Cracks in pedestrian bridge possible root of failure

Cracks found in a Florida pedestrian bridge prior to its collapse, killing six, might have indicated the upcoming failure.

A key concrete support truss in the doomed Florida International University pedestrian bridge developed worrisome cracks 10 days before the structure was lifted into place over the Tamiami Trail, photographs and an internal email unintentionally released by the school show.

The documents, released in response to public records requests from the Miami Herald, show that FIU’s construction and engineering team discovered potentially problematic cracks in the bridge earlier than officials have previously acknowledged.

Because of the ongoing investigation we do not yet how the engineering company building the bridge responded to the cracks. They might have analyzed them and dismissed them. Or the might have ignored them entirely.

Only five days after installation pedestrian bridge in Florida collapses

The coming dark age: Less than five days after it was installed at Florida International University a pedestrian bridge has collapsed, trapping and possibly killing an unknown number of people below it.

The story from the weekend describes the bridges construction and installation.

This is a horrible story. Does it, as does the Australian train story from yesterday, indicate a trend? Sadly, I worry that it does. For engineering to fail this badly, this quickly, indicates a level of incompetence or corruption at so many levels it is downright appalling.

The world’s longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge

Link here. Lots of great pictures of this new pedestrian bridge in China, including one of a reporter trying (and failing) to use a sledge hammer to break the glass.

China’s economy might have a lot of holes and might face collapse, as many experts have been telling me for years, but at the same time they seem to be successfully harnessing the success they’ve had in the past few decades to get very creative. That creativity suggests to me the collapse is not guaranteed, and will not be as severe as predicted.