Contractor makes million-dollar mistake on I-55 project: who's paying the bill?
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- čas přidán 24. 04. 2024
- It's a construction project soaring into the tens of millions of dollars here in the St. Louis metro area, but construction crews hit a bump.
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The sub-contractor damaged the steel girders with the large excavator mounted breaker hammer. When the operator was breaking up the driving surface cement, which is laid on top of the girders, the bit on the hammer bent the flat top flange of the I-beam girders. Engineers say that it compromised the strength of the girders. When you drive by you can see the bent tops on the girders they are marked with orange paint. The girders are custom made due to the curve in road. They are not like straight girders that can be mass produced and easily set in place. Hence the year it takes for the steel plant to fabricate replacements. Speed and Greed will get you every time.
Thank you for the explanation!
Still should be possible to rectify the damage. This isn't an airplane. I simply cant see how they can have been destroyed.
Shouldn't have been hammered. Supposed to be saw cut and removed in sections
I suppose they don't want to take the risk of repairing it. Makes sense I suppose, I can imagine how easily a crack would spread with all the intermittent loading.
@@elbuggo
So you believe a bridge should be OK with damage girders hammered back into shape. The engineer that staked his reputation on it said no.
Imagine fucking up at work and then it hits the news
"No taxpayer funds will be used." The first lie.
Exactly.
Seems clear cut to me. The contractor has to pay or his insurance will cover it.
@@paxundpeace9970 I'd imagine his Insurance will pay and they might sue him to pay them back.
yeah, and you can prove that?
Yeah , wait n see who winds up paying ... I can hear em now , cryin to the federales to pay for it ...
young dude- meh; old dude: anger
"it is dangerous", well, slow down.
thought the same thing. haha
Based.
Anger is when The Incredible Hulk gets mad. This sounded more like frustration.
A million dollar mistake sounds like a rounding error on a project like that
Obviously no one was inspecting during demolition. You get what you inspect not what you expect!
No one bothered to even LOOK CLOSELY at the affected area right at the beginning, never mind dye penetrant, magnaflux, or x-ray testing on a sample?!?! There's VISIBLE damage, now, jeez. Lawsuit central. For decades. More $$$ down the drain. Let the lawyers in on the gravy train, too, why not.
Right? Federal Highway is going to be all over this like flies on crap!!!
"You just gotta follow the signs and watch where you're going" amen brother, amen haha. If only everyone had this level of chill mode
It’s weird cause up here in Wisconsin you have to replace everything on any bridge that gets that much work and you can see the rust on those girders
that's not rust, the paint is chipped off
I've seen bridges in Wisconsin which were upgraded in that same way. Replacing only the deck is a pretty standard process. I also spent decades in construction and so I understood what was happening when I was seeing it.
And you are wrong about the rust since you don't understand what you are looking at. A bit of surface rust where paint got knocked off is not a structural issue.
Surface rust means nothing. Pitted corrosion does. I done an apprenticeship painting these things.
The red "rust" is actually the primer beneath the peeling green paint.
they’re not taking bridges apart and rebuilding them every time lol
The contractor noticed the mistake on the State's blueprints for a major arterial connection to I-5 in Tacoma. The WSDOT said, "We right, you wrong, do it". The contractor was right and would have saved millions of taxpayer funds if the State wasn't sofa king arrogant.
Sad politics
@@alfee9411 Poiticians, bureaucrats, and lawyers are a whole wing of the construction industry now. The wing that controls the spigot on the government gravy train.
Sure but millions of someone elses dollars is a small price to pay for their ego. Womp womp..
KCI and the sub has insurance when working on a project like this. It will be fixed, although delayed.
When doing renovation projects, errors will happen. Its all part of the process.
This isn't part of the process, this was someone taking shortcuts and rushing.
“I hate construction” well do you want bridges that are safe to drive on or get home 10 min faster?
Stop making sense. This is YT.
Both
Exactly!! Ignorant af
Both duh
I think the issue is the length of time construction takes to get done here in the states.
So someone hired someone who hired someone who hired someone f*ed up but they say taxpayers won’t foot the bill 😂😂
That sub-contractor is looking for a new industry after this. No insurance company will back him after a claim that big. He's done
He will be fine elsewhere… cops do horrible things and get rehired a county over
You mean the company. The contractor will stay in business under another corporation.
