The Florida International University Bridge Disaster 2018 | Plainly Difficult Short Documentary

In the March Floridian weather of 2018 investigators are picking through the rubble of the collapsed FIU Bridge....
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:35 Background
06:07 Warning Signs Begin
09:53 Disaster
12:03 NTSB Investigation
15:03 Aftermath
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Sources:
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► • Officials Release 911 ...
►www.osha.gov/sites/default/fi...
#disaster #Documentary​​​​ #History​​​​​​​​​ #TrueStories

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I now have a second KZbin Channel for my outro music: kzbin.info/door/TJKjPWNMe27wg5T7yk9OnQ

[@TheFrmx]

I have a question buddy. Why did you leave out that this was one of the first mainstream woke hirings? This was a female all run project with people hired based on their gender/sex. Pretty sure thats a contributing factor.

[@MOONSTORMMUSIC]

@@TheFrmx I’m guessing that he’s being…. Plainly Difficult.

[@TheFrmx]

@@MOONSTORMMUSIC good one lol. But nah he's being a typical lying simp is all. "Content creators" are parasites so anything isnt supprising.

[@triggerwarning5762]

That 16-step TD3 sequence is the best part of the video.

[@paxhumana2015]

@@TheFrmx , I found the elitist, whiny, and misogynist MGTOW neck beard! However, in all seriousness, the gender of the people was not the problem, but, rather, it was the ineptitude, cheapness, horrible design, and poor material choices that all contributed to the design flaw of the walkway.

[@Unb3arablePain]

It still baffles me that all they had to design and build was a simple walkway and they somehow managed to create a fracture critical, 950 ton monstrosity.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It is a strange one surely there are off the shelf designs

[@chocolatechip12]

An American university will never choose a simple solution that works over a useless eyesore that costs 20 times more.

[@tinto278]

Democrats don't care about safety.

[@poeticsilence047]

​@@chocolatechip12 definitely someone from that university pocketed some of that money.

[@Unb3arablePain]

@@chocolatechip12 As someone who attended one, unfortunately you're right. My campus has done nothing but construct grandiose dorms that aren't special at all in terms of accomidation but cost 150% more than tuition to live in for the 3/4 of the year that you are there.

[@daviddavidson2357]

There's a pretty dark irony to the fact that the bridge was intended to save lives yet ended up killing 6 people.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It does doesn’t it

[@PrograError]

I hope the new bridge is gonna have a plate honoring the unneeded deaths due to the construction...

[@dascandy]

@@PrograError As opposed to the tens/hundreds of needed deaths on the road?

[@conservat1vepatr1ot]

@@dascandy Can you clarify?

[@MintyDreams]

@@dascandy I'm sure your need to make that distinction based on top comment's wording vastly outweighs the serious nature of what they were saying. But clearly you're a very funny person.

[@tayzonday]

The university students and faculty who designed it wanted a beautiful bridge to brag about on LinkedIn and job applications. A plain, ugly bridge would not satisfy their career opportunism. No one wants to go “Look at the ugly, functional bridge I helped implement! Hire me!”

[@sandraweiss4412]

Oh, I promise you it isn't pressure from the students. 99% don't care what universities do with their tuition dollars, at that point they are too poor to care 😅

[@gijakob]

Aren’t you the chocolate rain guy?

[@TazyBaby]

@@gijakobyeah he is, checkmark and everything lol

[@josephesposito3499]

SPOILER ALERT: It was a fe-MALE led construction company and a 5 wo-MAN engineering team, the 'first' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team as it was billed in interviews! This was a diversity fail and nothing else.

[@CYCLONEFAN88]

They should have been like Iowa State and made it look nice and function

[@alessandros5042]

What’s scary about that situation is that it could have been a lot more tragic. Earlier that day, at around 8:30am, a greyhound with 50 FIU students and staff stopped under that bridge their way to the Southern Regional Orientation Workshop. I remember someone on the bus pointing out the massive crack while we were waiting for the light to change. We got the news about what happened right before we arrived in Orlando. It was definitely a heartbreaking experience.

[@dododostenfiftyseven4096]

What is the southern regional orientation workshop

[@jrmckim]

There was also a school bus next to the vehicle with the camera.

[@stinkymart3173]

Tragically ironic that the school's bid with this was to put themselves on the map as an engineering school. I've heard of 'em now.

[@myvideosetc.8271]

Is equally ironic what they don't say about the designers of the bridge, it was to be a complete flagship of something something we can't talk about it.

[@yummyherbicide7296]

@@myvideosetc.8271 yep, certainly an example of x group power

[@jonathandavidson410]

@@Archedgar You do know that the bridge was designed by a 61 year old man, right? W. Denney Pate. He was with FIGG bridge company, not the school. It's crazy to me that people keep blaming the school engineering department when the real scandal is that an actual "accredited" engineering company were so stupid that they designed a bridge that even on paper would fail under its own weight, and then were saying up to the literal moment of the bridge collapsing that there were no issues with it.

[@Archedgar]

@@jonathandavidson410 Sure it was. If that doesn't stick, try saying it was magical fairies or flying saucers next time.

[@jaqenhghar6244]

@@myvideosetc.8271 yea, we really should talk more about the dangers of incel confidence and how they’ll use tragedy to make up stories about women to feel less inadequate.

[@________stephens8251]

I was in College for Engineering (mechanical) when the walkway collapsed. my teacher brought up a simplified schematic of the bridge (we were first or second years of the program) and asked us what we saw wrong with the project. We identified at least 5 in the first 3 minutes. It should have never been approved.

[@gizoginjr]

The first problem is this: why is there an eight-lane highway there at all? Car-dependency is the root cause here.

[@lalajun5902]

@@Epic_C gotta show diversity hires work or else!

[@________stephens8251]

@@Epic_C ??? no ??? This is what happens when greed goes before safety. "F.I.U. had no professional engineers on its staff and relied solely on the expertise of its hired contractors" The National Transportation Safety Board, They refused to spend the money on qualified engineers instead using cheaper contractors with no engineering experience. How about before you blame whatever group you currently don't like you use your brain. "woke hiring" doesn't happen in STEM get off the internet, and go touch some grass.

[@michaelharris679]

​@@Epic_C What does this even mean?

[@a-nus]

@@michaelharris679 You know exactly what it means.

[@dinoflagella4185]

My wife was attending FIU when the bridge collapsed. I saw this on the news and immediately freaked out. I called her up and come to find out she had left the campus an hour early to have lunch with her friends. They were unaware that bridge had collapsed and people had died.

[@josephesposito3499]

SPOILER ALERT: It was a fe-MALE led construction company and what was billed as the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responsible for the collapse. This was a diversity fail and nothing more

[@asimali0200]

I was a student at FIU in 1991. And it was a nightmare to cross the road then. Can’t believe that a bridge was being built in 2018, almost quarter of a century later

[@josephesposito3499]

SPOILER ALERT: This was a diversity fail. It was a fe-MALE led construction company and the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responsible for the collapse.

[@KyrieFortune]

The nightmare is that you have to cross basically a highway in your own campus to begin with, US road system is fucked beyond belief and it needs to be completely destroyed and rebuilt with the person in mind and not how many Toyota Corolla it can fit

[@josephesposito3499]

@@KyrieFortune NOPE. This was a diversity fail. You can blame affirmative action and wo-MEN for the collaspe. It was a fe-MALE led construction company and a 5 wo-MAN engineering team led by Leonor Flores who bragged in interviews about being in charge of the project. wo-MEN don't belong in engineering ...duh?

[@Mr_Bones.]

What a stupid comment. You want to bulldoze the entire US roads? With what money? With what support? You sound like an angry hippy

[@snix7613]

2:48 "The University was known for its expertise in accelerated bridge construction..." Now even more well-known!

[@GH-oi2jf]

ABC was not at fault, though.

[@remix4098]

accelerated bridge collapse

[@madmanmortonyt4890]

Accelerated construction is employed in many fields across the US. It comes down to the people in charge, not the concept.

[@bobroberts2581]

didn’t say “safe accelerates bridge building” did it? After all, this is a bunch of people choosing to live on an ocean coast that get “surprised” when a hurricane wipes their towns off the map. if they donMt understand weather patterns, why would stress and compression of material be something they could understand.

[@LRM12o8]

Coming to think of, "was known for their expertise" is actually a much more neutral statement, than we realize. It doesn't say "excellent/outstanding/flawless expertise", that's just what we always assume. It may just as well mean "poor/terrible/non-existent expertise", as in this case, apparently...

