Transcript Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse Engineering Failure

HYATT REGENCY HOTEL
WALKWAYS COLLAPSE
ENGINEERING FAILURE
By: Julee Christianson,
Mike Cruz, and
Katie Nolan
WHERE: KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
DATE: JULY 17, 1981
3rd Floor Walkway Still Intact
Outline
 The Hotel and the Incident
 The Causes and the Problems
 Controversy and Conclusion
 References
PEOPLE INVOLVED



The owner - Crown Center Redevelopment
Corporation
The fabricator - Havens Steel Company
The engineering design team - G.C.E. International,
Inc.
-Professional Consulting Firm of Structural Engineers
-Previously known as Jack D. Gillum & Associates, Ltd.
Main People involved in the Design – The Principals
Jack D. Gillum, P.E. - structural engineering state licensed since
February 26, 1968
Daniel M. Duncan, P.E. - structural engineering state licensed
since February 27, 1979
WHO AGREED TO WHAT?



Crown entered into a standard contract with G.C.E.
International, Inc. on April 4, 1978
G.C.E. agreed to provide, "all structural engineering
services for a 750-room hotel projected located at 2345
McGee Street, Kansas City, Missouri.”
In December 1978, Eldridge Construction Company,
the general contractor on the Hyatt project, entered
into a subcontract with Havens Steel Company
Professional Fabricator, who agreed to fabricate and
erect the atrium steel for the Hyatt project.
Hotel Features
The hotel had a grand lobby which featured a
multistory atrium crossed by three concrete
walkways on the second, third and fourth floors
 The hotel advertised to have many parties and
events

Tea-Dance Party Leads to Disaster
A party was held in the lobby
 Over 2,000 people were in attendance
 People crowded the walkways and the lobby below
to watch the dance competition
 The excess weight caused the fourth floor
walkway to fall onto the second floor walkway and
both walkways collapsed onto the crowded first
floor
 The collapse left 114 dead and more than 200
injured
 This was the United States’ most devastating
structural failure of the time

THE CAUSE
 The
reason for the collapse was
determined to be in the engineering
design for the suspended walkways
 The
original box beam design (which
was not actually used) did not meet
the requirements of the Kansas City
building code
 However,
the design that was used
was even less safe than the original
Original Design
The 2nd and 4th floor walkways were
originally supposed to be suspended
from the same rod and held in place
by nuts
Modified Design (was
used)
The fabricator had modified the
design to use two hanging rods and
the engineers approved the change
without checking it
On a preliminary design a note was made that the hanging rods needed to have
strength of 413 MPa, but that note was left out on the final design and so the
fabricator used hanger rods with only 248 MPa of strength
Design Problems



Havens proposed the modified design to
simplify the assembly task and to eliminate the
need to thread the entire length of the rods
However, the change in the design doubled the
stress put forth on the nut which was under the
fourth floor beam and with the change the nut
had to support the weight of two walkways
instead of just one
“The ultimate capacity actually available
using the original connection detail would
have been approximately 60% of that
expected of a connection designed in
accordance with AISC Specifications”
according to the National Building Specifications
FAILURE – WHAT WENT WRONG?

The box beams resting on the supporting rod nuts
and washers were deformed because of the stress
that was exerted on them

The box beam resting on the nuts and washers on
the rods could no longer hold up the load.

The box beams (and walkways) separated from
the ceiling rods

The second and fourth floor walkways fell to the
atrium first floor with the fourth floor walkway
coming to rest on top of the second
THE HANGER ROD THREADS, WASHER AND SUPPORTING
NUT
NOTE: THE DEFORMATION IN THE WASHER CAUSED THE BEAM
TO SLIP
CLOSE-UPS OF SOME OF
THE 4TH FLOOR BEAMS
INTERESTING FINDINGS


On October 14, 1979, part of the atrium roof collapsed
while the hotel was under construction
On October 16, 1979, G.C.E.'s Gillum wrote the owner,
stating that he was undertaking both an atrium
collapse investigation as well as a thorough design
check of all the members comprising the atrium roof.
G.C.E. promised to check all steel connections in the
structures, not just those found in the roof

Reports were sent to the owner assuring the overall
safety of the entire atrium

Seeing that G.C.E. said the atrium was safe, the hotel
was opened in July 1980

The Hotel had only been in operation for about one
year at the time of the collapse
CONTROVERSY
 After
the change in the design, the
Havens Steel Company claims that they
informed G.C.E. International Inc. of the
alteration, but the engineering firm
denies ever receiving such a call for
change approval
 However,
Jack D. Gillum’s seal of
approval was attached to the revised
design drawings
ENGINEERING ETHICS
 Daniel
M. Duncan, Jack D. Gillum, and
G.C.E. International, Inc., were charged by
the Missouri Board of Architects,
Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
of gross negligence, incompetence,
misconduct and unprofessional conduct
in the practice of engineering in connection
with their performance of engineering
services in the design and construction of the
Hyatt Regency Hotel…and later they were
found guilty
IN CONCLUSION

The two structural engineers lost their
Professional Engineering licenses and are
no longer able to practice in the states of
Missouri and Texas

Both are now practicing in other states

A number of firms were bankrupt

Many expensive legal suits were settled out
of court
REFERENCES
Harris Jr., Charles E., Michael S. Pritchard, and Michael J. Rabins. Engineering Ethics.
Wadsworth, 1995.
“Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse.” Engineering.com. 13 Nov 2007.
<http://www.engineering.com/ Library/
ArticlesPage/tabid/85/PageID/199/ArticleID/175/articleType/ArticleView/Defau
lt.aspx>.
Martin, Rachel. “Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse.” 26 Nov 2007.
<http://www.eng.uab.edu/cee/faculty/ndelatte/case_studies_project/Hyatt%20
Regency/hyatt.htm>.
Texas A&M University. “Engineering Ethics”. 27 Nov 2007. <http://ethics.tamu.edu/ethics/
hyatt/hyatt1.htm>.