@@kris8263insurance companies wants to know who the decision makers of a corp are
@@kris8263this guy knows all the tricks.
This project is mismanaged... You have 10+ miles being closed down with no real construction activity happening. Why not do it in phased sections? Close 2 lanes on a third, finish it, then close down the next third. The way they are doing it maximizes the pain to drivers.
Photo-van tickets: Money.
They’re waiting for girders to be delivered.
Nothing can proceed until the replacement girders are delivered. But the new girders will not be ready until the fall.
Like Australia. I'm glad money is ACTUALLY SPENDING on infrastructure, but when I hit SIX construction sections driving home from work....
We are talking about St.Louis. leadership has failed the city for the last 20ish years. Crime being biggest factor in the decline of the city.
Obviously, the contractor should. He’s the one that f’d up.
OK, a mistake was made and the girders damaged. Just what was the mistake? Unless you let folks know what went wrong, it can be repeated elsewhere.
Yes, I’m pretty sure the contractor the subcontractor and the insurance company although exactly what went wrong.
The girders fit the curvature of the roadway. They aren't mass producible as they are unique to this job. Hence the extended lead time.
I wonder exactly what the damage to the beams is?
Construction Engineer here. My guess would be that when they saw cut the concrete deck to remove it, the saw was set too deep and cut thru the top flange of the steel beams.
@@patrickbateman2901 tyvm
@@patrickbateman2901if you are construction engineer and have to take a guess? we dont use saws, we use hydraulic jack hammers on the back end of front loaders
@@PatricioGarcia1973 czcams.com/video/prXWeIJ8-SI/video.htmlsi=6T67xAlV-C7pThU8
Educate yourself
@@PatricioGarcia1973you sound like such an expert. Have you ever heard of the lift out method?
You'd be surprised how often things like this happen. Contractors cannot find knowledgeable people, so they hire people with no training.
and then they are expected to teach themselves? get a dui and go to jail? so you want more tax money now too? fugetaboutit.
I thought this is what the required bonds be made to be a contractor for the state
The inspectors were asleep
Very correct. Nothing is done without inspectors okay. Fake news
I was asleep....They were hitting the Henny & Hot Kush
Private company screws up. Your first thought is, how can I blame this on the government?
@@neilkurzman4907 - Naaaah nobody in their right mind is expecting much from ANY of these incompetent clowns - neither the corporate welfare crooks, - OR the corrupted govt cronies who fund, coddle, protect, and enable them.
@@neilkurzman4907 - Naaaah, at this point NOBODY is expecting much from ANY of these clowns - neither the corrupted govt cronies that protect, coddle and fund them, - OR the corporate welfare crooks who rip off all comers
"If our contractors are aggressive enough, they can make up the time." Sounds like a terrible idea. Going too fast probably caused the first problem. Compounding it by pressuring the contractors to move faster going forward just increases the chances for another major mistake to be made.
Hence why Boeing is falling from the sky and cant silence whistleblowers fast enough.
So many idiots have wrecked out at this area because it’s honestly such a basketcase to maneuver.
We had something similar happen like this in Kingston Ontario with a century old lift bridge. Hit one of the girders, and now the bridge cannot be used by car or boat. What should have been a couple weeks project with partial closure has turned into a full closure, potential replacement and summer-long project.
Yet every American with a beard and sunglass selfie talk about construction in other countries. 😂
2024 - "The Year of the Bridge"
thanks for the eye opener!
So apparently the news reporting forgot to tell us what happened
They did. The contractor damaged the girders while demolishing the concrete on top of the girders.
@@unusualfire what's a girder?
@@Sean-CThe exposed steel beams you see
@@unusualfireYes, but that's like saying that Chernobyl reactor exploded. The question everyone wants answered it is how.
@@unusualfire Okay, we know the "who", now what about the "where", "what" and "how"? As in "where are the beams damaged?", "What damage was done to the beams?" and "How were the beams damaged?" We could also include "Why were the beams damaged?" but I don't think that would add much.
As a structural engineer, you can't mess up this big.
