FLORIDA BRIDGE COLLAPSED
A pedestrian bridge being built at Florida International University was put to a "stress test" before it collapsed over traffic, killing six people and sending 10 to a hospital, authorities said.
As state and federal investigators worked to determine how and why the 5-day-old span failed Thursday, one factor may have been the stress test that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said crews were conducting on the span. Two workers were on the 950-ton bridge when it pancaked on top of vehicles waiting at a stoplight.Of the six people who died, five bodies still were under the rubble Friday morning, Zabaleta said.
At least nine people were taken to hospitals, authorities said, after the bridge failure that one witness said "sounded like the world was ending."
The structure's 950-ton main span had just been installed Saturday using an accelerated construction process meant in part to reduce the time that street traffic was halted. The bridge had been designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.
Comments