“The bridge was constructed using an innovative approach called accelerated bridge construction (ABC), meant to reduce potential risks to workers, commuters and pedestrians and prevent traffic tie-ups in the area. It was moved into place on Saturday.”

Seems to be some new big government way of building things,
“ABC is a paradigm shift in the project planning and procurement approach where the need to minimize mobility impacts which occur due to onsite construction activities are elevated to a higher priority.”

ABC - Federal Highway Administration - http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/abc

"This bridge was about collaboration and was about hope and determination," said FIU president Marc Rosenberg.

Maybe it should have been about quality, safety, and hard scientific principles. Just a thought.

Obviously, bridges kill people, we need to outlaw them!

If you mean the Taggart Bridge, yes.

"Accelerated bridge construction" sure sounds like throwing the bridge together and holding everything in place with baling wire and chewing gum.

Sure looks like a basic manufacturing flaw. The design is clearly dependent on the truss elements to provide section. It looks like these failed.

Lol, that was my first thought I had when I heard this on the news.

It's quite dangerous to build a bridge over the top of an active freeway, and unlike rural areas - urban areas don't really have anywhere to divert traffic to, around, etc. Obviously, people are working up there - and something might fall on a car below.

If you have 40,000 cars per hour going by, you can't divert it through the parking lot adjacent.

That being said, these things require enormous hardware to be put in place at the attachment points to the abutments on either side- .. I have no idea if the case, but CalTrans sent back tons (literally) of bolts made in China destined for the Oakland Bay Bridge that were tested prior to use and did not meet design specification.

Another common problem in public works - the concrete suppliers will try and ship loads of non-spec concrete. Interstates require ultra high performance concrete for example that has enormous compressive strength, doesn't crack, reinforced by steel fibers, etc.. however it's very expensive. CalTrans will test each truck being delivered for example, and sometimes as many as half are sent back because lower grade non-compaction stuff was shipped. This isn't an "oops", it's an attempt at ripping off the taxpayer. You can see it when it "gets through" because the semi-truck lane will be chewed up - as the weight of the big rigs rips the top layer up and water, dry, cold, hot, and compression breaks it loose in pieces like a delimitation.

My bet / my two-cents.. Florida engineers didn't test the materials ahead of time, didn't test the hardware, and something failed.

this is right where we live...plus my wife's best girlfriend's grandson was the first one killed at Parkland...almost afraid to get out of bed in the morning...

Since I know nothing about the contractual arrangements for this project, I will jump in with my opinion (civil engineer, contractor, bridge design and construction experience, if that even matters). I'm also an experienced curmudgeon.
It will come down to who has the best lawyers to shift the responsibility to the other party to the contract. It appears this was a design/build project (I have no information on that, which makes it easy to state), which is a combination of the above. The goal is to find the party who made the most mistakes (they are always made, in one form or the other), and attempt to get that party to pay the considerable costs of this venture. It's likely the private contractor will go bankrupt, and emerge again in some other form, and the public entity will continue on and change some of the wording of future contracts. There will be lots of courtroom drama if it gets that far, considerable backroom negotiations, and we will find out that each party had some responsibility, and life (for those who survived) will go on.

How many innocents must die before our nation institutes Bridge Control?

Remind me of Atlas Shrugged??? You've got to be kidding, my wife and I get reminded of Atlas Shrugged at least once a week or more. We feel barraged by foolish incompetence in all walks of American life. Most of it doesn't end up killing people though.

We call it the Ayn Rand effect. Not because she is a causative factor but because she identified the problem. Perhaps someone out there has a more appropriate name.

In any case we are very glad not to live in either California or Florida.

Too many unknowns at this point and speculation is probably the only thing less reliable than eyewitness accounts. With current laws and lawyer types it will be certain to that the most effort will be put toward how the blame can be shifted from reality to those with the least political favor and most money. It is always tragic when someone loses their life unexpectedly on what would seem an ordinary journey. The best way to prevent this is to discover the reality of the failure and adapt methods accordingly.

ABC... reminds me of NASA's "Faster,Better,Cheaper (FBC)". Then we lost a Mars Orbiter and Lander.

Yes! I find many correlations of today with Atlas Shrugged. Like NASA: Same as the State Science Institute. Government- run and paid for. Will do whatever the gov’t wants, and the government /deep state want to control the masses. NASA does not publish facts. They make up numbers and statistics to provide the government what they want, especially where Climate Change/Global Warming is concerned.
Scientists and Climate Change/Man-made Global Worming: The same as Dr. Stadler, a government funded scientist working at a government funded organization. Some of the scientists of today who tout Global Warming/Climate Change do so only because they are told to not because it is fact. They use non- absolute terms like “consensus” so they won’t have to actually lie or take responsibility. They say what they are told to say or funding is cut off. If any non-government-funded scientist disagrees he is ostracized, and we are told he/she is not a real scientist and what he says cannot be taken seriously.
Snowflakes/Millennials: The same as that poor kid at Reardon’s Steel Mill, The Wet Nurse. He also was the victim of a terrible educational system and another tragic representative of the costs of that system. He was so confused and wanted to do right. Reardon became his hero and, sadly, he died protecting his hero.

If only it had been constructed of Rearden metal.

Obviously not. (They didn't design that bridge, I mean).
That it was being subjected to a stress test means that the people doing it were uncertain that it was safe. In which case, why the h__l didn't they warn people away, and warn them not to be under the place it was being tested?!
I could call those people in charge idiots, but that would be an insult to the intelligence of mentally retarded people.

Lowest bidder or political crony? Lowest competence, since insisting on quality would be seen as elitist.

"Accelerated Bridge Construction" - it does not have a good ring to it. Your common sense defenses go up immediately hearing this. Obviously, many things can be built in an "accelerated" way but when building a bridge speed is not the first quality measure that matters.