The collapse of a girder above Interstate 70 two years ago that killed an Evergreen family was the result of work so poorly conceived and executed that it ranged from sloppy to criminally negligent, members of the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.
In a series of stinging comments, including one member sarcastically questioning whether plans were written in crayon, the safety board blasted the Colorado Department of Transportation and two construction companies over planning errors, miscalculations and other missteps that led to the collapse of the 40-ton, 100-foot-long girder onto I-70 near Golden.
The work was “outright sloppy,” Mark V. Rosenker, the NTSB’s acting chairman, said during the meeting in Washington, D.C., in which officials recommended several policy changes. “It disgusts me that a family was wiped out because of the sloppiness of this project.”
Although Asphalt Specialties Co. and Ridge Erection Co. – the contractor and subcontractor for the job – were ridiculed for poor workmanship, CDOT received the brunt of the federal safety board’s criticism, varying from the department’s impotent oversight policies to individual employees who failed to notify superiors that work was unsatisfactory and potentially dangerous.
The girder, which was part of a widening of the C-470 overpass above I-70, fell May 15, 2004, killing William J. “Billy” Post, 34; his 36-year-old pregnant wife, Anita; and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Koby.
The collapse came three days after initial work was done on the site. A second girder was to be attached to the first the same morning, but workers ran out of time because of improper tools and miscalculations – including nearly permanently attaching the first girder backward.
The work was delayed in subsequent days because of poor weather, even though CDOT could have gotten a forecast and asked the subcontractor to bring down the entire girder and wait for better conditions.There was no contingency plan for having one girder in place for more than a few hours, investigators said, and no one regularly monitored the bridge before the collapse.
“My contractor who did my basement seemed to do more planning than this,” said NTSB member Ellen Engleman Conners, who made the crayon comment.
Federal investigators also reported “systematic problems” with the initial work, saying the girder was out of plumb; that the braces were not flush with the overhead bridge deck; that bolts used to secure the girder were set too shallow into the concrete; and that bolt drill-holes were larger than the bolts.
A CDOT supervisor told workers that the girder was backward but did not mention any other problems, investigators said, which was in line with department policy not to interfere with contractors’ work and rack up costly delays and change orders.
“There has been a lot of finger-pointing and passing the buck” following the accident, NTSB member Kitty Higgins said. What happened “is borderline criminal negligence … and that is just stunning.”
The NTSB, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office determined the mistakes did not warrant criminal charges, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said that if supervisors at the site “believed there were any issues with safety, they would have notified someone.”
CDOT and the two companies paid the Posts’ families a combined $1.5 million in late 2004 – another $200,000 was to be contributed to charity – with the contractor and subcontractor absorbing most of the payment. The settlement, CDOT has said, was not an admission of liability and prevents any civil lawsuits against CDOT and the contractors.
“It was a tragic accident,” said Vernon Dugger, president of Arvada-based Ridge Erection, who declined to comment on specific details. “The suffering of the family far outweighs the suffering any of the companies have gone through.”
Officials from Asphalt Specialties in Henderson did not return calls requesting comment.
Because of the poor work, the investigators said, the girder was susceptible to road vibrations and wind.
At least one person called 911 to report the sagging girder May 15, but the operator misunderstood and told a CDOT crew that a sign was hanging improperly. And an hour before the accident, board members noted Wednesday, CDOT bridge-design manager Sharon Wilson noticed the same problem but failed to notify her bosses.
Stegman said Wilson is not at fault because she was at an on-ramp 500 feet away and wasn’t able to make a closer inspection. Reached Wednesday at work, Wilson declined to comment.
The girder rolled, pulled braces off the deck and dropped onto the Posts’ eastbound SUV.
Several months later, CDOT enacted reforms that mandate a project engineer’s involvement in girder erection and require detailed planning of girder placements, among other items.
The NTSB also made its own recommendations Wednesday, namely that CDOT should more actively monitor contractors’ and subcontractors’ work, that the department pre-qualify subcontractors, and that there should be uniform guidelines for bridge work nationwide.
Although its members applauded CDOT’s effort to correct mistakes after the collapse, the federal safety board said the changes do not absolve the state transportation department of responsibility.
“This,” Higgins said, “is an accident that did not have to happen.”
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or rsanchez@denverpost.com.
