Dive Brief:

• An attorney acting on behalf of four construction workers killed or injured in a 2014 pedestrian bridge collapse has filed a lawsuit in Wake County, NC, seeking financial damages of more than $250,000, according to the News & Observer.
• One worker was killed and three others were injured while they were pouring concrete on the 140-foot-long bridge located on the Northern Wake Campus of Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh. The lawsuit names architecture and engineering firm Clark Nexsen and two of its employees, as well as Canadian laminated wood manufacturer Structurlam Products and one of its subsidiaries, as defendants.
• Occupational Safety and Health Division investigators from North Carolina’s Department of Labor determined that a design flaw related to the notches in the bridge’s glulam (glue laminated timber) girders caused the bridge to give way. The lawsuit claimed that “lead structural engineers” on the project ignored concerns regarding the “potential weaknesses of the notched-end connections.”

Dive Insight

Glulam is an engineered wood product that is becoming somewhat popular as a “green” alternative to structural steel, as is the similar cross-laminated timber (CLT). A potential boon for the wood industry, the American Wood Council said CLT is renewable, sustainable and cuts down on a building’s carbon footprint by storing carbon absorbed during a tree’s growing cycle. It’s worth noting that in the bridge collapse, the design is at issue, not the structural strength of glulam.
Often when a worker is killed or seriously injured on the job, a representative for them will step in and file a civil lawsuit against the owner contractor or other related parties. This is especially true if there are claims of safety issues on behalf of project officials.
For example, in February, a jury awarded $54 million to the family of a construction worker killed while demolishing concrete at the $540 million Texas A&M Kyle Field renovation in 2013. Angel Garcia, who was employed by Lindamood Demolition, was using a loader to catch demolished concrete when a large piece tipped the machinery, causing Garcia to fall four stories. The jury assigned 75% of the liability to general contractor Manhattan-Vaughn and 25% to Lindamood.
And in July, an injured worker’s representative sued several contractors working on the Atlanta Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium after the worker was hurt trying to move a 42-foot shoring tower. According to the lawsuit, Sonny Rogers, an employee of one of the project’s subcontractors, was permanently disabled because supervisors did not follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to properly move the tower. The suit asked for lost and future wages, $4 million for medical costs already incurred and a monetary award to cover future medical services.