[@sebastianmallens4765]

I am a student at FIU but at the time of the collapse I was a senior at MAST academy in key biscayne. I was in class the moment it happened, word immediately got to everyone. I overheard one of the girls say to her friends "you know the bridge we saw by FIU that we were joking about it looking like it was going to collapse? It actually happened"

[@giaparmer]

Damn every time I pass mast academy to get to virgina key state park I think about what a cool commute to school thatd be

[@mjohnsimon1337]

My brother is an engineering student at the engineering campus and he and his buddies thought the bridge always looked funky and would refuse to drive under it. If they were coming from 8th ST, they would go through the campus first and then exit on the other side of the bridge. They were _THAT_ paranoid. I thought they were being crazy...

[@arandomcommenter412]

When even the students themselves know it’s an unsafe bridge….

[@nlwilson4892]

Can you explain that why with traffic lights and pedestrian crossings marked, people were getting hit by cars?

[@fffrrraannkk]

@@nlwilson4892 because traffic? i don't think anyone actually got hit though.

[@joshuapatrick682]

It blows my mind the level of sheer incompetence that led to half a dozen lost lives simply because no one seemed to care.

[@batman-sr2px]

Well that happens in medicine all the time

[@milessumida6770]

On the bright side it was so poorly designed that it collapsed BEFORE being opened to the public. If it had been slightly better built it might have survived until it was fully occupied and THEN collapsed. On the other hand a competent company would have scrapped the entire bridge after seeing those cracks. 😅

[@raimarulightning]

@@batman-sr2px Maybe in America, where the capitalist system more or less necessitates that, but elsewhere, that doesn't happen nearly as often.

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

That's what happens when it's more important to hire wahmen than to hire competent people.

[@johnjones3813]

Come on, it's Florida, it was inevitable.

[@hamilcross]

my dad's a civil engineer. as i've gotten older, i've come to appreciate the work he does a LOT more than I did when I was a child and didn't quite understand what it was that he did for work. I always assumed it was more like architecture but (and don't take offense, architecture nerds, I appreciate it still) what he does is so much more complex than I initially thought. i'm always checking out the infrastructure of stuff and sometimes I bring stories like these up to him. he always has an explanation for how these tragedies occur and it's almost always due to time/financial "constraints" set by people who refuse to take into consideration the genuine concerns of engineers, which is all the more heartbreaking.

[@josephesposito3499]

LAUGH OUT LOUD! NOPE! This was a diversity fail. It was a fe-MALE led construction company and what was billed as the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responisble for the collapse. STOP with the damage control

[@user-qt4qp6bj1q]

All female engineering team.

[@wesleylowe4256]

The intro is pretty chilling. If the driver had left maybe 45 seconds earlier they could have been buried. I got goosebumps watching it, and again when I learned 6 people had died

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It is scary

[@neilkurzman4907]

You think about all the things that happened in a day that can make you 45 seconds ahead or behind schedule.

[@Dr-Weird]

It's a great intro ngl it's chilling to watch. You can almost feel the collective "Oh Shit." Moment in the cars ahead of the camera

[@huddy32]

He was in a semi, I remember wondering if a semi or 2 under it would have saved others

[@FranNyan]

@@huddy32 If the butt-end of the semi was under it, it would have been property-damage only, a much more prefered outcome, that's for sure... but I doubt the semi could have supported any of the falling bridge, if that's what you're wondering.

[@danielduncan6806]

Can you imagine inspecting the bridge after it was damaged, seeing the damage, and knowing that the entire bridge has to be scrapped, but continue going forward anyway, because you just don't want to scrap the entire project? Can you imagine that? Six people dead because they didn't want to scrap the obviously flawed design that was nearly complete.

[@killman369547]

I can imagine it. And in my ideal world everyone who was a part of the decision to keep pressing forward with the project would get the death penalty.

[@c3h50n023]

agree, the sunk cost fallacy. It's even more disheartening that in cases where a brave person has stopped bad designs/stupid ideas they are often still vilified because "they" put the project behind. very slowly the engineering culture is weeding this out but costs are still often used to justify bad decisions

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

Monnies monnies monnies

[@neilkurzman4907]

You’re assuming they knew with that time that the design was flawed. There could’ve been a problem with the construction. The strength of the concrete. Something could’ve happened during the move. But yes I’m sure a lot of people didn’t want to be the one that declared the bridge unsalvageable. Maybe that affected their thinking.

[@neilkurzman4907]

@@killman369547 In your ideal world nothing whatever happened because the penalty was death. No one would try anything that was remotely risky. Including yourself.

[@c.w.simpsonproductions1230]

I was a student at the time. It was spring break, so I wasn’t actually on campus. I was at a comic book store down the road, and remember hearing this loud boom, then coming out and seeing this huge plume of dust, followed by sirens and helicopters. The two ends of the bridge stayed there for a few years, and I always felt this cold chill every time I drove through. They just unveiled a statue memorial to the victims on campus a few weeks ago.

[@saikik4982]

Korka Comics, right? Christ, that's literally a block down the road from the bridge...

[@Gamebuster1990]

Yeah, making a memorial is a great excuse to write off for tax cuts.

[@dreamlamp4333]

@@Gamebuster1990 im pretty sure it was paid by the parents of a student who passed... the memorial is a statue of one student and theres doves to represent the rest of the people who passed away in the collapse. imo the university shouldve helped pitch in to get every student memorialized in some way, but again. pretty sure it came out of the pockets of one student's parents

[@spvillano]

@@Gamebuster1990 universities don't get taxed, braintrust.

[@unkono]

​@@Gamebuster1990 sounds like corruption

[@oldschoolman1444]

I'm no engineer but have been in construction for forty years. If I had been on that job I would have walked off and contacted city engineers and the news. The huge cracks were a sign of impending doom to come!

[@josephesposito3499]

SPOILER ALERT: This was a diversity fail. It was a fe-MALE led construction company and what was billed as the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responsible for the collapse.

[@MarianneKat]

My dad was a civil engineer. I always see him shaking his head and saying, "I would never have signed off on this project." And he wasn't just a monday morning quarterback, he made the city tear out the chimney stacks 3x before he approved the work. Was difficult to work with, but all his projects are still good.

[@lisaalane7694]

My dad was a civil engineer too. As I have begun watching these bridge and dam failures I've told him I'm so glad you were never involved in those types of projects. And thank you to your dad for not caring if he was thought difficult, his priority was human life.

[@Johnrich395]

If a doctor makes a bad call, 1 person could die. If an engineer makes a bad call, tens to hundreds of people could die. It’s very important to take our work seriously, and not step aside because of social pressure. Glad to hear that he’s a good one.

[@thomaspratt7669]

@@Johnrich395 millions could die from bad projects. The Mosul damn in Iraq for example is was built on ground not suitable for a dam and require constant work to keep it "safe enough". If that dam collapses it would wipe out Mosul ( a city of over a million) and then ravage other down stream cities including Baghdad. It's really scary to think about.

[@Johnrich395]

@@thomaspratt7669 similar thing to 3 Gorges in China. The 3 part construction has been shifting and they’ve had to do a lot of work to keep it in place. I don’t know if they have stabilized it yet or not.

[@ysucae]

if there's a profession that greatly benefits from being anal and uncompromising about rules, it's a civil engineer. i live in Quebec city, where there was 2 major bridge collapses last century caused by bad planninand cost cutting. civil engineers here get a ring made of a similar metal to represent that bridge and the responsibility you have to society. kudos to your dad

[@77gravity]

"The lawsuit went badly, due to the evidence" - seems like it went very well, as the Plaintiffs received a settlement. It went badly for the guilty parties, as was proper.

[@africanlipplateandbonenose3223]

I think this was the all-female project, wasn't it? There's your answer.

[@TheAnonymous1one]

@@africanlipplateandbonenose3223 was it really? Where did you find out about that? Thanks

[@jaqenhghar6244]

@@TheAnonymous1one It wasn’t. It’s just a lie incels made up to make themselves feel less inadequate. It was not an all female project at all. Internet losers took a promo photo from an completely unrelated job event on the companies website and immediately applied to the crash. You will never get evidence of an “all female team” because it didn’t exist.

[@exploranator]

@@TheAnonymous1one it's been memory-holed off of the internet, but it was public knowledge in 2018.

[@makeitpay8241]

@@africanlipplateandbonenose3223 but it looked so nice (just before it fell & killed people)

[@heymorbeeus]

The trail of blood coming out from the fallen bridge was very sad and disturbing. RIP to those poor souls that died. Some of the people who died didn't die instantly. Terrifying

[@nastybigJim]

I think that is transmission fluid.

[@mini_mozzer]

thats fluid from a car.

