Parking garage collapses at Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside 1

[hpaircraft]

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local...-at-ascension-st-vincents-riverside-hospital/

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The top floor of a three-story parking garage at Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside on King Street partially collapsed Tuesday afternoon, damaging multiple cars and leaving others precariously tilted on the edge of the collapse.

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Chief Keith Powers said during a 4 p.m. news conference there was “some kind of structural failure” in the parking garage around 12:15 p.m., but it wasn’t immediately clear what caused it.

Best Reddit comment:

"Florida and shitty concrete work. Name a more iconic duo"

 

[thebard3]

Holy cow! That beam closest to the camera is being held up by the railing.

Brad Waybright

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, it appears that the cable 'railing' is all that's holding it up:

And it appears that the failure may have involved that beam separating away from the columns, and while it's not all that clear, it would appear, as indicated by those cables, that the beam broke loose on both ends. That's when the one edge of the floor fell onto the level below.

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

 

[JohnRBaker]

I also can't help but ask whether that beam, which appears to span an entrance to a lower level of the garage, has ever been struck by a high vehicle, like a box truck or something?

Any word on how old this structure is?

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

 

[TugboatEng]

It certainly appears as if the beam was dislodged.

 

[hokie66]

Precast parking decks. The connections are rarely done well. I won't park in one. We get a couple of these reports each year.

 

[Red Corona]

It isn't clear how that beam is even supposed to be attached to the columns, to prevent it falling outwards as it appears to have done.

 

[Sym P. le]

Oh!! And more...

firstcoastnews.com

Not the first time: St. Vincent's parking garage contractor involved in two previous garage collapses

 

[Sym P. le]

... appears to span an entrance

The exit marking in the photo is on an upper level so the support beam was not likely hit by an over height vehicle. See my previous post.

Google Street View

More video at news4jax.com

 

[hokie66]

The earlier one by the same builder was reported in an earlier thread here, but no further information ensued. There are altogether too many structural failures which don't get reported properly, and the industry just repeats the same dumb stuff over and over.

thread815-473826

 

[bones206]

I was going to make a dad joke about a post tensioned beam, but I'll refrain

 

[3DDave]

The best argument for not being recently hit is the lack of a squashed vehicle. It's possible this is the lowest clearance and it certainly appears to have been pushed out at the base as the initiating event. All the ties to the deck appear attached to the outer beam and matching notches appear in the deck edge.

Points for the design taking the hit from the upper level collapse and not continuing to fail.

 

[Sym P. le]

There could be a number of issues. The T beams seem thin, the tops and bottoms are both broken from buckling and impact, and there is scant rebar or embeds tying things together. It looks like a thin shell tacked together. What possibly could go wrong?

 

[3DDave]

Notice that the border beam on the far side was prevented from moving inward off the columns by the t-beams where on the failed side the t-beams tend to force the border beam off the columns.

 

[Sym P. le]

So if the T's broke mid span, they would torque the beam off the column support.

 

[kissymoose]

I am shocked that the second level withstood the impact.

 

[waross]

I wonder if there may have been prior damage done by a car hitting the center cable post.
That may have set the stage for a later failure.
Or possibly a car did hit the post and the car was removed from the wreckage before the photo was taken.
If it was me and the car was still drivable, I would be tempted to try to drive away.

--------------------
Ohm's law
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It's the LAW!