The collapsed 174-foot, 950-ton section of the bridge — known as the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge — was lifted from its temporary supports less than a week ago. | Getty Scott, Rubio promise ‘exhaustive’ probe of ‘catastrophic’ FIU bridge collapse

MIAMI — Florida Gov. Rick Scott pledged to investigate the cause of the collapse Thursday afternoon of a newly installed pedestrian bridge over a busy eight-lane thoroughfare near Florida International University, crushing multiple cars and claiming the lives of at least four people.

“We will hold anybody accountable if anybody has done anything wrong," Scott said at a news conference Thursday night before a gaggle of reporters and TV cameras in Miami.


Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said “we deserve to know, and the public deserves to know, and the families of those who have been hurt and who lost their lives deserve to know what went wrong.” The Miami lawmaker has close ties to the school because he’s been an adjunct professor at FIU for a decade.

Rubio promised there would be “an exhaustive review that will give details on an engineering and scientific level as to what the errors were, and what led to this catastrophic collapse.“

He sent a letter earlier on Thursday to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asking the federal agency to investigate the “bridge’s design, construction, and ultimate failure.” He also raised concerns over the “Accelerated Bridge Construction” method used to build the bridge.

“While I support federal dollars being used to support innovative technologies, these projects must meet the highest standards to ensure safety is paramount,” Rubio wrote.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), whose South Florida congressional district includes the university, echoed Rubio’s remarks.

“As soon as the immediate needs have been met, we need to get to the bottom of what happened today and ensure that it never happens again,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to investigate. The bridge was built at least in part using funds from an $11.4 million TIGER grant awarded to the university for projects intended to link the school to the surrounding city.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who had spoken to NTSB officials earlier in the day, expressed his condolences by tweeting “my heart goes out to the victims and the families affected by this tragic bridge collapse at @FIU.“

Late Thursday, search and rescue teams continued looking for potential survivors of the collapsed bridge, but authorities grimly acknowledged that they would soon focus their investigation on what caused the massive structure to suddenly crumble into a rubble of concrete.

The nearby FIU campus was largely empty because the university is on spring break.





Munilla Construction Management, the firm that built the bridge, offered condolences and pledged to conduct its own investigation into the “catastrophic collapse“ and cooperate with authorities.

“Our family’s thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy,” the firm said in a statement. “MCM is a family business and we are all devastated and doing everything we can to assist. We will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way.“

The collapsed 174-foot, 950-ton section of the bridge — known as the FIU-Sweetwater University City Bridge — was lifted from its temporary supports less than a week ago and hoisted onto its permanent position over the heavily traveled roadway that connects motorists traveling to and from FIU near an entrance to the Florida Turnpike in South Florida.

The bridge was being erected, ironically, to improve safety near the large university of more than 50,000 students. It was not scheduled to open until next year. The installation over the weekend took only a few hours to complete, according to FIU officials.

FIU officials said the bridge was built using “Accelerated Bridge Construction methods,“ which is supposed to reduce “potential risks to workers, commuters and pedestrians and minimizes traffic interruptions.“ The construction methods were being “advanced“ at FIU’s Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center, according to FIU officials.

Atorod Azizinamini, the chair of FIU’s Civil & Environmental Engineering Department and director of FIU’s ABC-UTC, called the bridge project “an outstanding example of the ABC method“ in a report by FIU published in connection with the construction.

“Building the major element of the bridge — its main span superstructure — outside of the traveled way and away from busy Eighth Street is a milestone,” he said.

At Saturday’s event with several public officials on hand, FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg marveled and boasted about the “engineering feat.”

“FIU is about building bridges and student safety. This project accomplishes our mission beautifully,” he said. “We are filled with pride and satisfaction at seeing this engineering feat come to life and connect our campus to the surrounding community where thousands of our students live.”

FIU’s celebration was short-lived, however.

“We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian bridge,” said a statement issued by FIU officials on Thursday. “At this time we are still involved in rescue efforts and gathering information. We are working closely with authorities and first responders on the scene.”

On Thursday night, the Florida Department of Transportation issued a “fact sheet” that said the agency played a “limited” role in overseeing the design and construction of the bridge project, noting that it was fully managed and overseen by FIU officials.

The FIU “pedestrian bridge was a local agency project, not a Florida Department of Transportation project,” said FDOT officials in a preliminary review of the collapsed bridge.

FDOT officials noted that “the unique characteristics of the design of the bridge” required “an independent, secondary design check,” but that the firm FIU selected to was “not FDOT pre-qualified for this service, which is required under FIU’s agreement with the state.” State officials identified the firm as Louis Berger.

“Louis Berger was not involved in the construction phase of the Florida International University pedestrian bridge,” said the firm’s Communications Manager Alexandra Cauberghs in a written statement to POLITICO Thursday night. “At this point we are concerned about those who have been the victims of this tragedy and support a vigorous investigation as to the cause as soon as possible.“

FDOT officials said the builders and contractors of the project were all under contract with FIU. They identified the designer as Figg Engineering; the contractor who built and installed the structure as MCM; and Bolton Perez and Associates as engineering consultants.

“Again, this is not an FDOT project,” the agency statement said. “FDOT’s role is to administer funding and perform a preliminary review for general compliance with the agreement between FIU and the state. FIU’s design build team is responsible for the proper and safe completion of this project and for compliance with all applicable laws and engineering and construction standards.

“Additionally, any testing done to the structure following its installation was the responsibility of the FIU design build team.”

Read FDOT’s Preliminary Fact Sheet on FIU’s pedestrian bridge collapse here.