[@thenixer8968]

Car blood!

[@josephesposito3499]

Diversity fail. It was a fe-MALE led construction company and what was billed as the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responsible for the collapse.

[@lyndseytaylor6047]

Thank you for this video. My sister and I were students at FIU, just graduated one year ago in 2022. This was during spring break so we were back home in Orlando during this horiffic incident. Had no idea something had happened at our school until our mom started receiving multiple calls from family members asking if my sister and I were ok and we had no idea what they were talking about, had to google it for ourselves. Driving back down to Miami the following Sunday, we passed 8th street on 107th and the bridge was still down and in the middle of the road and that portion of 8th street was blocked off. I don't think I'll ever forget that

[@iansotham4565]

My dad is a professor at FIU. He remembers sitting under the bridge in his car the day before the collapse and not only seeing cracks, but feeling extremely uneasy underneath it. He was in his office next to the architecture building when it collapsed and his heart sank because it immediately clicked what had just happened.

[@ccclaw13]

@L F they knew about the cracks though. Nothing for him to speak up about

[@dormy6209]

@L F because of the cracks

[@dormy6209]

@L F they already knew about the cracks.. its like saying your friend's mum died infront of your friend while both of you are looking at him mum's casket

[@naiknaik8812]

@L F they already knew about the cracks and still didnt care so a teacher saying something about it wont do anything

[@whyyouneedtoknow]

@@naiknaik8812 wow. You went longer with this guy than I would have bothered. You are a more patient person than I'll ever be.

[@izzieb]

As someone who works in academia, I can tell you I would not trust a project overseen by a University. Many people have no practical/industrial experience and are just career academics. I'm honestly surprised the University wasn't also taken to court for negligence.

[@neilkurzman4907]

If you hire the people to do the work for you, then those people are the ones that are negligent.

[@c3h50n023]

@@neilkurzman4907 In the EU it used to be that mentality. more than one cowboy hired ppeople with no qualification/no experience and then when it all went wrong; they swanned off into the sunset with their money and the "contractor" who had no money couldn't compensate anyone. New Law you hire anyone to do a job for you (even at homeowner level) you can be held liable for their actions.

[@c3h50n023]

I was at a conference in the USA a number of years ago and we started discussing the different regulatory inspectors between the EU and US. simplifying it US inspectors tended to lifetime government employees recruited direct from college/university and essentially trained for that exclusively. In the EU you can apply to be an inspector directly from college/university but you most likely won't get the job; the prevailing attitude is "excellent that you want to be an inspector... now run along and get 20 odd years of industry experience (see the stuff that goes wrong , how people try to hide it, and the fallout when it goes wrong) and then re-apply."

[@LarsLarsen77]

@@neilkurzman4907 The university decided to have an "all female engineering team" and they murdered 6 people with their gross negligence.

[@Freshbott2]

@@c3h50n023 probably a clear reason it should have been overseen by the DoT. If you’re going to be responsible for a project you’ve hired someone to do then you need to be capable of overseeing and auditing it. Or at least funding someone else who can do it.

[@carlos1247138]

Junior year of college I had to choose an engineering elective and heard that Statics was an easy A (I'm an EE). Took the class and learned so much about the physics and regulations behind building bridges and structures. The fact that this kept being approved is crazy. But also a teaching lesson for future engineers. Great video!

[@scottdawson4705]

The same thing happened 115 years ago with the first attempt at the Quebec Bridge. It was under-designed, the workers noticed bending before it was even half done, then bam! Down it came. The current bridge, the second design, is a *much* sturdier structure.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Bridge

[@josephesposito3499]

NAW, this was a diversity fail. It was a fe-MALE led construction company and the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responsible for the collapse. This was PROVEN in interviews with the designers. The teaching lesson should be that wo-MEN don't belong in engineering.

[@kennyflores5846]

I remember this like it was yesterday. I was at an afternoon tutoring session with about 7-8 other people at the college of engineering. I had driven under that bridge probably not even 30 minutes prior. We were all completely shocked, disheartened, but also a bit angry. We were all confused as to how something like this could happen, when you have a bunch of bright engineers at a moments notice who could take a gander at the schematics to point out any flaws. This was a real tipping point in my career, and it gave me that final push to be as exceptional as I possibly can, because I never want something like this to happen. Now I’m a computer engineer, so not so much in the realm of buildings and infrastructure, but more so with electronics, which can vary from robots, cars, planes, heavy machinery. And so I try my best in everything, to make sure something like this doesn’t occur again. This is still very disheartening to me to this day. So I want to thank you for covering this in your video and to everyone in the comments who voiced something about this incident.

[@basillah7650]

Not a good engineer if you were shocked it had cracks in it.

[@carlj7466]

You sound like you had a very late night with a bottle of vodka and a blunt

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

The couldn't let real engineers look at the plans because those would be men and they would have mansplained to the wahmen. Wahmen don't need no men.

[@ericpeterson9110]

@@themonsterunderyourbed9408 The EOR was a man, as were most of the design team. Which women were they worried about upsetting?

[@shanicegrande8631]

that’s because y’all are BOT engineers, you’re LEARNING it. that’s like saying i’m a lawyer even though i’m not even done with school yet 💀

[@James_Bowie]

What I find incomprehensible, and unforgivable, is that no one was held accountable for allowing that road to be open to traffic before the bridge had been load tested. Whoever was supposed to be managing risk -- and that would be the project manager of record -- should have been charged with manslaughter.

[@AndrewBarsky]

When you have money, you play by a different set of rules.

It's Florida.

[@sarl2121]

@ This never would've happened under communism

[@seand.g423]

@@sarl2121 _that_ was fucking quick... 🙄

[@hamzaansari4172]

This bridge was designed by the all female engineering firm. It was suppose to be a message to the people that women can be engineers too. They failed utterly.

[@edwardhartmann1798]

One of the interim reports actually has a more complete photographic timeline of the developing cracks than the official NIST report. It was glaringly obvious from the progression of the cracks days before the collapse that the structure was failing. It gets even more infuriating if you read the emails and messages between the engineers, builders, and FDOT. It's nothing but downplay and CYA. If even one person had spoken up and been truthful about the severity of the problems, the road would have been closed.

[@AlphaSaber]

I work for a different state's DOT and remember talking to our region's bridge engineer when the interim report was released about the bridge collapse. He made it clear that if I was running a project that started a fraction of the cracking like this the first step would be to shut the road below down, then call him. He would rather deal with the fallout and say "Our bad, we overreacted." than deal with a collapse during construction.

[@MadScientist267]

I just needed to get to work...

[@BILLY-px3hw]

The engineers, management, and university were all arrogant. I am sure they were not worried about weight distribution since it was only a "pedestrian bridge", by the way it was designed it should have been obvious to even a first year engineering student that since it was a single truss that there wouold be imense stress on two points, but it'll be fine it's" just for pedestrians" it is not like a train bridge.....sinful!!

[@jhensjh]

@@BILLY-px3hw "it should have been obvious to even a first year engineering student" I wholeheartedly agree with this. When this bridge collapse occurred I was in college for EE, and my school required that every engineering student take at least a couple of courses in another discipline. When this bridge collapsed I had taken all of one 200 level course in statics and I was shaking my head at the design of this bridge. Calculating the stresses on every point of a truss structure was a typical homework problem. Ironically in summer 2018 I took a course in mechanics of materials from a professor who was a PhD student at the University of Minnesota when the I-35W bridge collapse occurred. He used the I-35W bridge collapse and this one as examples of what can go wrong when engineers screw up.

[@GermanTopGameTV]

If a crack grows while no one is using the structure, and you've build a structure that is supposed to last 100 years (with maintenance) and supposed to survive hurricanes then you just need to take one look at the requirement sheets to figure out that it's not meeting them. How is a growing crack under no load going to fare in a hurricane or after 90 years of operation?

[@noahbawdy3395]

This was so heartbreaking because it was all avoidable. People just kept pushing responsibility onto someone else to the point where no one was responsible.

[@josephesposito3499]

SPOILER ALERT: It was a fe-MALE led construction company and what was touted as the 'FIRST' ALL wo-MEN'S engineering team who are responsible for the collapse. This was a diversity fail and nothing more

[@crimsonfire6932]

I was a senior in high school living in the area at the time. I had been accepted in FIU and was ready to get past my exams to start college. In my daily walks, I always reached one end of the bridge that was placed on the canal side. Imagine my shock when I saw a crowd of people by that column and the bridge destroyed. Was interviewed by telemundo though I’m not sure they aired it.

