Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
The pedestrian bridge that collapsed at Florida International University in Miami on Thursday was built using Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) technology, according to a statement from the university.
Unlike traditional methods of construction, ABC streamlines the building process so that bridge projects can be completed quicker and more cost effectively.
— cnn.com
The FIU bridge which collapsed last week was engineered using Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC), a method used by many companies for its time and cost efficiency. Weighing 950 tons, the bridge was meant to connect FIU's campus to an adjoining neighborhood where many students live. Of the... View full entry
MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Florida International University’s (FIU) massive new pedestrian bridge collapsed Thursday afternoon killing several people.The 950-ton bridge, located at 109th Ave and 8th Street, collapsed on a number of cars. Florida Highway Patrol confirms several people are dead due to the collapse. They also said several cars have been crushed. At least one person was taken as a trauma alert to the hospital, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. — miami.cbslocal.com
The collapsed bridge had recently been erected this past Saturday and was constructed "using an innovative approach to bridge construction", which was meant to alleviate traffic and reduce risk. The recent positioning of the bridge was the largest pedestrian bridge move by Self-Propelled Modular... View full entry
There is a persistent risk of doing harm, dashing hopes, and eroding trust with trial and error, no matter how virtuous the objectives. It is the duty of the powerful to minimize that risk as much as possible. “It was supposed to be innovation, but now we’re being told it was experimentation,” Papa Omotayo, a Lagos-based architect and friend of Adeyemi’s, said of the floating school a few days after the collapse. “The issue is, can you experiment in a community like [Makoko] [...] ?” — magazine.atavist.com
Kunlé Adeyemi's floating school was built in 2013 and collapsed in 2016. The structured was meant to served 100 elementary students in Makoko, a heavily populated slum on Lagos' waterfront. Classes were only held for about 4 months in the 3 years it stood. Now two years later, Allyn... View full entry
One of architect Frank Gehry’s earliest public buildings collapsed this month as it was nearing the end of a five-year, $55 million renovation, forcing the owners to revise their plans.
The roof of the Merriweather Post Pavilion, a 19,000-seat open-air concert venue in Columbia, Maryland, crashed down in the middle of the night on Saturday, January 13, burying the seating below. No one was injured.
— archpaper.com
The concert pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry, Walsh, and O'Malley in 1967 and is being renovated to maintain presence among other performing arts centers. The design team opted to keep the original roof seeing it as the defining element of Gehry's design and were in the process of raising it... View full entry
The wildly swinging booms of three cranes at under-construction residential buildings in South Florida bent and collapsed in Hurricane Irma’s heavy winds Sunday. [...]
The cranes are a symbol of the luxury real estate development that drives South Florida’s economy, attracting millions of dollars in foreign investment, even as home prices soar out of reach for locals. The construction industry has fought against stricter regulation of the towering cranes.
— Miami Herald
While the whole extent of destruction that Hurricane Irma caused throughout Florida, Georgia, and various islands of the northern Caribbean in the past few days is still not entirely clear, the strength of the storm can be adumbrated by the three construction cranes that collapsed in the greater... View full entry
Transportation officials in Georgia are scrambling to cope with a crisis, after a huge fire caused a bridge on Interstate 85 to collapse in Atlanta on Thursday night. Gov. Nathan Deal has declared a state of emergency, and with the heavily used road closed in both directions, drivers are being told to find other options — from detours to mass transit.
Friday morning, officials said they don't yet know what caused the fire or how long repairs will take.
— NPR
Atlanta's Interstate 85 was first built in 1953 and reconstructed in 1985 to accommodate increased traffic. The closure affects a crucial 3-mile portion, which carries up to 400,000 vehicles a day. U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine Chow directed Federal Highway Administration officials to grant $... View full entry
The cooling tower was being built in the city of Fengcheng in Jiangxi province when the scaffolding tumbled down [...]
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged local governments to learn from the accident and hold those responsible accountable. [...]
China has suffered several major work-safety accidents in recent years blamed on weak regulatory oversight, systemic corruption and pressure to boost production amid a slowing economy.
