Reports are coming in that an engineer delivered a message to the Department of Transportation in regards to the Florida International University bridge.
New York Times mentioned Figg Bridge Engineers had a meeting hours before the Thursday tragedy. The meeting discussed the crack on the structure. The company made a statement about the meeting and that it “concluded there were no safety concerns and the crack did not compromise the structural integrity of the bridge“.
There was also a voicemail left unheard two days before the collapse. Per Chicago Tribune, an engineer from the company left Florida Department of Transportation official a voicemail about the cracking in the bridge. The transcript released by the department states the engineer, named Tom from FIGG, wanted to share some information about the bridge and some cracking that was observed but from a safety perspective, there were no issue but its obvious that cracking is not a good thing.
If the voicemail was listened to that day, would the route have been blocked off? Why did the voicemail go unheard for days? Any “cracking” in any structure should be taken seriously. Negligence played a role in this catastrophe.
The death toll has climbed to six as the search continues through the 950 ton of rumble.