[@andrewtaylor940]

"How could this have happened?" Three words "Bridges as Art". This was an extra special belief of the FIU Department of Engineering's Bridge Building Experts. KZbinr Brick Immortan has a really good longer form piece on this collapse that goes into all of the arrogant absurdities to this one. This was a pedestrian bridge. Which means it would have a practically negligible live load. Simply people walking. No heavy vehicles etc. You could order modular bridge building kits to put up a sturdy pedestrian bridge that would last a century. This isn't rocket science. But they wanted a magnificent piece of urban art to showcase FIU’s expertise in engineering. So instead of a functional bridge costing well under $1 million. They cooked up this multi milion dollar ode to arrogance. And it came crashing down. (Edit to correct FIU)

[@kali6651]

Very well put!

[@danielbarnes3406]

Pride goes before a fall, literally.

[@alaeriia01]

Well There's Your Problem also did an episode on this bridge, and came to the conclusion that the design of the bridge was fucking stupid.

[@NoahGooder]

people really need to make use of the KISS method of things and save the art for well outdoor fountains and such

[@alaeriia01]

@@NoahGooder Bridges as Art can be a good thing. An example is Boston's Zakim Bridge, which is a very nice cable-stayed bridge. Ornamental stuff on a bridge can be cool too; Longfellow Bridge's towers come to mind. The thing is, you don't want to put a big-ass ornamental tower on top of a non-redundant concrete truss; that's just stupid.

[@spiderzvow1]

its honestly sad how common it is for upper-management like this to ignore clear sighs of a safety problem because of greed and laziness/ incompetence

[@momon969]

People reach such positions by making as much money as possible for the company, not by being competent or responsible.

[@neilkurzman4907]

The problem isn’t just any of those things the problem is fear. Fear that the multi million dollar thing that you just built needs to be demolished and done over again. Who wants to make that decision?

[@cineffect]

@@neilkurzman4907 but it becomes far more expensive when it collapses.

[@neilkurzman4907]

@@tripplefives1402 No the staff wasn’t showing off. The university wanted a signature design. Something that would say look here’s an engineering school. And no it wasn’t designed to support a freeway. The video explicitly told you that it was under designed.

[@GravDrag00n]

@@tripplefives1402 my brother in Christ the construction companies literally make profit off of constructing the bridges and cutting corners. It was their responsibility to fulfill the requested building and they wanted to save money from the contract by not redoing the construction after the cracks appeared.

[@stephencampbell9384]

It's 6am I just watched a thoughtful documentary about an awful bridge collapse while strumming my bass.......and out of the sky drops a truly spectacular 303 groove. Kudos sir, Kudos.

[@furenaef]

I actually stopped stopped under the bridge a couple of times in heavy traffic and would look up to see the bridge. Since it was a new construction, I kind of wonder why there were no beams supporting it. After it fell, when I pass by that street, I think, it could’ve been me.

[@ImpendingJoker]

I live in Tampa, and as the son of a civil engineer(RIP Dad), I remember thinking, there is no way Dad would have signed off on this. He was the overseeing county engineer the contractors prayed they didn't get. haha He was meticulous in taking notes down to the smallest things. If he didn't like it, he didn't care who you were or who you knew, he'd put your feet to the fire and with his notes and mind set, they knew they'd be fighting a losing battle. Lost him 3 years before this happened, and I remember thinking to myself, "I wish Dad was here to talk to about this." 😢

[@Meliaison]

@@Menstral It wasnt though? It was pretty much exclusively built and designed by males. Lead enginner was Denney Pate from FIGG engineering, and by all accounts he is a man. Maybe you should be calling it a "male-built" bridge instead.

[@airplanemaniacgaming7877]

@@Meliaison Lol he deleted the comment. COWARD!

[@chelseachelseafcsuperfan7220]

White men like your father made this civilization great

[@hndz6355]

@@Meliaison why does it matter if a man built it🤣, most likely had females into but you just have a close minded mindset huh. Anyways let’s go Brandon

[@kuayinal-kadir6846]

Being meticulous in regards to infrastructure projects is necessary, or you get stuff like this happening.

[@steinarjonsson_]

The engineer and the project manager should've gone to prison for this. Allowing such gross negligence to go unpunished sets a dangerous precedent!

[@zashbot]

Female privilege

[@neilkurzman4907]

And what kind of president is set when you put people in prison for honest mistakes. Does anything ever get built. The same issue was brought up because a district attorney decided to charge a nurse for making a mistake using an automated drug dispenser and not catching her mistake. Does that make anybody want to go into nursing to know that after a double shift when you’re tired if you make a mistake you can spend the rest of your life in prison? Should the people who signed off on this lose their licenses, most certainly.

[@pennyforyourthots]

@@neilkurzman4907 it's a very distinct difference between the nurse situation and this. The nurse didn't catch the mistake of a machine that she was told was reliable. That's not on her. This case, the builders intentionally disregarded multiple reviews that said it was unsafe, and decided to build it anyway. They were Warned prior to their actions that the bridge was at risk of collapse, and they choose to continue, then it did. The nurse had an honest mistake, this situation is intentional negligence. I think intentional negligence is deserving of punishment.

[@steinarjonsson_]

@@neilkurzman4907 Dude, this was not a honest mistake, this was criminal negligence! I am not an engineer myself, but I am a professional rigger so I understand structural loads, and that bridge design was beyond reckless. Engineers need to be held accountable for approving unsafe designs, just like I expect to be held accountable for improperly rigging something that ends up killing people. Also, the project manager should've ordered the crew to immediately stop when those massive cracks were discovered, because it doesn't take an engineer to realize that the structure was failing under its own weight. There is a difference between an accident and negligence, and this was clearly negligence.

[@neilkurzman4907]

@@pennyforyourthots Oh it was on her. Because she was convicted of the crime. Sending a chill through the entire nursing community. Notice how the engineers that design them hard to use machine, where in child, nor the executives in the hospital that purchased it, and made her use it even though it had problems. Prison isn’t the answer to everything. Because people aren’t going to take jobs where they can go to prison for murder for doing their jobs. Which is why that case was carefully watch by the nursing community. Did you review the entire construction and design process? Do you know why the mistakes were made? Why reviews didn’t catch them? Why supposal professional engineers looked at the cracks and didn’t think it was going to immediately collapse? Where in the story did it say multiple reviews that it was unsafe. The reviews that happened after it collapsed said it was unsafe. In fact the reviews for the Surfside condo also said geez this design from 40 years ago really sucks. So no they didn’t intentionally build a bad product. Which brings us to the NTSB. Their job is to find out why this happened and what steps need to be taken in the future to ensure it never happens again. This isn’t the first construction disaster that lead to changes in the way construction is done. In fact this channel has several of them. I don’t remember if he’s done a pancakeing accident on new construction.

[@davidel9466]

I was in University of Miami as an undergrad when this happened. I went to a Chinese Christian church at the vicinity of the FIU. Many churchgoers there were faculties, and students, of the FIU. They were devastated, and I was shocked to hear the news when this happened.

[@Matt-zt7rd]

It's hard to believe that traffic was still allowed under the bridge with the cracks as they were.

[@basillah7650]

that what happens when you let idiot students design a bridge they act stupid since do not want to admit they fked up

[@mini_mozzer]

the cracks werent seen as bad

[@lairdcummings9092]

Yeah, remember this one quite clearly. "Accelerated Bridge Construction.' Accelerated Bridge Collapse. When cracks propagate in a key support mechanism, it's time to make urgent safety precautions. Blocking the highway during re-tensioning would have been the *minimum* safety step.

[@michaelgonzalez3523]

As a Miami local and former FIU student, that’s not a highway and they would never have been able to close down the whole thing, the amount of traffic that goes thru that street is absolutely insane

[@lukewarmwaterr]

@@michaelgonzalez3523 they closed the highway during the initial installation. there's no road that couldn't be shut down for bridge construction

[@neilkurzman4907]

When anything goes wrong in a bridge experts need to look at it. Not people on the Internet guessing what is and is not important. It’s why the NTSB exists. It’s their job to determine what happened and how it can be prevented in the future. By the way accelerated bridge construction is commonly used around the world. It doesn’t mean rushed and slip-shod.

[@Pantsinabucket]

@@michaelgonzalez3523 its 8 lanes and traffic is going fast, with no stoplights in sight. To anyone who’s not from the Sunbelt, that’s a highway. It’s atrocious development symbolic of sunbelt cities being unhealthy, unsustainable and car-dependent holes.

[@jlspracher]

@@tripplefives1402 you better not complain about gas prices if that's how you feel homie

[@SetnaroX]

I live in Miami and every once in a while I have to drive through the road where the bridge used to be. I wasn't there when it fell thankfully, but seeing the leftover remains of the bridge on both sides of the road always leave me with such a haunting feeling.