— ap.org
According to the Associated Press, the collapse is "the country's worst work-safety accident in over two years." The cause is currently under investigation.Related on Archinect:Five dead after eight metre concrete wall collapses in Birmingham, EnglandBerkeley balcony collapse investigation: no... View full entry
Police were called to the Hawkeswood Metal recycling plant at 8.45am today after a large concrete wall containing metal collapsed.
Paramedics tried to free the men, including one who had suffered a heart attack, however West Midlands Police pronounced all five victims dead at the scene.
A sixth man was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries.
The victims have yet to be identified.
— globalconstructionreview.com
Police investigation is underway, but next to nothing is known at the moment as to why the wall at a Birmingham recycling centre collapsed. Responding to the tragedy, Brian Rye of the construction union UCATT commented: “Information on how and why this accident occurred is currently very... View full entry
The Californian district attorney investigating a balcony collapse that killed six students – five Irish and one Irish American – and seriously injured seven others in June last year has said she will not be bringing manslaughter charges because a successful prosecution seems unlikely. — globalconstructionreview.com
"But another state agency, California’s Contractors State License Board (CSLB), has determined that five contractors involved in building the balcony probably violated California law, and has submitted its findings to the state’s Attorney General’s office. The move could lead to the... View full entry
As cranes have grown in height and girth, the controls to operate them have intensified in number and complexity...the crane units in use these days have libraries of intricate manuals, packed with details...some operators may not have time to fully understand or read completely. Same goes for the maintenance team. When something does go wrong with such large machines...the 'mess and carnage' gets magnified. — Popular Mechanics
Crane safety experts give their thoughts on the leading causes of crane collapses, and why safety regulation is more complex than it seems.Previous news about collapses:Crane collapses in Manhattan, one dead and two seriously injuredMore than 50 dead after crane collapses on Mecca's Grand Mosque... View full entry
Three Taiwanese construction company executives have been detained on charges of professional negligence resulting in death following the collapse of an apartment building that killed dozens.
The district prosecutor's office in the city of Tainan said [...] that Lin Ming-hui and architects Chang Kui-an and Cheng Chin-kui were suspected of having overseen shoddy construction of the 17-story Weiguan Golden Dragon building, which crashed onto its side following an earthquake Saturday.
— america.aljazeera.com
Previously in the Archinect news: Taiwan earthquake: tin cans found as fillers may have caused high-rise to collapse View full entry
Taiwan's Government has ordered an investigation into the collapse of a high-rise building in an earthquake after it emerged tin cans had been used in its construction.
Rescue workers found the cans as they searched for survivors two days after the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 37 people.
— independent.co.uk
However, an engineer speaking to Taiwanese TV news channel CNA explained how using cans in construction was not necessarily illegal: “For such purposes in construction, it was not illegal prior to September 1999, but since then styrofoam and formwork boards have been used instead.”Related... View full entry
The Associated Press reported that the person killed was a Wall Street worker sitting in a parked car. [...]
The accident happened as workers were trying to secure the crane against winds around 20 mph by lowering the boom, which had been extended to as long as 565 feet the day before, officials said. Because the crane was being lowered, workers were directing pedestrians away from it on a street that otherwise would likely have been teeming with people.
— npr.org
A couple of nearby construction workers took video of the collapse on a cellphone – you can watch that here. View full entry
California apartments with commanding views of the Pacific are now in danger of collapsing into the ocean.
Erosion blamed on El Niño rains is tearing away at the cliffs of Pacifica, just outside San Francisco. Drone footage shows how volatile the situation is, and how close to the literal edge some apartments are
— huffingtonpost.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:To better predict sea level rise, scientists resort to crowdsourcing and ask drone owners to help create dataHave these heavy rains alleviated the California drought?Officials Set Fire to House Teetering Over 75-Foot Cliff View full entry
The lawsuits make disturbing allegations that the balcony was poorly constructed, sustained dry rot to the point of growing mushrooms and officials at the apartment complex knew about the dangers, but failed to fix them. [...]
The lawsuits allege the builders cut corners to save money, that a subcontractor did not use plywood called for in the plans, but cheaper oriented strand board that is more susceptible to water damage and dry rot.
— abc7news.com
After a balcony collapse at the Library Gardens apartment complex in Berkeley, CA killed six and injured seven others in June, the city has tightened building codes and began a forensic inspection into the balcony's construction. Lawsuits have since been filed against Segue Construction (the... View full entry
