Structurally deficient bridges: how safe are construction workers?

Just over two years ago, on 1 August 2007, during rush hour traffic, a span of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapsed, plunging vehicles and their occupants into the valley beneath. The event sparked great concern throughout the nation about the state of bridges across America, with reports surfacing saying that 6051 bridges on national highways in the US are considered structurally deficient.

Despite such calls for concern, little has been done to rectify the conditions of many of the bridges across the US and now, a new lawsuit in West Virginia has resulted in growing concerns for the safety of construction workers involved in works to both improve the existing bridges and build new ones and replacements.

In the case of the I-35W bridge, the replacement bridge opened just over a year after the accident, with no news of problems during the construction process; but in August 2007, an industrial accident in West Virginia killed a construction worker when a large concrete slab fell from above, crushing him.

While accidents like these are, for the large part, uncommon, this particular incident is now subject to a lawsuit that has been filed by a co-worker of the victim. He alleges to complaining to supervisors that the method they were using to lay the piece of concrete involved in the accident was "untenable and overly dangerous." But, he claims, those concerns went unheeded.

The worker alleges that a failure to prevent the collapse of the slab resulted in a deliberate exposure to an unsafe working condition. Since the incident took place, the company in charge of the construction work have already had to pay the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration $39,000 in fines and the case, scheduled for late

Now the case, which is scheduled for hearing later this month, is likely to address safety issues for construction workers in the future.

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