re: #222 calochortus

It looks to me like that was half the bridge that was installed over the road, and the half that goes over the river wasn’t up yet? So some genius decided to put up the half of the bridge that goes over a busy road and then leave it there unsupported while they put up the other half, built the support tower, and then rigged all the support cables at the very end?

Worse, it looks like they decided to lift the span they put up by a single anchor point just to see if the yield strength was up to spec. Then either the cable or anchor point snapped, the span fell an unspecified distance at one end and the impact cracked it causing a catastrophic collapse.

The stress test was part of the installation procedure, but doing it with people underneath was utterly insane. I’m also guessing that they didn’t properly inspect the lift hardware for signs of fatigue.