Apparently you've never had employees. Never underestimate the ability of an employee to screw up the simplest jobs. Not to mention, contractors can't erase there errors like engineers can
I'm not sure they need that upper flange at all. They can use the concrete in the slab as flange instead. The concrete can supply all the support the flange gave, or what the beam need. All they need is to bind the beam to the concrete in some solid way with bars and bolts and stuff. Why cant that work just fine? Don't need that upper flange at all - incorporate it in the concrete slab.
@elbuggo this might be the most uninformed comment I've seen in here... and there's a lot of competition.
That statement might be true for a house driveway or a parking lot, but for an interstate highway bridge? It doesn't take a structural engineer to tell you the first 12 reasons why your suggestion is laughable; any yokel that's ever filled in street potholes ought to be able to list the fallacies inherent to inadequate support of concrete slabs in 50+ mph unrestricted bridges.
@@davidchristian8447 Beams work the same way everywhere mostly. Fire up SolidWorks and see what you get when the top flange is replaced by a concrete slab? It is not that it isn't possible, but it is an more unusual solution. The top flange is under compression. Concrete can do that too. It simply has to work, one way or another. Maybe not the best solution here, but only 1 of 100 solutions that may be used to rectify the damage.
Let me know if you would like to borrow a teddy bear before we proceed please - sounds like you would like one.
@@davidchristian8447 while i am generally aligned with your perspective, your comment bears no insight. if you are a civil engineer, your also a bully. one who may not know his stuff. lot of that going around and consequently i am triggered.
That guy that was angry shouldn't be allowed to drive
We need more engineers on the job site full time checking everything 3 times or more for accuracy.
Until that job gets subcontracted out and same issue occurs.
The real problem is subcontracting jobs, companies use this loop hole to pocket and save money by paying less to non union, no benefits, barely minimum wage contracting companies.
I was welding the angle iron that holds the deckpans on a bridge. Head welder got let go(pee test) and he didnt tell anyone his survey points were 3in different from what the surveyor marked(width of the angle). Worked for 2 weeks before a super noticed something was wonky.
So sad to see that St. Louis is just a shell of a city that it used to be
Blue they go
This is why government requires performance bonds. The Bond Holder should pay if it’s not done correctly.
It's a costly, but fixable mistake. The contractor should have insurance to cover the costs of the mistake.
we're just gonna replace the substructure right quick. fix aint the word. if you do this for a living i dont want to hear you striking out in its defense. its time foremen start doing their jobs take responsibilty for the peril that has been extended upon us.
@@hardrays They obviously didn't know what they were doing. I wasn't defending them either. Simply said they have insurance that will pay to replace what they messed up.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
huh? thats just dumb
This will be completed in 2057
Cmon now……2052 is doable…..
Your optimistic! : )
I heard they're gonna bulldoze Missouri and start over.
Here in Rhode Island we have been spending 10 s of millions over years to fix a major bridge that impacts all travel west on route 195 , . Now it’s been closed for months because it is in poor condition at the last survey . 4 months ago it was survived as usable 😮 Now we need take down replace A 2000 foot bridge at a cost of 3 hundred million to start . The contractor filed for protection a new is out of business before this came to the public . The big green trucks in Rhode Island
On any public roadwork there are inspectors overseeing everything, as thick as flies. Inspectors at every level, watching the inspectors who watch the inspectors who watch the inspectors who inspect. They all get paid a ton of your money to do this. It’s impossible that none of these highly paid professionals saw this right away. The contractors should have caught this right away, and the DOT guys should have caught it at the same time. Every one of them ought to be assigned to roadkill cleanup duty forever. With appropriate pay.
Why wasn't a State inspector present full time, at least while this critical part was underway. I'd almost bet, the taxpayer's foot this bill.
Perfect example of generational differences in attitudes.
State DOT's really should have their own employees for maintenance, repairs, and improvements. Bureaucracies may be known for slowing projects down but they are also very good at creating safety procedures and checklists which can last for generations. This type of improper removal would only happen once in a lifetime if at all. Not my State so not my beef.
I live outside of Reno and NDOT has been working on the "Spaghetti Bowl" (I-80 and 395/580 interchange) since I moved here in 1999. Yet they ignore the rest of I-80. They just got some money from the feds to fix the bridges that have been neglected for decades but the entire freeway in this area needs repaving, and widening.
