Engineer Warned Of Crack 2 Days Before Miami Bridge Collapse

An engineer for the company that designed the bridge that crumbled in Miami called a Florida Department of Transportation employee warning of "some cracking" in a voicemail just two days before it collapsed. 

The call from W. Denny Pate of FIGG Bridge Engineers, went went unanswered by the state employee who was out on assignment that day.

"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."

Employees didn't hear the voicemail left by Pate until Friday, after the bridge had already fallen. FIGG Engineering was behind the bridge project, partnering with Munilla Construction company, a family-owned contractor. 

In a press conference Saturday morning, Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said that another two vehicles and three bodies inside them were removed from the rubble near Florida International University. 

Authorities say two more vehicles still remain in the rubble and that crews hope to remove them in the next 12 hours. It's unclear how many more bodies may remain. Police said they believe there are at least five of the six known dead in the wreckage. 

At least six people were killed when the pedestrian bridge collapsed on a busy roadway on Thursday. The $14.2 million span was meant to enhance safety and keep pedestrians safe from the traffic on Southwest Eighth Street. The span was meant to connect the FIU campus to a neighborhood in Sweetwater that is home to more than 4,000 students. It was scheduled to open in early 2019. 

Photo: Getty Images


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