Failed Florida bridge has no similarity with any Valley bridge

A pedestrian bridge collapse that killed at least six people in Miami yesterday was being put together by a new accelerated bridge construction method.

Matt Stone tells us if any bridges in the Mahoning Valley were ever constructed in a similar way.

The Mahoning Valley has several pedestrian bridges that go over streets and roads.

One of them is the bridge at Youngstown State University that goes over Wick Avenue.

But the only similarity the YSU bridge has with the one that collapsed in Florida is the fact that they both carry just pedestrians.

Dr. Anwar Islam is the chair of the civil engineering department at YSU.  He actually designed 20 bridges when he lived in Florida.

He says the Florida bridge was constructed much differently than this one.

"This is called the Accelerated Bridge Construction method, ABC. It's a relatively new method of construction. You do everything off-site, like at a construction site. and then bring everything to the site and put it in," said Islam.

The Florida bridge reportedly fell while suspension cables where being tightened.  Dr. Islam says this quick construction method began in 2010 but hasn't been used in our area just yet.  But it eventually will be because of its benefits.

"One is the quality control, durability is better and you minimize traffic disturbance during construction," added Islam.

Dr. Islam says this accident won't likely stall the ABC process for future projects.

He believes it will simply be something we can learn from.  

In the future, he believes more precautions will be taken when installing bridges using that method.