Apartment Building Collapse 46

[dik]

"A six-story apartment complex partially collapsed Sunday evening in the city of Davenport, Iowa, authorities said. It was not immediately clear if there were any fatalities or how many people may be missing or trapped in the building.

Davenport Mayor Mike Matsen said there were "several people unaccounted for," but did not give a specific number or range.

The collapse happened shortly before 5 p.m. local time, Davenport fire chief Mike Carlsten said. The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/davenport-iowa-building-collapse/

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[SWComposites]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/29/us/davenport-iowa-building-collapse/index.html

 

[Sym P. le]

Who'd have guessed? That was proly good steel at one point.

 

[dragon6172]

Was probably good steel when it was built in 1906.

I grew up in Davenport. Spent many hours in the main library that is directly across Main St from this building.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Apparently they pulled at least one women from the building just hours before they were scheduled to start demolishing it, and they're still looking for a couple more people who are unaccounted for.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[TigerGuy]

Stories are conflicting on this. One article I read stated that the woman removed from the rubble was in the building when demolition started, but was conducting a pre-demolition survey. It sounds like people were still living in the building, as evidenced by the closet of clothing in the photo, and that the building spontaneously suffered a partial collapse.

Once again, different media sources running with whatever narrative they can until the real story is revealed.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Speaking of the partially collapsed apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, it seems that at least one new outlet is using images of this building in their stories about drones striking apartment buildings in Russia:

Look familiar...

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Luceid]

Wow. That's great

 

[JAE]

HA!

 

[kissymoose]

Here's a link from the city to a series of reports from a structural engineer:

https://www.davenportiowa.com/gover...ion/324_main_street_partial_building_collapse

Tenants had complaints earlier this year and the owner had a structural engineer come out back in February. He originally called out an 8ft x 4ft area of brick to be repaired, even specifying the means/methods and giving details with the report. As contractors began the work, they found more areas of concern, including large voids in the wall filled with debris pushing the facade wythe out, large 12ft x 6ft windows not infilled but just bricked over by facade, and evidence of some bearing issues around a big beam. Those reports include pictures, they're very helpful and I wonder how the public is allowed to see them.

 

[TugboatEng]

That's not the first time.

At least Newsmax didn't doctor the image so there is a chance of it being accidental unlike ABC's case.

https://www.military.com/off-duty/2...cky-gun-range-video-shows-syria-bombings.html

 

[hokie66]

JRB,
You 'forgot' to mention that MMFA is a leftist source. Not relevant in this case, but when a right wing source does the same thing, you are quick to announce.

 

[JohnRBaker]

But the 'news report' was seen on a Newsmax broadcast, hardly a "leftist source".

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[Jeff Ostroff]

Last night (Wednesday at 7 PM EDT) the City of Davenport unleashed a treasure trove of info similar to what Surfside did on their building department website.

Lots of violations, and photos 3 years before showing a building crying out for help. I just uploaded my root cause video based on before and after photos. So many parallels with the Davenport building collapse with the Champlain Towers south in terms of neglect and stupidity and going against engineers recommendations.

 

[TugboatEng]

Here is the wall 5 years ago.

It looks like some work happened here which is exactly where the failure occurred.

 

[dik]

You need to start charging the owners with criminal negligence causing death... else, they will never fix things.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[MintJulep]

"Structural reported issues ahead of building collapse"

https://abcnews.go.com/US/structura...head-iowa-building-collapse/story?id=99752114

As engineers our actions matter. Sometimes a report just doesn't cut it.

Compare going back to your office and writing a report vs. what the Michael Baker crew that found the crack in the Hernando de Soto bridge did. The Michael Baker crew called 911 and demanded that the police immediately stop traffic over the bridge.

https://wreg.com/news/frantic-911-calls-from-i-40-bridge-inspectors-reveal-seriousness-of-situation/

 

[phamENG]

There shouldn't be a difference between the situation on the bridge and an inspection of a building, but there absolutely is.

Note in the article that, even in that situation, the inspector that called 911 mentioned that they had already spoken to the DOT. So the first call was to the owner. I suspect there was a (brief) conversation there with an engineer (since the consultant's POC was likely a DOT engineer) and the decision was quickly made to shut down traffic. SO you had an inspector speaking to, perhaps not a technical peer, but likely not a layman either making a decision to disrupt a lot of people on their commute. Also, most bridge structures are pretty 'straight forward'. By that I mean: most of the primary members are in view and available for inspection. A failure is often fairly obvious to an inspector, and there are limited 'alternative load paths' as there are in many buildings. So this kind of a call, while not easy, is in many cases easier than in a building with a degraded masonry veneer wall and some questionable structural modifications.

Looking at a building: unless the building belongs to a government agency, the owner will almost never be an engineer, architect, or anyone associated with this industry. They will be a developer, a lawyer, a professional landlord, or whatever. When faced with a similar situation, they'll be looking at it from this standpoint: this building has been standing here for 100 years; some engineer is telling me it's in danger of collapse; surely it won't happen right away; I'll start looking for money to make the repairs; etc. If the engineer calls 911, now everyone in that building has to evacuate. Where do they go? Where do they stay? Who pays for that? The owner will find another engineer who will say "nah, it wasn't that bad" and they'll sue the first engineer for damages for unnecessarily having their building vacated. If the building is large enough, that could put the engineer out of business. If the owner chooses to be proactive and vacate the building, then they face the prospect of having to repair the building while the building is sitting empty, generating no revenue. That could put the landlord out of business.

I'm not condoning any of this behavior - the safety of the occupants and users of the structures we design and inspect must come first. But we all know that we don't live in a perfect world, and there is a definite financial incentive to "not be too hasty" in these situations. Not sure how to fix that. Legal protections for engineers that call for building evacuations? They don't need to be right, they just need to be acting within the standard of care. If the data available to them would suggest to the typical engineer practicing in the area that the issue represents an existential threat to the building, they're in the clear. Additional staffing for the building department and require all building assessments to be sent there for review and follow up? That sounds just a tad overbearing.

 

[JLNJ]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...permit-incorrectly-marked-as-fail/ar-AA1bZRkO

It looks like the mason pretty much had it right.

As Pham notes, no one wants to be the one who says that the Emperor has no clothes. Or be the one who cries "wolf". Pick your fable.

 

[bones206]

If you watch the security footage of the collapse, you can see that some shoring props had been installed at the point of failure:

https://www.kwqc.com/2023/06/02/tv6...lly-collapsed-apartment-buildings-background/