[@ChellyBean]

*The pieces are still there????* Jfc this city is awful I hate living here

[@SetnaroX]

@@ChellyBean Not so much pieces. What remains is the slab of concrete on both sides of the road that had the bridge hoisted up. It's been a while since I've driven through that area so I'm not sure if it got cleared out once and for all.

[@xuko6792]

So much effort to address a problem which could be avoided in the first place - such a car-centric approach.

[@caintz7792]

I really liked the inclusion of the dash cam and 911 call in the beginning - underlined the loss of life in this and how it was a sudden disaster (from the POV of someone on the highway). Glad that the FDOT and NTSB are involved now. They never should have been excluded or kept out regardless of the skill of the college or firms.

[@craigjensen6853]

In my state, you NEVER do any tensioning operation with live traffic beneath. There are some extreme exceptions but this wouldn't even be close. If something is ever going to happen, it's going to happen then. So much overall sloppiness and complacency with this project. This was egregious far worse than the 1980 Kansas City Hyatt collapse, even though far more people died. Kansas City was an honest oversight with lessons learned and Jack Gillum, the engineer ultimately took full responsibility and ended practicing, even though he personally didn't make the error. You don't see anyone owning up to it here. Amazing this vanity project got as far as it did. Shameful.

[@zarthemad8386]

The female design team all walked. I havnt heard of any arrests.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

I thought they just moved states. That was obvious tho. You should have seen it from the floor and certainly going up to see it.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

@@zarthemad8386 Considering it's the only one I can think of where a woman is directly responsible, I think their safety track record is pretty damn good. Name one where a woman is at fault besides this one?

[@davidlevy706]

@@zarthemad8386 There was _not_ a female design team. The lead engineer was a man. Please stop spreading a long-debunked rumor.

[@ForeverLaxx]

@@davidlevy706 Doesn't particularly matter when the people involved were picked because of factors that didn't include actual engineering knowledge/skill and the project existed only to show off how "merit" shouldn't be a factor. It's all deflection from this glaring error and I don't particularly care which approved fact-checker you subscribe to that says otherwise. Something tells me that the 6 people who lost their lives really wish they cared about merit instead of Woke Points, wouldn't you say?

[@Ed-ts4bj]

Decades ago for a little over a year, I did quality control for a prestressed concrete girder plant. The light cracks on top of the girder going down would be compressed closed when taking its load; any cracks on the bottom of the girder going up would be under tension and would open when taking its load. I had to call engineers for every crack, their questions were the same, was the crack on top, was their any chips, was the crack at D2. Both of those cracks and chips were at girder’s bottom D2s!

[@screamer8590]

I remember that day we came through on that road for surgery i needed at the Miami university hospital. Me and mom mentioned how it was new since we take this way to avoid the highway but haven't been there in a while. we drove under it that morning. That morning i was suppose to leave the hospital around noonish but an emergency case happened and pushed back my surgery. I dont know if we would've been around that time, the possibility haunts me.

[@lorrainequintana1082]

Thank you for covering the FIU bridge collapse. This accident rocked Miami and the FIU community. As a native of Miami and an FIU alum, this was devastating. Thanks for shedding light on this.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@iHappyVideo]

Idk about “rocked miami” but yeah it was a huge deal that day on the news. Then about 48 hrs later it was outta the news cycle

[@Rob2]

@@iHappyVideo That is normal, isn't it? Maybe the Champlain Towers South collapse took a little longer?

[@thetman0068]

If it was so devastating then why is your city government still so corrupt?

[@Rob2]

@El Goblin Sorry to hear that. I have followed both incidents on KZbin because I am interested in how such things can happen. For the involved, it is a tragedy, but for others it is a topic to study to see how things can go wrong because of bad design, bad maintenance, insufficient surveillance etc. A major bridge I need to cross each day is currently under maintenance and capacity is reduced for at least a year, causing inconvenience. But I still prefer that over bridges collapsing, as happens elsewhere. But news mostly does not focus very long on topics...

[@kennyr5906]

Oddly enough, despite protests, this company won a contract for a project at Miami International Airport.

[@jakemocci3953]

The company prides itself on being a “women led, diversity majority” company, of course they’ll still get government contracts.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Scary

[@daviddavidson2357]

FIU: "Diversity is our greatest strength!" Bridge "Not for me!"

[@_monti142]

@@jakemocci3953 there you have it XD, gg

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

@@jakemocci3953 The sad thing is that people will read that comment and think it is true. Forget about fact checking. You have a future career at Fox News.

[@Tigers1Girl07]

My daughter had been attending FIU as a national exchange student from UWEC in Wisconsin. She returned to FIU from coming home for Spring Break the day before this bridge collapsed. Her dorm was on the right side. Talk about making a mom panic! Texted her as soon as I heard and, thankfully, she had gone to visit friends in Ft. Myers. My heart goes out to the families who lost their loved ones in this tragedy. 😔❤️

[@FelixRealty]

I pass through that bridge on that day on my way to my counselor. when I arrived everyone was panicking and making calls. apparently, the bridge dropped 10 minutes after I passed it

[@sydposting]

What an utterly harrowing opening. Magnificent editing and writing in this one, John.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@annakeye]

There wasn't much room for your usual dry humour and I appreciate the approach. The tension was building as the micro-seconds passed. (oops, puns)

[@Rob2]

What I never understood is why in an "accelerated bridge construction" project for a pedestrian walkway, they had chosen such an incredibly heavy concrete design. All over the world, pedestrian walkways (and bike paths) are constructed using modern light designs. While these are not without their problems (as they know in London), they at least don't fail in this way. And are much quicker and easier to construct and erect.

[@slimjim2584]

I am an FIU alum and former employee, born and raised in miami too Here is why 1. Much of the rest of the world does not experience Category 5 Hurricanes. A big heavy bridge (like the highway overpasses and bridges over our water networks) is more reassuring in this regard. 2. The town of sweetwater is being eyed for full purchase buy the university for easy expansion as much of the former airport FIU is built on has been built out. The enormous building that shows up on the northeast of the aerial shots is a massive student housing complex built in the last decade and they plan on building more such buildings over time. This bridge was over built for masses of students going back and forth at once, i am talking hundreds of people crossing at once. Yes, nothing in weight compared to road traffic, but knowing this school i bet they would have wanted capacity for golf cart traffic too. 3. FIU thought they could pull this off as a showcase of their engineering skill, the school has an entire engineering campus not shown in the video and this would have been a promo for them. The school gets a lot of international students (F *I* U, get it???) and this would have been a way to be on the cutting edge. 4. The state gives FIU a massive budget for construction. The way it is structured, the budget is only lost when it is not used. This is why FIU has put down roughly about a new building a year for the past 15ish years. This bridge would have been easily afforded under that compared to universities that exist solely on bonds and tuitions. This dovetails into point 2 as the are running out of easy space for the airport. They are trying to buy the fairgrounds to the south (they might of by now), but residential land would be more straight forward. As to why the road wasnt shut down, the Turnpike just west of this forms a massive choking transit connection to the housing area built further west along 8th street. None of the other roads have the capacity of 8th street down their lengths. Cutting that off would snarl traffic for miles and outright shut down much of the area due to congestion. Yes, there are crossings a half mile north and one a mile to the south, the problem is that the road connections to those passes would have been quickly overloaded. They are regularly overloaded during rush hour with NORMAL traffic.

[@biohazardlnfS]

I also find it annoying they decided to make a fake cable stay bridge and it instead was ment to be a single truss cement bridge

[@dembert4666]

@@slimjim2584 I hope you’re attitude is not that this was justified because that’s what this comment seems to suggest. For many obvious reasons to anyone not involved in the self fellating academic world this is erroneous reasoning that has lead to the deaths of 6 people. This university and every university in America that are shielded from the consequences of their own actions are destroying this country.

[@SynchroScore]

@@slimjim2584 The fact that the bridge was heavy wouldn't necessarily help it survive a hurricane, especially with that giant canopy up top acting like a sail. An open steel truss, designed for sufficient wind load, could easily survive, as long as it's bolted down securely. One manufacturer I was reading up on designs all their bridges to withstand a wind load of 35psf, which equates to 125 mph.

[@africanlipplateandbonenose3223]

I think this was the all-female project, wasn't it? There's your answer.

[@EnosShenk]

In my city, there was a ped bridge being constructed between two college campuses at the time this happened. Construction absolutely stopped and the thing sat there for at least two years before additional pillars were added. The thing they were building looks awful, but originally looked flimsy as well. I'm not sure if it was caution, but a friend had heard that FIGG was somehow involved and the project was put on hold after FIU.

