Doesn't seem very concerned, does he? Why can't they do their QC and test the parts before installation. Disclaimer- I am no engineer.
I believe Kiewit (used to be Peter Kiewit & Sons) is the builder. They are also the ones making the pontoons for the new Lake Washington floating bridge, which are a mess. Leaking, rebar rusting, rebar mislocated or missing completely, and the state is making excuses for them and wasting our money, not to mention the safety of those who will be driving on this bridge.
You *never* buy 200+ 18' bolts without specifying their performance. Each bolt probably costs more than $10K, so it's a multi-million contract.
Here is the machine that you use for testing metals for strength. This is just a well instrumented hydraulic press, backward. Samples of special shape are made, and then the machine pulls on them, accurately recording the tension and the deformation. This gives you the stress–strain curve. Eventually the sample breaks.
Even if the company that made bolts doesn't have such a machine, it would be sheer insanity to buy a hundred tons of steel without sending a sample to an independent lab for these tests. You would want a chemical and a crystallographic analysis in addition to that. This is what the engineers did after the bolts failed; that's why they are telling us that the steel was wrong (not the right type, or the right type made incorrectly.)
Now the manufacturer of those bolts is going to lose their shirt on this deal. I'm sure their profit margin is not fat enough to cover redoing all bolts and still staying in black.
He is right in a sense- you build and you test.
Usually you end up confirming your design is OK, but occasionally you find an issue like this.
That is why you test.
This poster claims it is sheer insanity to spend millions of dollars on bolts and not QC them.