In this episode, we head to Boston.

The 'Big Dig' was a road and tunnel construction project designed to solve Boston's congestion problems. With the final project cost exceeding $14 billion USD, this megaproject took 20 years to complete. It involved constructing 25 km of highway lanes, 8 km of tunnel, 16 interchanges and 200 bridges.

But on the 10th of July 2006, at 11:01 pm, a section of the I-90 tunnel collapsed unexpectedly, with tragic results.

So what happened? Why did it take six years to collapse? And how could one of the most costly and complex public infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the US have failed so catastrophically?

This episode follows the National Transportation Safety Board as they answer these questions, and shares insights into how such an investigation is conducted.

In this episode, we head to Boston.
The 'Big Dig' was a road and tunnel construction project designed to solve Boston's congestion problems. With the final project cost exceeding $14 billion USD, this megaproject took 20 years to complete. It involved constructing 25 km of highway lanes, 8 km of tunnel, 16 interchanges and 200 bridges.
But on the 10th of July 2006, at 11:01 pm, a section of the I-90 tunnel collapsed unexpectedly, with tragic results.
So what happened? Why did it take six years to collapse? And how could one of the most costly and complex public infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the US have failed so catastrophically?
This episode follows the National Transportation Safety Board as they answer these questions, and shares insights into how such an investigation is conducted.

A show about engineering failures and disasters. We examine the technical, human and organisational causes of failure, and explore why our decision-making is not nearly as rational as we’d like to think.

A show about engineering failures and disasters. We examine the technical, human and organisational causes of failure, and explore why our decision-making is not nearly as rational as we&rsquo;d like to think.

Brady Heywood Podcast

BHP - Brady Heywood Podcast

The I-90 Tunnel Collapse

As you can tell by the title of this episode this isn’t a normal episode of The Brady Heywood Podcast. In today’s episode we introduce you to a new show that we’ve been working on called Simplifying Complexity, a podcast all about complexity science.

Simplifying Complexity is all about understanding the underlying principles that govern how systems work; systems as diverse as economies, ecologies, cities and countries. In each episode, we'll meet with the experts, and learn everything from how economies can go boom or bust, to how the Medicis wielded power in Venice in the 1400s, and why large animals live longer than small animals. And above all, we'll learn about the principles that tie all of these things together. 

In the Brady Heywood Podcast, you learnt how things failed, from a technical standpoint, and an organisational standpoint. Simplifying Complexity takes us one step further, to understand how systems work, and just as importantly, how they fail. If you're interested, we've included a teaser of episode one of Simplifying Complexity, where we're joined by David Krakauer from the Santa Fe Institute, who's going to introduce us to the basics and the history of complexity science.



Connect:
Simplifying Complexity on Apple Podcasts
Simplifying Complexity on Spotify
Simplifying Complexity on Twitter
Sean Brady on Twitter
Sean Brady on LinkedIn
Brady Heywood website

As you can tell by the title of this episode this isn’t a normal episode of The Brady Heywood Podcast. In today’s episode we introduce you to a new show that we’ve been working on called Simplifying Complexity, a podcast all about complexity science.
Simplifying Complexity is all about understanding the underlying principles that govern how systems work; systems as diverse as economies, ecologies, cities and countries. In each episode, we'll meet with the experts, and learn everything from how economies can go boom or bust, to how the Medicis wielded power in Venice in the 1400s, and why large animals live longer than small animals. And above all, we'll learn about the principles that tie all of these things together. 
In the Brady Heywood Podcast, you learnt how things failed, from a technical standpoint, and an organisational standpoint. Simplifying Complexity takes us one step further, to understand how systems work, and just as importantly, how they fail. If you're interested, we've included a teaser of episode one of Simplifying Complexity, where we're joined by David Krakauer from the Santa Fe Institute, who's going to introduce us to the basics and the history of complexity science.
 
Connect:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/id1651582236">Simplifying Complexity on Apple Podcasts</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3SfqApqNW3wNXcg2E7etij">Simplifying Complexity on Spotify</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://twitter.com/BHComplexity">Simplifying Complexity on Twitter</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://twitter.com/BradyHeywood">Sean Brady on Twitter</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-brady-11a95427/">Sean Brady on LinkedIn</a></li>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.bradyheywood.com.au/">Brady Heywood website</a></li>
</ul>

Introducing 'Simplifying Complexity'

In today's episode, we bring to a close our three-part series on the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Miami, Florida, in 2018.

In part one, you heard about the cracks in the bridge and how nothing was done about them. And in part two, you heard about the serious errors that were made in the bridge's design.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into two unanswered questions from this failure: just why did everyone ignore the cracks in the bridge; and why did a rigorous checking process not identify the errors in the bridge's design?

In today's episode, we bring to a close our three-part series on the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Miami, Florida, in 2018.
In part one, you heard about the cracks in the bridge and how nothing was done about them. And in part two, you heard about the serious errors that were made in the bridge's design.
In this episode, we take a deep dive into two unanswered questions from this failure: just why did everyone ignore the cracks in the bridge; and why did a rigorous checking process not identify the errors in the bridge's design?

Miami Bridge Failure - Part 3

Today's episode is the second of a three-part series on the 2018 collapse of the International University Pedestrian Bridge in Miami, Florida.

In our last episode, you heard how a pedestrian bridge under construction at the Florida International University collapsed in 2018 and killed six people. While many things came together to cause the collapse of this structure, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified some serious errors in the design of the bridge.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into these serious design errors as we attempt to understand why this tragedy occurred.



Resources and links:
NTSB Illustrated Digest on the collapse

Today's episode is the second of a three-part series on the 2018 collapse of the International University Pedestrian Bridge in Miami, Florida.
In our last episode, you heard how a pedestrian bridge under construction at the Florida International University collapsed in 2018 and killed six people. While many things came together to cause the collapse of this structure, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified some serious errors in the design of the bridge.
In this episode, we take a deep dive into these serious design errors as we attempt to understand why this tragedy occurred.
 
Resources and links:
<ul>
<li aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.bradyheywood.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NTSB-Illustrated-Digest.pdf">NTSB Illustrated Digest on the collapse</a></li>
</ul>

The I-90 Tunnel Collapse

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