[@mabinogix]

So crazy. I live so close to this area and know so many people who go to FIU. It felt so unreal when I heard what happened. It still feels like just yesterday when it happened. Hard to believe it's been years. I've watched so many of these documentaries and it feels so surreal to finally see one based on something actually related to me.

[@falloutbos34]

"I want to make this bridge look beautiful" "But what about safety concerns?" "Safety concerns?"

[@Beakz_]

"Look at my bridge design, isn't it just beautiful!" "Wow that looks amazing! It's strong too right?" "..." "It's strong right?" "..."

[@c3h50n023]

I was told a story once about a retail chain who designed their new flagship store as a circular 360° retail front. It was presented by the architects to the board at what could only be described as an orgy of self congratulation and ego. Then after full approval by the board there was a reception at which a model of the new flagship store was present. The CEO was at the model when their PA brought them a drink ; CEO: "Well PA, How do you like our new store?" PA: "Well sir it looks lovely in the drawings and in the model, but I am confused by something!" CEO: (to crowd) "Ha, Ha, we didn't hire "PA" for their smarts. What's your question?" PA: "The plans didn't show any any access roads for trucks or a loading dock or a warehouse. the model doesn't show any any access roads for trucks or a loading dock or a warehouse. How are deliviers going to be made to the store?" .... What followed was silence... followed by an abrupt private meeting with lots of raised voices. The new store became a box with a loading dock and access roads (the design budget was blown so no room for fancy ideas)

[@happyjohn354]

@@c3h50n023 I would have made it an octagon with a below level loading dock at the back basically a gradual slope that goes down.

[@Loctorak]

"What about safety concerns?" "What about safe-deez nuts?" - artists impression of conversations with management

[@DoubleMonoLR]

People always want to pick easy targets. Tons of construction projects market them as being beautiful, unsurprisingly as talking about the engineering doesn't exactly thrill the public. Likewise a vast number of construction projects are perfectly safe when there has been an obvious effort to make them beautiful. They're just usually larger projects. The perceived focus on appearance is really neither here nor there, the design was simply terrible. The level of incompetence shown could've condemned any structure to collapse, regardless of whether it was intended to be beautiful or not. Likewise, any design done competently would never sacrifice safety for appearance. Heck, it's probably more common for ugly projects to fail more often, as they'd tend to have a lower budget.

[@Lex60]

Excellent investigation as always! Students and workers just needed a simple, inexpensive run-of-the-mill pedestrian bridge but the uni had to show off and the government just look to the other side instead of checking the safety of the construction. This was terrible. PD. Hey, about bridges collapsing... I can recommend an investigation into the Line 12 metro disaster in Mexico City in the past year.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you! And thanks for the suggestion

[@RJStockton]

They were also super proud of how it was an all-female-designed bridge. That information has since been scrubbed from the university's social media accounts.

[@LarsLarsen77]

@@RJStockton Correct, this bridge collapsed because of diversity hires.

[@pingwingugu5]

@@RJStockton no way that has to be some urban legend... [EDIT] I checked it and Denney Pate was lead engineer on FIU bridge project, and he is a guy. The CEO of the FIGG Bridge Designs company was a women at that time but I don't think that it matters.

[@TheDragorin]

@@pingwingugu5 idk wtf you're checking but this project being designed by a team of all female engineers was in fact a huge PR thing they were so proud of. I was employed at a UF civil engineering lab when all this was going on.

[@bomoanbomoan9259]

Wasn’t this bridge design team selected based on the identity politics rather than competence?

[@morbideddie]

No.

[@nfaisnfgay]

@@morbideddie yes. Nice cope.

[@toonman361]

Since I have now enjoyed three of your logistics based, disaster videos, I have subscribed. Very interesting.

[@CKOD]

The live NTSB final hearing on this is worth a watch for anyone vaguely interested. Usually the NTSB is pointing out what happened, systematic failures that let this happen, etc, not trying to assign blame, rather leaving that for courts, but coming up with corrective measures for the system as a whole that can prevent it in the future. But here, they got aggressive because of the negligence displayed by Figg and associates.

[@TheGryfonclaw]

Yeah, you know you’ve fucked up when the NTSB is actually outwardly pissed off

[@notablynova4247]

Is there a link to it on KZbin?? I'd be interested in viewing it

[@CKOD]

@@notablynova4247 "NTSB Board Meeting: Pedestrian Bridge Collapse Over SW 8th Street, Miami, Florida" on the NTSBgov channel. /watch?v=fdUf-_el9vA over 3 hours long and some parts can be kind of dry, but its not particularly dense, as they technical stuff they do go into gets explained up front.

[@clankplusm]

@@notablynova4247 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJW4l2CVmtFsrKM I think

[@technoroom5]

@@notablynova4247 kzbin.info/www/bejne/nJW4l2CVmtFsrKM

[@aggromando7323]

There is no way in hell I would walk on a bridge with cracks like that visible.

[@cassandra5390]

This is so sad and I feel so terrible for the victims and families affected by this accident, its so terrible. Ive heard about this story via podcast, but ive never seen the footage from this story, so now it brings everything together so much more clearly. The story I heard about this began by describing the victims who just happened to be in a vehicle underneath the bridge at the moment it collapsed, 2 students who happened to be out of school that day because one was sick and asked his best friend another student at this school to take him to a hospital this day and their route to the hospital took them directly under the bridge. The student who was ill survived being crushed in the car, the driver of the car died instantly. His recollection of that day and his survivors guilt and the guilt he had felt that if they had just gone to class that day instead of being asked to be driven to the hospital would have prevented them being under that bridge when it collapsed and how his friend and fellow student would still be alive had he not asked her to drive him there that day was heart wrenching to hear about. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that kind of feeling of guilt I couldn't even imagine Its so wild that someone's dash cam caught it just as it happened! I mean, had this happened in Europe you'd expect to see footage like that from many different vehicles because dash cams are a standard thing over there, but it seems like dash cameras are so much less commonly used or installed in vehicles in the United States by comparison. (Which is kind of sad because it kind of speaks to the financial situation of so many Americans that car dash cameras are such a rarity because people cant afford to have them, I don't know anyone who has a car with a front dash camera and many people I know don't know anyone who has a vehicle with one either. Just saying) You can CLEARLY see the two cranes on either side of the bridge and that work is being done on the bridge, and the work being done looks significant enough that redirecting traffic seems would be not only recommended but required. so WHY was traffic allowed to continue to flow as usual under that bridge that day is the biggest question I have right now. Yeahhhhh, so maybe it should be required that FDOT oversees any and all construction of this kind from now on and I guarantee this wouldn't happen again. I mean just the failure to redirect the traffic on the day this happened wouldn't have happened if FDOT had been involved. This is just a no brainer. This is the part that blows my mind above all just looking at all of these photos, the 2 cranes crushed underneath the bridge along with the cars. I could see why FIU would want to oversee the design of the bridge, but you'd think that the FDOT would still be required to be part of the process and have the final decision in the approval of the design of the bridge and oversight of the construction process from beginning to end. This just blows my mind. "accelerated bridge construction"? I still don't understand how this makes things faster because of the flow of non construction related traffic being allowed to continue uninterrupted during the process. Bridges and highway overpasses are being constructed all of the time in Pinellas county with this method using this "accelerated" method and you'll quite often find yourself on multi lane highways passing directly underneath an overpass that's under construction. But the FDOT is involved and stuff like this doesn't happen. @9:25 "The cracks aren't that bad, we'll just cover it with some screen fence, it's fine, put some company logo over it.. Nothing to see here." Alexa, that's her name, the student who died because she took the day off of school to drive her sick classmate to the hospital, she died, he survived.

[@deathtoad88]

"I want a pedestrian bridge here, and I think it'd be neat to have a suspension bridge aethetic.c "Okay, we can design a suspension bridge for you." "No. I want it to *look* like one."

[@fillertext5435]

This one’s particularly chilling to me because I used to drive down 8th street every day when I lived in the area. I remember driving under that bridge probably a good 10-15 minutes before it went down. I only found out what happened after my mom texted me asking if I was okay. My heart aches for the people that got caught in that nightmare collapse, it hits so much harder when you were so close to it.

[@rwdplz1]

This is one of the most preventable disasters of all time. Every engineer that sees this POS knows it was doomed to failure. The designer and people that said the cracks were fine should all be in prison.

