SWEETWATER, Fla. - Engineers for the pedestrian bridge project at Florida International University warned state officials about cracks in the structure two days before Thursday's fatal collapse, but no one at the Florida Department of Transportation heard the voicemail until today, FDOT said Friday evening.
Engineers also had a permit to close the road below the bridge, but never made the request, FDOT said.
"The department was also not made aware by the FIU design build team of any scheduled 'stress testing' of the bridge following installation and has no knowledge or confirmation from FIU's design build team of 'stress testing' occurring since installation," FDOT said in a statement. "Per standard safety procedure, FDOT would issue a permit for partial or full road closure if deemed necessary and requested by the FIU design build team or FIU contracted construction inspector for structural testing."
FDOT released a transcript and audio of the voicemail left on March 13 from W. Denney Pate, FIGG Bridge Engineers' lead engineer for the project, to an FDOT employee.
The employee, who was out on assignment, didn't hear it until Friday.
Here's the voicemail transcript, as released by FDOT.
"Hey Tom, this is Denney Pate with FIGG bridge engineers. Calling to, uh, share with you some information about the FIU pedestrian bridge and some cracking that's been observed on the north end of the span, the pylon end of that span we moved this weekend. Um, so, uh, we've taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done but from a safety perspective we don't see that there's any issue there so we're not concerned about it from that perspective although obviously the cracking is not good and something's going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that. At any rate, I wanted to chat with you about that because I suspect at some point that's gonna get to your desk. So, uh, at any rate, call me back when you can. Thank you. Bye."
Here's audio of the voicemail, as released by FDOT:
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board, who held a press conference as FDOT released the voicemail, said cracks on a bridge does not mean it's unsafe:
Meeting, then collapse
Alfredo Reyna, the assistant LAP coordinator and an FDOT consultant, received a phone call from Rafeal Urdaneta, a Bolton Perez & Associates employee, on Wednesday notifying him of a midday Thursday meeting with Pate and other members of the FIU design build team, FDOT said.
No life-safety issues or road closure requests were mentioned during the meeting, FDOT said.
The meeting happened shortly before the bridge collapse, FDOT said.
"The responsibility to identify and address life-safety issues and properly communicate them is the sole responsibility of the FIU design build team," FDOT said. "At no point during any of the communications above did FIGG or any member of the FIU design build team ever communicate a life-safety issue. Again, FIGG and the FIU design build team never alerted FDOT of any life-safety issue regarding the FIU pedestrian bridge prior to collapse."
More than an hour following FDOT's statement, FIGG re-released an earlier statement.
“The evaluation was based on the best available information at that time and indicated that there were no safety issues," they wrote. "We will pursue answers to find out what factors led to this tragic situation, but it is important that the agencies responsible for investigating this devastating situation are given the appropriate time in order to accurately identify what factors led to the accident during construction. We are committed to working with all appropriate authorities throughout this process.”
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