Tallahassee businesses review lawsuit over FIU Bridge collapse

After a U.S. district judge rejected an initial version, a group of Tallahassee companies and their owner filed a revised lawsuit that could see them banned from working on federally funded projects because of their ties to an engineering firm that designed a collapsed Florida International University pedestrian bridge.

The amended lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Tallahassee, alleges that the Federal Highway Administration violated a law known as the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to make a timely decision on whether to prevent the companies from working on federally funded projects.

The lawsuit was filed in March by nine companies and their owner, Linda Figg. The companies are affiliated with FIGG Bridge Engineers, Inc., which designed the Miami-Dade County pedestrian bridge that collapsed in 2018, crushing cars and killing five motorists and one construction worker.

FIGG Bridge Engineers was blocked in 2021 from working on federally funded projects until 2029. The revised lawsuit said the federal agency notified Figg and its affiliated companies in September 2023 of a proposal to keep them off federally funded projects, or what’s known as “debarment.”

Figg and its affiliates filed a response on Nov. 13, and the lawsuit said the federal agency must make a decision within 45 days.

“Plaintiffs are adversely affected by Defendants’ failure to act or unreasonable delay in announcing a decision regarding plaintiffs’ exclusion,” the revised lawsuit says. Judge Allen Winsor dismissed the first version of the case on July 10, but left open the possibility that plaintiffs could revise it.