Engineer warned of cracking before collapse

MIAMI, Florida - The chief engineer of a Florida bridge project warned authorities of cracking in the structure days before it collapsed, killing at least six people, the southern US state's department of transportation said on Friday.

Chief engineer Denney Pate left a voicemail on a Florida Department of Transportation employee's landline on March 13, two days before the pedestrian walkway came crashing down on the major road beneath, the department said in a statement.

The voicemail - which was not heard until Friday because the employee it was left for was out of the office - mentioned a problem, but did not warn that structural failure was imminent.

There was "some cracking that's been observed on the north end of the span", Pate said, according to a transcript of the call.

"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," Pate said.

At least eight cars were trapped when the 950-ton bridge suddenly gave way on Thursday, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Division Chief Paul Estopinan said.

The walkway, which connected Florida International University to a student housing area, had been raised less than a week ago but was not expected to be operational until 2019.

Death toll could rise

Miami-Dade county police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta told reporters that on Friday rescue operations shifted to one of body recovery, with engineers fearing the support structures at either end of the bridge could also come down.

"The entire bridge is in jeopardy," Zabaleta said.

Juan Perez, director of the Miami-Dade police department later told reporters that a team of government prosecutors was on the scene as part of the investigation, but stressed it was too soon to say whether criminal charges would be brought.

The death toll, meanwhile, was likely to go up when authorities extracted and identified the remains of victims in vehicles trapped under the rubble, Perez said.

Ten people were taken to hospital after the bridge collapse, Zabaleta said.

Police detective Juan Carlos Llera said when the bridge came down, it "sounded like an explosion. A huge bang".

"It looks like a disaster area. It looks literally like a bomb went off," Llera said.

Miami Fire Chief Dave Downey emphasized there was no hope of finding survivors.

Afp - Ap

(China Daily 03/18/2018 page9)