Welcome to the Roadscapes Wednesday segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Roadscapes Wednesday will feature roads and infrastructure related topics. Geek Alabama Editor / Publisher Nathan Young is often called the “road geek” for a good reason, Nathan loves roads and loves talking about roads!
On March 15, 2018, a pedestrian bridge under construction outside Florida International University collapsed without warning, killing six people and raising hard questions about how a brand-new structure could fail under its own weight. The bridge was never open to the public, yet its design, construction sequencing, and oversight combined into one of the most consequential engineering failures in recent U.S. history.
This video breaks down how the original FIU bridge was designed, why its single-plane concrete truss and critical construction joints created a dangerous intermediate condition, and how repeated warnings were dismissed in the days leading up to collapse. Then, standing at the same crossing today, the story shifts to the replacement bridge now rising on site—built under FDOT control with a fundamentally different philosophy centered on redundancy, proven systems, and conservative sequencing.
This is not just a rebuild. It’s a second chance to get the engineering right.
Categories: Roadscapes Stuff
