A large number of precast bridge beams were replaced during construction of the Herb Gray Parkway in Windsor, ON in 2013 because tack welds had been used,
I have found that the MEP contractors normally do not comb through the structural drawings and specs looking for items like this. It would be better if the MEP consultants could also cover this in their drawings and specs. Regarding slabs, it is standard practice to place conduit directly on top...
There is a pedestrian bridge over the airport parkway in Ottawa, ON that was originally designed as a cable-stayed bridge, but the designers called for pipes instead. The use of pipes was heavily criticized, the designers were fired, and the new design used cables. This happened about 6 years ago.
Empirical design often does not meet the requirements of an engineered design. There have been many examples, but one of my favourites is the empirical design of unreinforced masonry walls subject to out-of-plane wind loads. I used to design school gymnasium walls in Canada that were almost 20'...
I would remove existing bricks and build in the anchors using bricks and mortar to help get a good bond to existing wall. I would also provide at least 6" bearing onto the wall for glulam beams.
Yes, you should be concerned about lateral stability. There may not be enough shear walls to resist a wind that is perpendicular to the old party walls.
See ASTM 2751-17 Standard Practice for Design and Performance of Supported Laminated Glass Walkways. I doubt people will use a glass walkway that has a high probability of cracking even if there is no danger of collapse.
If the retaining wall is reinforced on the earth face, you can check the spacing of the earth face rebars and footing dowels in the wall and the top bars in the footing using a pachometer. If there were no shop drawings, you can chip in at one or more locations in wall and footing to verify the...
This is covered in Table 9.23.13.8 of current OBC (available on line at no cost). The table requires 8-3" nails with rafters and ceiling joists at 16" centers and a maximum span of 9.8 m. Your span is greater than that so the connection has to be engineered. Good luck.
This guardrail requires 3 posts, so the span is 6'. The requirement is that the guardrail and posts resist a point load of 6 kips applied anywhere along the length of the guardrail and at a certain height. It appears this guardrail/post arrangement is meant for forklifts. Many North American...
Hoshang, why are you looking for solutions when you have not done the investigation yet? As I said, I am not willing to consider any solutions until the investigation is complete. For all I know, there may not be a problem. Perhaps you should consult with a senior structural engineer who can...
You have to analyze the mat first with the specified loads. If there is a problem, you could easily run the mat analysis again with changes in partition loads and see if it helps significantly. There are other options as well, but I would not want to consider any until I had done all I had...
These old empirically derived requirements in our masonry codes are a nuisance, but they are based on years of experience. The concern in this case is the differential movement that can occur between the brick veneer resting at grade and the steel stud backup resting on each floor as well as the...
