Contractor of collapsed Miami bridge in bankruptcy filing

Image: Aerial view of the accident site soon after the bridge collapsed (Miami-Dade Police aviation unit via Twitter)

The contractor in charge of building the pedestrian bridge that collapsed in Miami nearly one year ago, killing six people, has filed for protection from creditors in a bankruptcy court.

Magnum Construction Management LLC (MCM, formerly Munilla Construction Management) is facing lawsuits and needs protection in order to restructure, meet its payroll, finish ongoing projects and stay in business.

• Contractors fined over deadly Miami bridge collapse

If protection is granted it will use debtor-in-possession financing from its sureties, worth $18m (13.7m), to reorganise and keep functioning, according to Global Construction Review. 

Six people in cars died when the just-installed pedestrian bridge over a busy road at Florida International University collapsed on 15 March 2018.

“The filing of the Chapter 11 Case is not an attempt to avoid any responsibility that might be assigned to the Company for the collapse of the bridge,” MCM said in a statement Friday, 2 March. “The Company intends to resolve those claims as part of the restructuring.”  

The filing is in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.

MCM formerly said it had a thousand-strong workforce, but documentation in the filing said the company’s payroll had 287 people on it.