[@Pactastic042]

The bridge was built and designed by an all woman team

[@lordbertox4056]

@@Pactastic042 how's that relevant

[@casualdestruction]

@@Pactastic042 no it wasn’t

[@ssword123]

@@Pactastic042 no it wasnt. this rumor was spread by a far-right media outlet with zero sources.

[@Pactastic042]

@@lordbertox4056 it about the video subject

[@calmthesoul834]

Everyone: Dude, this thing has huge cracks in it! FIGG: Everything’s fine!

[@botihi7971]

Egos over safety, the same thing that went wrong with the space shuttle foam incident.

[@TruthNeverFade]

That footage in the beginning was just so eerie, holy macaroni, I was immediately filled with dread and suspension. Since I've never heard of this disaster, thank you so much for the educational content you bring, every time. Keep it up!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@jackkenny4194]

I live in Florida and I remember having just come home from USF and they were covering this live for the whole day. It was a big thing here. Then the Miami condo collapse happened a few years later and that was way worse. Full coverage for a bout a week trying to get to the survivor's trapped benneath hundreds of thousands of pounds of rubble.

[@TruthNeverFade]

@pyropulse when you watch something, knowing something terrible is going to happen, normally, people might feel uneasy.

[@Avengerie]

You were filled with suspension? Should have been born a bridge.

[@TruthNeverFade]

@@Avengerie lol, touché

[@Deeds_of_Love]

A common theme in these kind of disasters is that the responsibility to say "This won't work" when warning signs appear often lies in the hands of people who are part of the project, and therefore sort of would admit failure and bring shame onto themselves and their colleagues. Nobody wants to be killed as the messenger, so to speak. There should be someone from outside, a different state or even country who has no stakes in the project, someone truly independent, who inspects the final design and the building progress, maybe even anonymously.

[@3rdalbum]

And perhaps it needs to be absolutely drilled into engineers and project managers that people can, and do, die in these accidents. Like how the main office of the FDA has a picture of Dr Frances Kelsey that all employees must pass on their way into the building, as a daily reminder of Thalidomide.

[@danielfay8963]

This is the exact reason engineer certifications are so strict in things like this, basically everyone involved in this project is losing their PE. The idea is that if you contributed, you had a responsibility to examine the designs and say something. No one is let off the hook.

[@ifuckedurmom]

In Germany we have an authority called "Technischer Überwachungsverein" (we call it TÜV) which roughly translates to "association for technical inspection" who handles the inspections for all sorts of stuff. It's best known for its car inspections you have to have regularly for your car to be allowed to drive on the streets, but that's not their only field of inspection. They do bridges, carnival rides, heavy machinery etc. and most often you're required to get the stuff they inspect, looked at by TÜV before you can use them or open them to the public. If you want to see the requirements TÜV has for bridges for example, it's called DIN1076.

[@raimarulightning]

I think the bigger problem is that such projects of unnecessary complication are often ego projects or covers for illegal mishandling of funds. It creates an environment where everyone has to go along with it because they're already involved.

[@georgekirby7150]

@@raimarulightning are you saying that the all woman team had too much ego to admit to failure or to take responsibility? Interesting take.

[@Koolkole27]

Great job putting out 3 videos in the last week!

[@noobishsite]

Such unskilled labour and engineering you NEVER have a construction unsettled without closing any road going under it

[@Grimmtoof]

Yea I used to inspect bridges and if I saw cracks like the ones in those pictures it would have been an ‘oh shit’ moment. Those are not normal for any sort of bridge, especially a newly built one.

[@InteriorDesignStudent]

Since this happened, I've hated stopping on or under any bridge. I recently drove under a bridge with visible holes and rebar.

[@SupersuMC]

That is one bridge you do _not_ want to stop under!

[@thou_dog]

Oh, that's always a comforting sight. /sarcastic

[@africanlipplateandbonenose3223]

I think this was the all-female project, wasn't it? There's your answer.

[@TheFrmx]

@@africanlipplateandbonenose3223 it was. Love how the video maker left that partout. Its funny becausemany viewers have guessed it was a woke hiring.

[@jaqenhghar6244]

@@TheFrmx he didn’t include it because it’s just a lie sad incels believe to make themselves feel better about their inadequacy. Go on, look for your proof that it was, we will wait forever as it doesn’t exist and never has.

[@BrylcreemBill]

Thank you for remembering the Silver Bridge collapse of December 1967. I've watched so many YT videos with a title similar to "The Worst Bridge Collapses of All Time" with nary a peep about Silver Bridge. Besides being a horrific disaster that killed 46 people, it was also the impetus for LBJ to form a new government department tasked with inspecting and rating every bridge in the US. And several bridges across the country were found to be on the brink of collapse almost immediately, one of which being the I64 bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky.

[@stancooper5436]

I'm no structural engineer but that big ole block of concrete just screamed "I can't support my own weight."

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Want to see more Collapse videos let me know!

[@blackhatfreak]

I want you to do deal with your pos fans.

[@Hissmannen]

YES !

[@riccardodipietro4362]

@lerelo agreed, that would be interesing

[@spiderzvow1]

DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! U WONT!!!!!!!

[@justinthomas7222]

We want to see ALL the collapse videos!

[@nobreighner]

Post Tension 101: You don't tighten tendons that go slack under span loading conditions! That compounds overstress in compression, and just jacks the structure into failure - which is exactly what they did. Not that this was the initial design problem, but jacking the wrong tendons caused the collapse to happen when it did - with cars underneath.

[@giantent763]

I just graduated with a Civil engineering degree and I was wondering about that. It did not seem like they should have tried to retighten it.

[@lakerfan2874]

They should've just went with steel and make a better bridge. If I was on that team and everyone laughed at me for proposing a steel bridge, I would have left the team because they know nothing about building a bridge to structural standards and the issues they've had showed that they didn't care about any situations because "It's just concrete".

[@wangruochuan]

@@lakerfan2874 nobody's going to laugh at you if this bridge was built somewhere else. In fact, it would be a steel framed overwalk. The reason that they made this monstrousity was because this is a place where you are having lvl5 hurricane. They want something super heavy and beefy but that would need great engineering. The university carried out the plan too fast. Shouldn't happen if they showed the project to any third party firm.

[@GalladofBales]

I’m not an expert in urbanism or infrastructure, but honestly I really dislike pedestrian bridges as a ‘solution’ to these problems anyway. If an initial road design leads to several close calls and deaths of pedestrians, then I think the road should be redesigned to be safer to pedestrians on the surface. Regardless, it’s distressing to see projects like this where red flags were ignored time and time again. Bridge failure is way too common in the US

[@Lady.B0420]

This was so preventable. I use these types of stories to highlight why math is so important to my elementary school child. When he starts complaining about math, we watch one of these and discuss how human error, due to improper calculations, leads to loss of human life in certain scenarios. Anytime he walks in a building, goes over a bridge, uses a tunnel, or rides a waterslide, he is dependent on the engineers math to be perfect. It is a bit baffling how so many people didn't see any issues.

[@frostrune]

This was also about common sense. I am not a structural engineer (or any engineer :) ) but I immediately noticed that bridge design was unsound. Even if maths were right, this design would be completely stupid but at least it wouldn't collapse.

[@ButcherGod]

Won't surprise me if your kid ends up a paranoid, fearful of any construction.

[@stab74]

You can complain about math and not be for the abolsihment of math. I hate math. Always have and always will. I'm glad there are people who like math though. They build bridges that don't collapse. Don't ask me to do it though. On that note, I'm glad there are garbage men too, and morticians, etc.

[@MyH3ntaiGirl]

@@stab74 same lol My job involve plus, minus, multiply, division and thats it, and i use calculator all the time The engineer and architecture can do their thinking, i do my basic math :D

[@AverageAlien]

Nah, ancient Roman's needed no maths, just common sense

[@grapeshot]

Yeah this incident reminds me of that construction crane that toppled over in Seattle crushing a couple of people in their cars.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I haven’t heard of that when did it happen?

[@grapeshot]

@@PlainlyDifficult April 28th 2019

[@allankamen9875]

@@PlainlyDifficult there was a construction crane or 2 in New York city that collapsed within the past decade or so

[@mor4y]

@@PlainlyDifficult I think AvE has a video on it, was that the Google building one? There's been a few recently, sadly 😕

[@SpeedDemonStar]

@@mor4y Yeah, you'd have hoped they'd have learned their lessons about crane safety after the collapse of Big Blue in 1999, but alas... as long as things are being build, some are always going to fall.

[@hannahtanski3911]

the bridge just crumpled, those cracks i can’t believe they just were like “fine”

[@DoubleMonoLR]

From memory people who were physically working on the bridge were very concerned, but those at the top made the decisions. I think even the other companies basically fell in line with what FIGG said.

