months.
Speculation is fine but wow, we have the armchair experts already stating as fact what happened and who is at fault?
Ummm...that's what "speculation" IS!.....speculating the reason and what/who was at fault.
And, it's not really going out on a limb to state that the builders and/or designers were at fault...there really is no other option unless you're gonna claim gremlins did it.
All I know is, America has a lot of foot bridges. Most don't appear to be as massive, as heavy and so on. All the students needed was a simple basic bridge, that bridge looked like overkill (no pun intended).
At $14million dollars that footbridge was way too expensive. The news said it was funded by Federal DOT dollars. Do you really think the local college would have built this if they had to pay for it?
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