What Happened to the FIU Pedestrian Bridge?

We’re Providing Solutions

As One of Our Best Examples…

We often hear that other steel contractors simply aim to provide what is shown on the drawings, and the moment a problem arises, they throw their hands up, walk away, and wait for someone else to offer a solution and direction. The monumental stair at the University Center of Lake County is perhaps the best, but not the only, example of our approach to assisting customers in finding solutions to complex construction problems. Our customer had previously awarded the work to several other specialty stair contractors who, upon reviewing the drawings and analyzing the load requirements, walked away.

The issue was that the design drawings depicted the stair stringers as simple rectangular tubes rolled to a sweep. When they approached us, we embraced the challenge and took on the responsibility to design, detail, fabricate, and erect the stair. This stair not only met all the structural and code requirements but also satisfied all the aesthetic and architectural constraints. The result is shown below and is far from being simple swept rectangular tubes.

On March 15, 2018, a tragic accident occurred near the campus of Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. A 174-foot-long, 950-ton pedestrian bridge that was under construction collapsed onto a busy highway, killing six people and injuring ten others. The bridge was designed to connect the university with the nearby city of Sweetwater, where many students lived and worked. It was also part of a larger project to improve the safety and mobility of pedestrians and cyclists in the area. But what went wrong? How did a bridge that was supposed to be innovative and resilient end up crashing down in a matter of seconds? And what lessons can we learn from this engineering disaster?

Uncategorized

What Happened to the FIU Pedestrian Bridge?

Corsetti Structural Steel

Menu

Shop Hours

Phone Hours

Shipping Hours

Get In Touch