[@jossdeiboss]

As an engineer, I really can not imagine designing something without redundancy. Even if you want to create only one central row of supports, I would design twins supports next to each other, where each one can support the entire weight. Alternatively, make sure that one support can hold the weight of a failed adjacent support if there is no way to put them parallel. Finally, I am not a construction engineer so I might be wrong but...crack that are that deep before even opening the bridge are definitely very serious issues. "Just tight it more" simply does not sound right.

[@greggc8088]

Nice comparison to valve lash lock nuts. I google earthed the location and on the street view taken this year one of the pylons still stands as if a memorial. Strange. Thanks for sharing.

[@nicolederhone7847]

I was born and raised in S Fla and drove on that same road dozens of times. As tragic as this is, it's a MIRACLE that more people weren't killed. Just a few hours later in the day and that area is damn near bumper to bumper

[@birdlad]

Thank you for this video. I was a student at FIU when this happened. The best thing they did was plan installation during spring break. That road normally has 4x the traffic around that time, and I’m sure the death toll would have reached double digits otherwise. But this is just another in a long strand of huge public failures by the university (the president at the time recently resigned and is being investigated for allegations of sexual misconduct too). Between this and the Surfside collapse, there has been a lot of distrust locally in public infrastructure. Many people already do not want the new bridge built. Detailed videos like this are how we will learn to trust that again, so thank you. And that intersection DEFINITELY needs it, pedestrians/bikers get hit by cars at least monthly.

[@raimarulightning]

Florida, bro

[@j.g.3293]

When you combine this with the garage collapse, Rosenburg now has a kill count in the double digits. That’s what happens when you’re cheap and negligent

[@birdlad]

@@j.g.3293 Which garage collapse? The one in 2012? Because that happened at Miami-Dade College, not FIU

[@sethtenrec]

Sounds like the University is poorly located. Probably got a bargain on some swamp land I guess.

[@jens_le_benz]

@@sethtenrec even swamps can be suitable building grounds if the engineers and planners are at least remotely competent. Just look at the coast of Holland.

[@keithdavison2960]

Offering a job like this for tender is probably the worst thing as cheapest quote wins

[@rougehawk]

Very professional and easy to understand video. Subbed.

[@richardross7219]

Nice video. When I learned bridge design in the 1970s, we used an overall factor of safety of 4. In the 1980s, many departments went to a different design theory where the factor of safety was reduced to about 3. Then the foreign steel came in and we saw steel that was less that 1/6 the strength that it should be. Good Luck, Rick

[@nikidessi]

I remember being on campus the day this happened. It was during Spring Break so thankfully there was less traffic than usual, though of course the responsible thing would have been to close off the road. After hearing the news a few of my friends and I went up to the roof of the parking garage to get a better look of what was happening. It was really shocking to see the state of the cars under the bridge; they were basically flattened. It took hours for the emergency response to get enough cranes to lift the bridge for any remains to be removed. In the days that followed we heard about the cracks and how concerned citizens called the police department to report them (and perhaps MCM as well). The clear negligence and lack of accountability on all parties was outstanding.

[@ohgreisy]

It was a Tuesday when the bridge collapsed. I remember this as I was watching the news at my community college, getting papers done to transfer to FIU, the lady at the desk even joked about if I was sure I wanted to go there.. Four years have gone by now, I graduated with my masters degree there, and throughout those years driving near the site always felt unease

[@nikidessi]

@@ohgreisyIt’s been so long that I can’t completely trust my memory haha. I didn’t question myself as I was doing my graduate studies and would often be on campus on days that it was empty. Thanks for the correction!

[@center1581]

Miami.

[@damiansgaragebuilds7663]

Wrong …. I worked for the company

[@phillipkalaveras1725]

Maybe no one else noticed but I know you are off your meds and you were nowhere near FIU that day

[@russlehman2070]

Bad as the design of the bridge was, the most disgraceful part is that nobody, even after clear signs of trouble appeared, thought it necessary to close the street beneath the bridge.

[@marijkeperry1709]

I remember being in Miami visiting relatives at the time this was happened and getting text messages from all different family channels asking us if were all okay. It didn't quite set in until we had to drive home we hit the detour away from where this had happened...

[@piparalegal2019]

That cold open gave me chills. Beautifully done and I'm just about 2 minutes into the video! Love your work, good sir!

[@cleanerben9636]

I know people unfortunately died in this incident but it will never cease to be funny to me that the bridge building university couldn't construct it's own bridge

[@blackhatfreak]

Because they didn't? They didn't build it someone else did.

[@cleanerben9636]

@@blackhatfreak they over saw the project

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

Theory versus practice. Esthetics over function.

[@mongooseman3744]

@@princeofcupspoc9073 aesthetics

[@cleanerben9636]

@@mongooseman3744 ez mistake

[@alextrochezgomez1266]

It’s kinda strange to see this being covered being that I’m actually from Miami, born and raised. I attend FIU rn. We have a memorial on site. I walk and drive by this almost every day

[@vexcarius7100]

Normies: We really don’t need math after we graduate. The bridge:

[@juancreepo]

...and this was supposed to withstand a Cat 5 Hurricane... utter failure.

[@chrisbullock3504]

I was at college for civil engineering when this happened. This was such a great teaching tool for our professors. I was in concrete construction and structural engineering classes and our professors talked about this for a few days when it happened and were remarkably accurate in the details that would come out later. (one of them helps write the national professional engineering yearly exam). As much of a tragedy as this was, my class of 30 kids are now all better, safer engineers because of it. I am now a field engineer for a construction company and every time I think back about this I am amazed that not a SINGLE engineer or PM did not do anything but raise concerns. If i was on this project i would have at least raised hell with my construction company bosses to have lane closures, even if it meant losing my job. I lose my mind now for minor defects in excavation shoring let alone the massive cracks shown.

[@tubester4567]

Pretty sure it was a female designer, with students., Nobody wanted to tell the female engineering and students that their design is flawed for risk of being called misogynist or accused of mansplaining. The news seemed to drop the story, there hasnt been publication of who is responsible, other than the Uni and an Engineering firm. Compare to how the news treated the Florida Condo collapse, the news interviewed the original designer, and engineer and plastered his name and face all over the news. When media stops reporting on something, you can be sure theres either females or black people involved.

[@reilysmith5187]

@@tubester4567 Based and true.

[@zarthemad8386]

@@tubester4567 to my knowledge it was a full female design team and it was being touted as a "women power" type bullshit project. and as it was a student team... not one of them had the ballz/assholness to say "Hey this is a 150 ft bridge... Where the fuck is the center support?"

[@Captain_Draco]

Not as good as you might think. This was less of an engineering problem as a problem of progressivism in general. They needed to get an all female engineer team so they skipped over more qualified groups. They were literally diversity hires.

[@a-nus]

@@tubester4567 this

[@geoffroi-le-Hook]

right after the "someone has to pay" title card I got an ad for Discover card

[@TransistorBased]

"look how pretty our bridge is 🙂" "It's safe too, right?" "What does that mean?"

[@DeniseFaraday]

Thank you, John, for profiling this disaster. I live in Miami and was horrified to see this bridge collapse in the news. The six fatalities didn't have to occur if everyone did their jobs effectively and didn't cut corners to get the job done.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@BHuang92]

Right from the start, hearing that the bridge was designed by the university was a big red flag to me that this was a very bad idea!

[@daszieher]

That in itself is not a problem. After all, there are professors and students, who will later work those calculations, trained in doing so. The problem was the assumption, that correct oversight can be performed by a party involved with execution.

[@PrograError]

@@daszieher this remind of a story of an april fool's joke; where the students and teacher were invited to a flight (?) , the pilot came on and announced the plane was built by the students. all the passengers scrambled to get off, except one. the steward came forward and asked why didn't he left. he said, "I know my students. they won't be able make one." (probably butchered the story, but it goes something like this...)

[@NeedsMoreBirds]

@@PrograError I think I’ve heard a variation of this, but the punchline was closer to, “I know my students, this plane won’t get off the ground.”

[@daszieher]

@@PrograError 😂 Nice one!

[@howardbaxter2514]

@@PrograError I think the punchline is that the professor knew his students and that the plane wasn’t getting off the ground.

[@MrPLC999]

"The warning signs were seemingly ignored..." OMG!! Critical concrete components were shattering before their very eyes yet they kept insisting it had no effect on the integrity of the structure. This is classic criminal negligence and cause for totally bankrupting all organizations involved.

[@kevindunlap5525]

I can't tell you how proud I am for them taking my money to do this.