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Bridge collapse puts spotlight on rapid building technique

Bridge collapse puts spotlight on rapid building technique | iNFOnews.ca
Crushed cars are shown under a section of a collapsed pedestrian bridge, Friday, March 16, 2018 near Florida International University in the Miami area. The new pedestrian bridge that was under construction collapsed onto a busy Miami highway Thursday afternoon, crushing vehicles beneath massive slabs of concrete and steel, killing and injuring several people, authorities said. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

The deadly collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Florida has cast a spotlight on a rapid construction technique widely used around the U.S.

It is called Accelerated Bridge Construction, or ABC. It involves assembling large sections of a span offsite, and then moving the massive pieces into place.

The technique eliminates the lengthy road closings and other traffic disruptions that can result when a bridge is built out over a highway piece by piece.

In the Miami-area disaster that killed at least six people on Thursday, the question is where was the fatal mistake — in the design of the bridge, in its construction or in the materials?

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Abbey Westbury

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