A large pedestrian bridge has collapsed trapping several car's and people. The bridge apparently was only erected at the weekend.
(Sweet water )

The I-35W Mississippi River bridge (officially known as Bridge 9340) was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Saint Anthony Falls of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. During the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, it suddenly collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The bridge was Minnesota's third busiest, carrying 140,000 vehicles daily. The NTSB cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, noting that a too-thin gusset plate ripped along a line of rivets, and asserted that additional weight on the bridge at the time of the collapse contributed to the catastrophic failure.
~ wiki



I remember when that happened there was a nationwide inspection that found many bridges needed to be rebuilt.

The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, which tracks the number of bridges with structural defects in each state, found 55,710 bridges nationwide that need to be repaired or replaced.
~ http://wamu.org/story/17/08/01/10-years-after-bridge-collapse-america-is-still-crumbling/

The sad reality is that sub-standard construction kills. Lack of maintenance, Kills.
Complacency can deteriorate an entire nation's infrastructure to the point even new construction can kill.

In this OP, I'm wondering if it was the constuction mateials or the design that failed.
More importantly, was it greed or a mistake?

Wow, it's a sad fact that inferior materials are used by some contractors for personal gain, I thought those times would have been long gone!
No implying it's the cause of the one today.

I don't know if that is the case either.
Most likely it was just ignorance.

The problem could be in the design itself.
People are the ones that draw up those designs.
Consider that even if the design was faulty, the bridge could not be built over a public domain without approval.
Was it ignorance or complacency during the approval?
Was it a material fatigue?
A contruction mistake?
An application overload?

It could be that the material was sufficient but installed in the wrong alignment for its maximum strength.
Like a 2x4 laying flat where it should have been verticle.
A truss that was too short to support the load.

I'm sure there will be an investigation.
Who know what the cause will be determined to be?
Maybe it wasn't the bridge at all.
Wind took out the Tacoma Narrows bridge.
There were design defects that would not have mattered except they forgot to account for the winds.
Perhaps it was the vibration from the traffic?

Yes, they'll have an enquiry.
It was only erected Sunday so fatigue I'd of thought is out.
And it was only a pedestrian bridge so doubt it was over loaded.

Oh, that is terrible!!!

I just looked it up, it was pretty bad. Quite a few died.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/us/miami-bridge-collapse/index.html

I'm gonna start a petition to ban bridges...

How sad this is.

I'm not sure bridges are the problem moe, it's how well they've constructed and tested them.

Hurricane Irma beat up some of the bridges in the Keys pretty bad, but they were built good and withstood the beating. They even closed a lot of the middle and lower Keys bridges until safety checks were done.

na, sorry, it's the bridges fault... If that bridge wasn't there, those people would still be alive... You can't blame people when it's entirely the bridges fault...

Yes they would be. I hear what you're saying, I don't really agree, but that's okay. It's a sad thing what happened, tragic and not really a time to debate whether or not bridges should exist.

I'm sad for the friends and families of those who died. And hopefully they won't build another bridge there at all or for a really long time... in remembrance of those who perished.

yes, it is sad... At least nobody is gonna start politicing about this like they did about the last tragedy in Florida...

Just a suspcion, based on a picture:

I suspect that the installation planners, failed here.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/west-miami-dade/article204506084.html#1

That's a rendering of what the COMPLETED bridge was supposed to look like.

Notice in particular, that span which collapsed, is shown as having suspension cables holding it up, attached to a tall tower assembly, and that the actual installation did not have the tower in place.

We'll see, but I wont be surprised, if it turns out that the people using the bridge design, thought they could whip it into place by putting the long span up FIRST, and then only EVENTUALLY put up the tower and cables. The span would have been designed to REQUIRE suspension, in order to even carry it's OWN load. Hence the collapse.

The correct procedure might have been to built the support tower FIRST, install the cables next, and THEN put in the span. But someone who doesn't understand how engineering actually works, and just understands administrative planning, scheduled everything based on a combination of political showmanship, and minimal traffic blockades.

4 confirmed dead.
Rescue & recovery still underway.

That's what happens when you cut corners to save money.
May God keep and bless the victims.

On radio this morning, " bridge was getting inspected for flaws, when it collapsed. "

It should've been inspected before it opened.
This bridge isn't the only one that collapsed in recent years. I see a pattern here.

On our evening news they said they were in the process of attaching the main cables that support it. The bridge was put in position in around 5 hours. I'd of thought the transportation machine that put it in place would have been left until the supporting cables were attached. This method of construction is used for quickness so the road was closed for the minimum amount of time.

... and the maximum amount of money.

Money before health.
Money before lives.
money, money money...