I am not yet convinced that the designers were at not at fault though. I've encountered several significant failures caused by both well known and obscure designers. A PE really doesn't mean that much to me and a university professor even less. In addition, I am always suspicious of design and equipment type by an engineer that has a financial interest in the equipment or technique. Often enough, I have found their recommendations to be biased to the harm of the owner. Full independence is best IMHO.
This was already a weird situation to me in that the street below was apparently open to traffic before testing had even been completed and worse still traffic was going under the bridge while testing was being performed. Weird.
” I’m always suspicious of falsified materials specification items as well.”
An apartment collapsed in Mexico (?) a few years back.
Beach sand was substituted in the mix.
Beach sand has sea salt that eats rebar; quickly.
Very fatal.