Engineers say steel cables failed in pedestrian bridge, unsure why

Jenna Fryer

Monday, May 22, 2000 | 9:37 a.m.

CONCORD, N.C. - Transportation engineers discovered corroded steel cables in the rubble of a pedestrian bridge that collapsed as fans carrying coolers and grills walked to their cars after a race at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

More than 100 people were treated for injuries after falling 17 feet to the highway at the close of the NASCAR Winston stock car race Saturday night. About half of them remained hospitalized early today; two in critical condition.

Although the corrosion of the steel bands may have been caused by moisture, exactly why the walkway collapsed remained unclear.

"It could be a material problem, or it could be a construction problem, maybe structural fatigue," said Don Goins, a state transportation engineer. "We just have to look at that, and we don't know the answer yet."

The NASCAR all-star race was winding down at about 11:15 p.m. Saturday when two loud cracks were heard above the murmur of the crowd crossing the pedestrian bridge from the speedway to parking lots.

Piercing screams filled the humid night air as dozens of people tumbled onto U.S. Highway 29 when an 80-foot section of the 320-foot bridge snapped in half.

"The bottom fell out from everybody," said Roger Dunham, 43, of Concord, who remained hospitalized today for a back injury. "I wanted to help people who were hurt a lot worse than I was, but I couldn't do much. All I could do was hold this guy's head who was bleeding."

Medics already working the race were able to reach the accident quickly and treat the injured. A total of 107 people received medical treatment, said track spokesman Jerry Gappens.

The collapsed bridge section, still connected to the intact bridge parts, was slumped in a V-shape in the middle of the closed highway. The wreckage blocking the highway was removed Sunday night. There were no vehicles on the road at the time of the collapse.

Don Idol, an assistant engineer with the state Department of Transportation, said steel bands in the concrete-and-steel bridge failed. Exposed in the rubble, the steel showed signs of corrosion, probably caused by moisture, he said.

Idol said he also saw several 3-foot deep cracks - each as small as 1/16th of an inch wide - underneath three spans in the failed bridge section that did not crumble.

"Cracks would have been a flag for us," Idol told The Charlotte Observer in today's editions.

William Lowndes, chief executive officer of Tindall Corp. of Spartanburg, S.C., the walkway builder, told The News & Observer of Raleigh that the critical components were a pair of prefabricated structures called "double Ts." They are long and girder-like, made of steel-reinforced concrete. He said the company never had experienced a double-T failure.

"They don't just fail like that," he said. "There had to be something else that happened, like some sort of structural damage." Track officials said they knew of no incidents of any vehicle striking the underside of the walkway.

The $1 million walkway was built in 1995 for pedestrian traffic. It was inspected when it first opened, but no one Sunday could say whether it had been since. The speedway owns the walkway; state-owned bridges must be inspected every two years.

The walkway, and another one 500 yards away, carried thousands of fans over the four-lane highway to parking lots.

Track officials estimate that 180,000 people attended Saturday night's NASCAR race. Other events there have drawn more than 200,000 spectators.

State engineers had recommended to speedway president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler that the track use concrete sections stronger than the those that were installed but still met building code standards, the Observer reported.

"If we were designing that bridge, we would have designed it for a little heavier load," said Benton Payne, a state transportation engineer.

Gappens, track spokesman, said he was unaware of those recommendations.

Tragedy has struck the speedway before, including last May, when three spectators were killed by a tire that was sent spinning into the stands after a crash. A lawsuit filed by the victims' families was settled this month for an undisclosed amount.

The next race scheduled at the speedway is Sunday's Coca-Cola 600. Qualifying races start Wednesday.

"This is the worst thing you go through, when spectators get hurt," Wheeler said. "But we are not concerned about the safety of this place, because I feel it's very safe."