This is really bad-
State: Firm hired for bridge design check should have been pre-qualified but wasn’t
Read more here: State: Firm hired for bridge design check should have been pre-qualified but wasn’t
TALLAHASSEE
The Florida Department of Transportation distanced itself from the bridge construction and collapse late Thursday, saying that the company hired by FIU’s design team to provide “an independent, secondary design check” had not been pre-qualified for the job. That design check is often a technicality but is required by the state.
In a fact sheet of “preliminary findings,” FDOT emphasized that the Florida International University pedestrian project was a “local agency project” under contract with FIU, and not one managed by the state.
“There will clearly be an investigation to see exactly what happened and why this happened,’’ said Gov. Rick Scott during an evening news conference with law enforcement and FIU officials. He emphasized this was “not a FDOT project” and said “we will hold anybody accountable if anybody has done anything wrong.”
Under the contract, however, the project required “an independent, secondary design check,” and the design team, FIGG Bridge Engineers, hired another engineering firm, Louis Berger. That firm “was not FDOT pre-qualified for this service, which is required under FIU’s agreement with the state. FIU’s design build team is responsible for selecting a pre-qualified firm and ensuring this process is followed,” the release said.
Read more here:
State: Firm hired for bridge design check should have been pre-qualified but wasn’t
Louis Berger Group
Engineering company
louisberger.com
Louis Berger is a full-service engineering, architecture, planning, environmental, program and construction management and economic development firm based in Morristown, New Jersey.
Wikipedia
Headquarters:
New Jersey
Subsidiaries:
Ammann & Whitney,
Louis Berger SAS,
Berger, Lehman Associates, P.C.,
BergerABAM Inc.,
Louis Berger & Co.,
The Louis Berger Group Phils., Inc.,