Justin Nguyen 05, Raymon Lam, Thi Vu, Ali Almarri, Daniel Mendoza, Jason Martinez, Arturo Hernandez

Justin Nguyen 05, Raymon Lam, Thi Vu, Ali Almarri, Daniel Mendoza, Jason Martinez, Arturo Hernandez

Executive Summary

The collapse of the FIU pedestrian bridge that was under construction on March 15, 2018 was a fatal incident that could have been prevented with more thorough communication. The bridge had been built with multiple contractors involved, the main one being the contractor MCM, and the bridge’s design engineer FIGG Bridge Engineers. The failure to meet construction specification requirements went unnoticed by the inspectors, contractors, and designers as they went for routine checks. There was a FIGG-led meeting on-site the morning of the collapse where the designers saw no safety concerns from the revealed cracks. With all the testing and “review” the bridge still collapsed hours after.

The design of this pedestrian bridge involved a state of the art construction technique on which the actual bridge deck is built on site but next to the final location of the bridge above traffic. The first step of the process involves the construction of the substructure (foundation and columns). Subsequently, the bridge deck is transported to its final location and placed on top of the substructure. The collapse occurred soon after the bridge deck was placed over traffic on top of the columns. This disaster resulted in six deaths, eight injuries, and eight vehicles being crushed underneath. After the collapse, the two companies in charge would blame each other, neither owning up to their mistake.

The incident would not have occurred if better communication would have occurred between the different parties involved; the field inspectors looking at the structure on site, the contractor’s engineers performing quality control, and the state and local agencies which also failed to understand the severity of the initial cracking until it was too late. Some of the recommendations are to offer appropriate engineers’ and contractors’ training to improve both technical and communication skills. Secondly, the federal and state government must revise the inspections protocol to not have a repeat of this event.

Introduction

Communication can be a matter of a life-and-death skill that many engineers don’t graduate with. More often, the significance of clear and concise communication is ignored by typical engineering students. They spend their lives studying theorems, complicated mathematics, and technical analysis methods. With time, they become experts in their fields but often wonder why the general public and other non-engineering fields undervalue them. However, most often, engineers are undervalued because of their incapacity to describe what they do and why their work is crucial. Attaining good communication is one of the hardest goals to accomplish by engineers. A majority of them find it hard to simplify complicated concepts into brief and easily understood presentations. What comes to many people’s minds when they think of engineering is probably a group of overworked people or students whose work comprises nothing other than endless calculations and interpretations. Consequently, many engineers, both students, and practitioners, have failed to attribute public speaking and writing to their careers. Most engineers believe that matters relating to communication skills are for other non-engineers.

Communication is a skill that is developed and is fundamental of cooperation and collaboration. Communication can be described as the process of disseminating information and understanding from one individual to another. This description denotes that communication can only occur if a common understanding exists from the exchange of information. There are two components in every communication exchange, including the sender and the receiver. Normally, the sender initiates the communication exchange. In the context of this paper, therefore, the sender can be an engineer who has the desire to convey a concept to others. Therefore, the sender encodes the idea by using the most appropriate words, gestures, or symbols. The message is the result of the encoding, and it takes the form of either written, verbal, or nonverbal language. These components of the communication process influence the quality of communication such that a challenge in any of them can minimize communication effectiveness. For instance, the sender must encode information into a message that can be understood as intended. Similarly, one has to consider the best medium for communicating the message.

Communication is necessary for collaboration between engineers. Communication helps engineers work and complete projects effectively. Like any other field, engineers do not work in a vacuum. They need to communicate daily with each other, with clients, and with people from different departments. Although their work is technical and complex, not everybody they closely work with has equal technical expertise. This aspect makes it even more crucial for engineers to have proper communication skills. Therefore, effective communication is essential to ensuring that all project players are on the same page. For any engineering project to be successful, communication skills are equally important as technical knowledge. This is very true in engineering companies, where collaboration is the most important factor. Therefore, it is crucial for engineering managers and supervisors to create value for their firms and promote their careers by encouraging all engineers to learn and practice good communication skills. It is the only way to pass value from their firms to clients and other stakeholders. This process needs to start from colleges and universities. Engineering students need to understand that the success of their careers significantly depends on their communication skills.

1. Body
   1. The problem Due to miscommunication between the agencies, contractors and engineers, a miami pedestrian bridge collapsed that resulted in six deaths and eight injuries.
   2. The principles
      1. Force
      2. Strength
      3. Toughness
   3. The recommendations
      1. the field inspectors
      2. contractors’ training to improve both technical and communication skills.
      3. the federal and state government must revise the inspections to not have a repeat of this event.
2. Conclusion
   1. Review key points from body

1. The deaths of civilians could have been prevented if it were better communication between all parties.
2. Many factors lead to the collapse of the pedestrian bridge in Miami including key engineering principles.
3. As engineering student’s we would recommend better training for inspectors and contractors to prevent fatal accidents such as this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_International_University_pedestrian_bridge_collapse

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/bridge-collapse-florida-international-university-NTSB.html