Campus Alert Archive
Wake Tech

Concrete Pour Triggers Two-Day Bridge Collapse Chain at Wake Tech Northern Campus

NCinfrastructure failureadvisorymedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On November 13, 2014, at approximately 10:30 AM EST, a 200-foot pedestrian bridge under construction at Wake Technical Community College's Northern Wake Campus collapsed during a concrete pour, killing Jose Luis Rosales-Nava and injuring four other workers. A second bridge under construction on the same campus collapsed overnight on November 14 with no injuries, prompting area-wide campus closures and OSHA investigation.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
1
Injured
4
Institution
Wake Technical Community College
Community College · NC
~74,000 students
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTUnknown
Approximate reconstruction254 chars
Emergency personnel are responding to a bridge collapse at the Wake Tech Northern Wake Campus on Success Way. Construction workers are injured and trapped. Campus operations are continuing; please avoid the construction zone near the parking deck bridge.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The collapse occurred at 10:30 AM while workers from J.O. Concrete were actively pouring concrete on the metal deck of the bridge, which was designed to span a creek and wooded area connecting the parking deck on Success Way to nearby classroom buildings.
One section of the 200-foot bridge dropped as much as 40 feet to the ground; first responders had to extract workers from the rubble, with one later pronounced dead and four taken to WakeMed.
UPDATEUnknown
Approximate reconstruction283 chars
A second pedestrian bridge under construction at the Northern Wake Campus collapsed overnight on November 14. No injuries were reported. The area around both bridge construction sites remains closed. OSHA investigators are on site. Campus operations continue in unaffected buildings.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The second collapse on November 14 was not concurrent with active construction work -- it happened overnight -- so no workers were injured; the collapse was discovered in the morning.
Having two bridges collapse within 24 hours at the same campus triggered heightened scrutiny of whether any remaining structures were at risk, and the North Carolina Department of Labor opened a parallel investigation.
Context

Background

Wake Technical Community College's Northern Wake Campus in Raleigh was undergoing a major infrastructure expansion when concrete subcontractor J.O. Concrete began pouring on a 200-foot pedestrian bridge on November 13, 2014. WRAL reported that the bridge, which traversed a wooded creek corridor to connect a parking deck on Success Way with classroom buildings, gave way catastrophically at about 10:30 AM, dropping approximately 40 feet. Jose Luis Rosales-Nava, 42, was trapped under a board and did not survive; four colleagues were rushed to WakeMed. A second bridge under construction on the same campus collapsed the following night without injuries. The North Carolina Department of Labor investigation concluded that design flaws in the glulam girder notches -- oversized cuts that weakened the structural members -- caused both failures. OSHA's engineering investigation report was published in April 2015 and cited the disassembly/construction sequence and formwork support as contributing factors. The general contractor was fined; the case is cited in construction engineering curricula as a case study in temporary structure design requirements.
Analysis

Key Findings

First bridge collapsed at 10:30 AM EST on November 13, 2014 during an active concrete pour; one worker killed, four injured after falling up to 40 feet
A second bridge on the same campus collapsed overnight on November 14 with no injuries, creating a two-day emergency spanning two incidents
NC Department of Labor found design flaws in glulam girder notches caused both collapses; OSHA published a formal engineering investigation report
The incident became a widely cited construction safety case study illustrating failure modes in pedestrian bridges under construction
Outcome
Jose Luis Rosales-Nava, 42, a father of three, was killed. Four other workers were hospitalized at WakeMed. The North Carolina Department of Labor later attributed both collapses to design flaws in glulam girder notches. The general contractor was fined.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    One dead, four hurt in pedestrian bridge collapse at Wake Tech - WRAL
    wral.com
  2. News
    Second pedestrian bridge collapses at Wake Tech - ABC11
    abc11.com
  3. News
    North Carolina Department of Labor: Design flaws caused Wake Tech fatal bridge collapse - ABC11
    abc11.com
  4. Report
    OSHA Investigation of November 13 and 14, 2014 Collapses at Wake Technical Community College
    osha.gov
  5. News
    1 Killed, 4 Hurt In Bridge Collapse On Wake Tech Campus - WUNC
    wunc.org
Tags
constructionbridge-collapseconcrete-pourworker-fatalityformwork-failurecommunity-collegenorth-carolinaosha-investigationtwo-day-incident
Added June 2026Updated June 2026Via ingestion