One, these types of inspections are not always carried out by people with the level of expertise you might assumed. In a lot of places, the base level qualifications of architects and engineers are significantly higher than those for plan reviewers and inspectors. Looking quickly, an FDOT Inspector II only needs a high school diploma (
Job Posting). That’s not to say there aren’t very good reviewers and inspectors out there, that they don’t learn their jobs and know what they are doing. But they do not have the same training and experience as a licensed structural engineer. Generally speaking, their knowledge and qualifications are not equal.
If an inspector goes to look at the monorail and sees an issue their intervention is not going to be based on their individual qualifications as a structural engineer. They’re going to follow guidelines, and as recent events have very clearly shown, that type of guidance absolutely can be manipulated.