The contractor is responsible for the job, so if they messed up, they're paying, or its going to court, and they'll get sued till their bankrupt!
Seen it happen to my old boss! All the electrical in a condo and the main panel box all installed without a certification after the permit was passed! Soon as this all happened I decided best to let him make his mistake in his own cuz I wasn't gonna go down for his decisions! Come to find out later he did go to court and got sued by the Business Lawyer who owned the condo!
No Accountability!?
What about the DOT inspections?
Right? The fact they demoed the whole deck without the inspector noticing?
Going from Lemay to Hampton Village and/or by Pietros for the pet groomer and/or the vet's office, I always take Germania under 55 and it's always an unpredictable drive. You never know if both lanes are blocked, one lane is blocked. The signs are vague sometimes. You get so far down and have to turn around to go back and go down the Carondelet side. One time I went down the Carondelet side and they were jack hammering at the bottom of the pillars. That was a little freaky, wondering if the highway was going to come down on you. After evaluating the other day (2 separate vet appointments and 1 groomer appt), I'm just about tempted to take the extra time and go Bayless to Morganford or Gravois and cut over. Completed in the year 2026. That means two more years of this crap. I'm all for improving the roads but good Lord already.
We are!
That insurance company will drop them
When using this Breaker Hammer, knowing it will go thru the concrete at some points, why be allowed to use it. Who is in charge here? Were are the contractors supers, where are the local and federal inspectors?
It’ll be okay. ❤
That will conflict with all the kick backs already agreed upon
You know, if they worked on these bridges spread out over several years, they wouldn’t have to do them all at once.
exactly what and how got damaged?
The Tax Payer 😅😅😅
Ok why did the inspector for the department of highways not question why that practice of removal happening and why was it allowed to continue across the whole bridge
THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE HIGHWAY. They should have left it the hell alone.
It’s about putting up infrastructure spending numbers to look better.
@@zachscott4867 No, it's about wasting money. Why do something to LOOK better but is does not WORK better
That is a pretty bold claim. Do you have evidence that the decades old roadbed was in perfect condition before the replacement work began?
2 MORE EFFING YEARS???!!! 😡😡
That seems like an old way to build a bridge. Maybe get with the new construction ways and get it fixed quicker
ideas???
Taxpayers always cover the costs
Insurance companies take in tax money? Dream on.
Idk if anyone remembers the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse, years ago , but that’s the Main reason why damn near all the bridges and interstate bridges are being Rehabbed all across America, all of the bridges in America Need to be Rehabbed because that are old and outdated as a mf ! There was a study done after the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, I can say for a fact? Here in South Jersey? They have working on All the bridges since that accident and they are still doing… hell they started a I95 South ramp on the west bound lane of Rt42 like 13 years ago, and they are just now wrapping up one of the sections.. I can’t lie this was a MASSIVE project!
its also the reason why they have by now replaced nearly all the truss bridges.
Did they chip the paint off?
Isn't there a state inspector on this job and how did the operator of the equipment never know what they were doing?
yeah, one ding i can see but to let this go on to the extent that the substructure is totalled as a result is hard to believe
This is what business insurance is for.
Hello, Mr. George…
The amount of people not wearing a seatbelt is concerning haha
The contractors hired sub contractors. Meaning they were cutting corners
I love it,,,passing the blame!! THE AMERICAN WAY
You mean blaming the people who are responsible? Golly
LOVE
Happen before beams got damaged during demo just got to replace them.
not possible. first redecking
Hates construction 😂😅. Talk about denial and dumb
As an inspector, I say "Where was the inspector!?!?" Also, I've never seen sheer "studs" like that, WTF?
most of the studs separated too.
who... the contractor. HOW IS THIS A QUESTION
Click Bait title. "who's paying the bill"..but then says right in the story that the contractor is eating it. No mention of anyone else.
Go get em tiger.
Where's the damage on the grider?
We got mistale made here alberta.the built road south calgary they lied contractor was bed rock instand of dirt.the guys sue won multi- millions in court.here again dept.highway must be on ball if not get new people period.sad on this.😮
Was Marschel Wrecking the subcontractor?
