Feds rip CDOT, bridge contractors

'Sloppy' work, lack of oversight cited in fatal girder collapse

Kevin Flynn And M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, June 1, 2006

Federal investigators blamed "sloppy" work by contractors and lack of oversight by the Colorado Department of Transportation for a May 2004 girder failure that killed a family of three.

In a blistering critique, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that the combination resulted in a poorly installed 40-ton girder collapsing over Interstate 70.

"I think it is fair to say this is an accident that should not have happened," said board member Kitty Higgins. "We talk about sloppiness, I think this borders on criminal negligence."

The girder was part of a project to widen the northbound C-470 bridge over I-70.

NTSB investigators said the girder and its temporary bracing were installed improperly and that CDOT didn't question the subcontractor's methods despite observing problems the night the work was done.

Talking about a CDOT inspector who was at the scene, acting NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said, "What you're telling me is there is no oversight? The man is either incompetent, derelict or both, and three people are dead because of it."

CDOT beefed up its rules for girder installation three months after the tragedy.

The NTSB hearing, held to approve a report on what caused the collapse and recommendations for improvement, came just over two years after the May 15, 2004, accident that killed an Evergreen couple, William Post, 34, and his pregnant wife, Anita, 36, along with their 2-year-old daughter, Koby Anne.

The collapse happened as the family was passing under the bridge. The impact of the family's Dodge Durango with the 40-ton girder was so forceful that it sheared the top and bottom halves of the SUV apart.

NTSB board member Ellen Engleman Conners asked sarcastically if CDOT and its contractors, Asphalt Specialties of Henderson and Ridge Erection of Arvada, had sketched out the project with crayons.

"Even the contractor who did my basement seems to do more planning than this," she said.

The report found four construction errors that were allowed to occur on the job site when the girder was installed on May 11, 2004, the NTSB said. Bad weather prevented resumption of work.

First, the girder ended up more than four degrees off true vertical on the south end and more than two degrees off on the north end, according to the safety agency's report.

Five steel braces used to steady it were not placed flat on the deck of the adjacent bridge, leaving a gap.

Bolts holding four of the five braces to the deck weren't fully sunk into the concrete as required by the bolt manufacturer's specifications.

And the holes drilled into the deck for the bolts were wider in diameter, resulting in a loose fit.

Vernon Dugger, president of Ridge Erection, said the company has "a few issues" with the NTSB's report, declining to elaborate. He said the company took immediate steps after the tragedy to ensure such an accident could never happen again.

"We lost a family here, and that's the major issue," Dugger said. "I know the people involved in this project, and they all have faces and they all have broken hearts. It's been a grueling couple of years.

"But we all go home to our families every night and (the Posts) don't."

A spokesman for Asphalt Specialties couldn't be reached for comment.

The state and the contractors agreed in 2004 to a $1.5 million settlement with parents of the couple, plus a $40,000 charitable donation each year for five years in the family's name from Asphalt Specialties.

Tom Norton, CDOT executive director, said the state would "do whatever necessary to prevent a tragedy like this from ever occurring again."

CDOT now calls for extensive additional planning, more active oversight and daily inspections of girder installations until the job is finished - many of the recommendations made by the NTSB.

"We understand that there is a belief that our inspectors or project managers should have been able to tell that the girder was potentially unstable," he said. "While CDOT staff did meet the contractual requirements that were in place at the time of the tragedy, I know that everyone involved wishes they had discovered the potential hazard at the site prior to this event."

After hearing presentations on the accident report, the safety board approved several recommendations for safer procedures. They include more extensive contingency plans and sign-off on those plans by a registered professional engineer.

Susan Hopkins, mother of Anita Post, said she started to listen to the NTSB meeting online but quickly stopped.

"I listened to it for about two minutes and then I ran and my husband took over," the Clayton, N.C., woman told CBS 4 News. Relatives and friends refer to the Posts as a family of four, because Anita Post was pregnant with a boy they already had named "Chili" Willie.

Hopkins said she didn't learn anything new from the hearing.

"The whole thing was due to negligence, stupidity," she said. "What more can I say? Nobody did their job right."

She added:

"If everybody had been doing their job and used a little common sense it wouldn't have happened to our family."

NTSB findings

The National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the May 15, 2004, girder collapse over Interstate 70

Probable cause:

Failure of the girder's temporary braces "due to insufficient planning" by the contractors and CDOT and "deficiencies in the installation of the girder and the bracing" that led to its failure.

NTSB recommendations:

• Federal and state highway officials and OSHA should "make consistent and compatible" requirements for temporary bracing of structures under construction, including approval by an engineer.

• CDOT should "actively supervise and monitor safety-critical work" on its projects.

• CDOT should require contractors to submit written plans for all construction, including of temporary braces.

• Require contractors to monitor and ensure the continued stability of temporarily braced structures until they are completed.Source: Ntsb Report Brief