[Pearls Before Swine]

On that bridge, if the tension was lost, it’s a flat out f’n emergency. Like I said, it would have the support strength of a roll of coins if the tension was lost. I wonder if that is what they were checking, although they called it “a test.” If it was, they were checking for a major failure, because I bet it was well known that absent the tensioning, the bridge would fail under its own wait.

[PA Engineer]

For your reference: Diversity Fail? All-Women Engineering Team Blamed for Collapse of Miami Pedestrian Bridge

Sen. Marco Rubio, who lives a few miles from FIU, rushed to the scene of the collapse and shared insider information that the cables were “being tightened” before the bridge collapsed.

[Rome2000]

I’ve built several 25 story and up post tension highrises

The cables or tendons are very different than bridge suspension cables and serve a different purpose.

The tendons in a post tension slab are there to reduce the amount of reinforcing steel necessary. They are pulled tight after the concrete in the slab has reached a specified strength, usually 75% of the 28 day design strength.

I’m thinking they were tensoning cables, not doing a “stress test” whatever the hell that is, because we never did them, or were required to.

If they were pulling cables that could mean the concrete slab was not even up to full strength.