MIAMI, FL — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued fines totaling $86,658 to five contractors who worked on the failed Florida International University pedestrian bridge, the agency announced Tuesday. One employee died and and five other employees suffered serious injuries when a pedestrian bridge at the FIU campus in Miami collapsed earlier this year. The five companies collectively received seven safety violations.
"OSHA's investigation determined that the companies failed to protect workers when indications of a potential bridge collapse were evident," agency officials said in announcing the fines. "Violations included exposing employees to crushing and fall hazards; and allowing multiple employees to connect to an improperly installed lifeline."
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Photographs released by the National Transportation Safety Board in August showed large cracks that had been documented in the pedestrian bridge days before the massive structure came crashing down. The 174-foot-long main span killed six people, including a bridge worker when it collapsed on March 15. Eight others were injured in the tragedy.
In its investigative update, the NTSB said that the series of photographs were taken after the main 950-ton main span of the bridge was lifted from its temporary supports, rotated 90 degrees across an eight-lane road and lowered into its permanent position in a matter of hours over busy SW 8th Street.
OSHA cited Figg Bridge Engineers Inc., a civil and structural engineering company; Network Engineering Services Inc. (doing business as Bolton Perez & Assoc.), a construction engineering and inspection firm; Structural Technologies LLC (doing business as Structural Technologies/VSL), specializing in post-tensioning in bridges and buildings; Munilla Construction Management LLC, a bridge and building construction company; and The Structural Group of South Florida Inc., a contractor specializing in concrete formwork.
"Collectively, these employers failed to take appropriate action and provide the necessary protections to their employees while they were working on the bridge on the day it collapsed," said OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt A. Petermeyer.
Read the citations for Figg Bridge Engineers Inc., Network Engineering Services Inc., Structural Technologies LLC, Munilla Construction Management LLC, and The Structural Group of South Florida Inc.
Each company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, according to agency officials.