Lessons Learnt from the Collapse of Footbridge in Miami, USA
- Vol.94(3), March
- Thane ACC LTD 2020
- 61-68p.
On March 15, 2018, a prestressed concrete truss footbridge in Miami, Florida, USA collapsed during construction. This bridge was designed as a ‘signature’ bridge with an unorthodox, non-redundant prestressed concrete truss bridge that was made to look like a cable-stayed bridge just for aesthetic appearance. The collapse of this footbridge caused several casualties and raised serious concerns about the design and construction of the bridge, in addition to the use of accelerated bridge construction (ABC). Recently the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), after conducting extensive investigations, released a report that attributed the collapse to flawed design, especially not providing enough shear transfer mechanism at the cold joint at the northern end of the bridge, and not considering the behaviour of the footbridge during all the construction stages. It also blamed all the involved agencies for their negligence of not proof checking the bridge design during all the construction stages. In addition it criticized the agencies for not considering the cracks (which were noticed near cold joints during the erection) as serious and life threatening even when the cracks were widening and subsequently lead to the collapse. As the failure of this bridge gives important lessons for bridge engineers, the features of the bridge and the reasons for its failure are described briefly.