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The most disturbing thing I've read about the Miami bridge collapse so far is the abstract to this paper: https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38943 The oblique references to a collapsed Australian bridge in the news reports are talking about that one.

@mcdemarco oh my.

"The failure of three other box girder bridges between 1969 and 1971...reveal the lack of understanding of the slender compressive elements present in such structures." [dspace.mit.edu]

@33MHz That's not to say it wasn't merely construction error, but it's disturbing nonetheless.

@mcdemarco Yes, it's easy to assume the tightening of cables caused this collapse, and extrapolation from different sizes isn't reasonable, no guidance on how to do it... makes the endeavor concerning.

@EchoDunk @33MHz My first guess was the novel self-cleaning concrete, but nobody seems to be pointing fingers in that direction.

@33MHz @EchoDunk An interesting theory: https://www.reddit.com/r/StructuralEngineering/comments/84p2vu/fiu_pedestrian_bridge_whilst_under_construction/dvt59ob/