Oh blame it on the sub right
The demo crew treated it like they were tearing it down. Unqualified and sloppy work. They beat the crap out of it, rendering it useless. Must be some Gen-Zers. Punish the people for making them perform unpleasant work?
valid point that theres a lot of that going around
Follow the science 😂😂😂 follow the money
The bends are insufficient enough to compromise the structural integrity of the bridge. Its in the engineers and everybody involved best intrest that the girders are "damaged" therefore they can continue to work and charge the tax payer. They dont mind paying a multi million dolar fine if they are insured garanteed work for an extended amount of time, making more than they lose. People wonder why construction is so expensive. Those girders are repairable.
Says the guy who got his structural engineering degree from Dunning-Kruger University!
@@ericl2969 Doesn't matter to me if you want your taxes to pay for unnecessary construction. I'm not even American. They bent you over real good, and you're proud to take it.
@@its-_-foxgrrr6041 I guess it's no surprise that Dunning-Kruger applies to more than just your knowledge of engineering. Thinking you have the whole world figured out, including believing you understand what's in another person's mind, isn't the same as actually knowing. Far from it in this case.
@@ericl2969 Says the person who didn't every graduate high school. Projection often relieves those who have a disappointing life.
@@its-_-foxgrrr6041 9.5 years combined of college and graduate school, and 30 years working in inspection on construction projects.
Those two interviewees were in identical cars and happened to be stopped in the exact same spot and available for an interview...about an I55 construction project that has no stops. 🤔
now im gonna look.
Don’t they have insurance for mistakes like that ?
yeah and it doesnt cover citizen outrage
Just increase taxes. That will fix it
Where’s the tie Mitch?? 😂
Mitch don’t need no tie
The epitome of *GO HOME* when in business....
Shedding millions of dollars.... oi
the state department of transportation is suppose to be overseeing the project and making sure this doesn't happen. typical government agency.
Mid 2026 omg so much for so little that’s crazy
The state will.
lol if I worked for kci or any of their affiliated companies I’d start looking for new work Asap
They won’t be getting any new jobs that’s for sure
It's always us the taxpayers. No matter what, we get screwed.
Where was the planning? Nowhere mon frère!
Save everyone time: Insurance. And the subcontractors deductible.
Missouri residents will pay again mistakes
You didn't watch the video.
They said that the contractors going to pay for their mistake.
Keep on smoking, people.
Let's face it : Why should the guys at the Pentagon have all the fun ?
Thats Illinois for you
This project is in Missouri.
@@uisblackcat he is referring to all chicagoans that showed up in st louis over the past 15 years and are nowing doing all the roadwork since all the level headed st louisans left.
Why does it take 6 most. to make bridge supports, are they coming from China?
If they were straight girders, it would be easy, they can build straight girders from flat stock quickly. That is how the fire damaged overpass on I-880 was replaced in thirty days. These girders are curved, so are completely custom. Six months is pretty quick in this case.
So everything will be new but the bridge supports.
i call dibs on the new girders when they replace then in the full demo in 20 years. nevermind, ill be old or ded
Need better oversight on what gets approved for design and prioritization. Over engineering and over demolition is rampant they all want perfect when good enough should be considered
Luxuries like sound barriers should be tabled
Nothing wrong with the design, this was damage. Not sure how you can claim over engineered, as the purpose of the project was roadbed replacement, which is routine maintenance. Sound barriers are not luxuries, they serve to protect the residences of the area from the freeway. Guess you don’t live near a freeway to understand the impact of noise on a community.
This is why we should invest in passenger RAIL for the StL region; instead of doubling down on unsustainable personal automobiles!
i do not want to sit next to you on public transit. fix that and start your solicitation for allocation of the common wealth. would you like to buy my METRO shirt collection? courtesy of the now deceased former head of the east section, mary kay C.
@@hardrays you’re not making any sense
@@StLouis-yu9izhe makes perfect sense. He doesn’t want to ride Metro with a bunch of lowlifes, neither do an overwhelming majority of us. Metrolink expansion gets vetoed every time it comes up because St. Charles and south county don’t want these city hoodrats riding into their neighborhoods.
Hard working families...who else?
Build Back Better 🔥
The good thing is the mistake was caught and is being addressed. We all hate bad roads and we all hate the process of repair or replacement- aren’t we an interesting species? 😆