Hard Rock Hotel under construction in New Orleans collapses... 119

[JohnRBaker]

Hard Rock Hotel collapses on Canal Street in New Orleans

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/arti...DwCgDD-RYlMhsuwfjXd7MLksOijlUTLj5BRHmgMrPCYv4

And a video showing the damage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6A4PRsJRc&feature=youtu.be

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[stookeyfpe]

Images from NOLA

https://www.nola.com/multimedia/photos/collection_ba89561c-ed02-11e9-8934-378c4f7317af.html#8

 

[dold]

Raw youtube vid of the collapse under-way from JRB's first link.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_LxF8IjH3s[/url]
Taken from the north on Rampart st, looking south.

Maps has a nice capture of the site under construction.

 

[RFreund]

Wow, obviously not good. Really pulling for the worker on the scaffold (on the southwest elevation (yellow side) about 3 floors up from the podium (white) level).

Video seems to start a little after the collapse starts.

EIT

http://www.HowToEngineer.com

 

[msquared48]

Never have been a proponent of PT flat slab construction. Too many things can go wrong that can lead to what you see here due to the lack of redundancy, if nothing else.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[JohnRBaker]

There are fatalities:

New Orleans Hotel Collapse Leaves 1 Dead, 3 Missing

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hard-rock-hotel-new-orleans-collapse_n_5da20c9fe4b087efdbaf35aa

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

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

 

[Jerehmy]

If you watch the beginning over and over, it looks like the top two slabs deflect a column line or two in from the edge. The edge of the top slab rotates and is pulled back. Looks like those slabs failed in flexure first.

That one crane in the background tilts forward as if it was resting load on the slab and the slab just gave way.

 

[hokie66]

The images linked by stookyfpe show steel framing, steel form deck, etc. Not PT flat slab at the levels which collapsed. It looks like the transfer floor is intact.

 

[Tomfh]

Jeremy,

The video is the final stage of the failure. Most of that side of the building had already collapsed. What we see here appears to be the last few dominos to fall.

 

[JAE]

Another video just posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbO2z5GA4r0

 

[dold]

Yes, this is well underway when the video starts. Certainly looks like just the steel frame falls. I think the PT level we see in google maps is the top transfer level. Look how thick the slab is right at 115 seconds

Check out the rubble. Here's some drone footage.

RFreund, click on that link again, the worker is now blurred. I noticed him too when I first saw it.

 

[Ingenuity]

Never have been a proponent of PT flat slab construction. Too many things can go wrong that can lead to what you see here due to the lack of redundancy, if nothing else.

Purely based upon photographs, I think the PT deck (transfer level and those below it) fared considerably better than the structural steel with metal deck-slab.

Lower levels with PT:

Upper level with structural steel + metal deck:

 

[RFreund]

@dold - dang, not a good sign. I thought he could have snuck in that window.

EIT

http://www.HowToEngineer.com

 

[structuralengr89]

Check out the steel framing and deck orientation in the cantilever...where those small canti tubes supposed to hold the floor up? The shoring appears to fail, but this appears to be some weird, inadequate framing

 

[Spartan5]

That is going to be a mess to clean up.

The video is curious. It was shot by hand and started while the collapse was in progress. So it had started several seconds earlier and that person was super quick to the draw or it was just a strange coincidence. I'd be interested to hear more about why he started recording.

RIP to the departed.

 

[3DDave]

There was one recording started by a guy in the construction industry who claimed to have heard from a block away the sound of something hitting the ground, he thought glass, near the construction site. I assume he's heard a similar noise before, so he stopped his car and started to look for the source while recording. This is the one that catches the steel frame chasing 4 or 5 workers as they flee across the street.

 

[msquared48]

Ingenuity...

The podium slab protected the thinner slabs below.

My opinion has not changed.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[hokie66]

Mike,
You are entitled to your opinion about flat plates, but your comment was misplaced here. This collapse would seem to have nothing to do with the concrete construction at and below the podium level.

 

[dold]

Here you go, Spartan.

https://youtu.be/SDjXHVOZQ9s?t=5590

 

[msquared48]

Hokie. You are right. Vent over...

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)