03-16-2018, 03:34 PM
mikebw wrote:
[quote=lost in space]
[quote=mikebw]
[quote=Acer]
I'm reminded of that The Hyatt Regency Skywalk Collapse in 1981. The contractor requested a change that seemed innocuous, the engineer said "whatevs" without running the numbers, and 114 people died in a blink. My office pool bet says something similar happened here. We'll see.
I read about that in an engineering book years ago. Tragic.
Was that the one where the change put a concentrated load on an upright, which then took all the weight instead of it being distributed across several uprights? Or something like that?
Also, I'm astounded to think that the bridge essentially couldn't support its own weight, considering how little pedestrians using it could have weighed in comparison to the structure itself.
Better explanations out there, but basically the load from two walkways was supposed to be carried through the same continuous piece of metal secured to the ceiling, but they built it such that the lower walkway was instead secured to the frame of the upper walkway which was not designed to carry that weight.
That's the gist of it.