Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse By Jordan Rodriguez Period

Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse By Jordan Rodriguez Period 3

Before the Disaster o Construction of the hotel began in 1978 at Kansas City Missouri and it was opened in 1980. One of the building’s main features was its atrium lobby (a multi-story open area with a roof). o Another feature of the hotel were the 3 suspended walkways which were like bridges across the lobby which 2 were above on one another with the 3 rd being off to the side.

The Disaster o On July 17 th 1981 about 2000 people were in the lobby watching a dance competition. o Dozens of people were packed into the overhead walkways. o During the initial building phase a subtle design changed 1 support beam that would have helped in supporting the walkways to 2 support beams that did not have proper construction.

The Disaster cont o This caused the walkways to have a extremely difficult time holding up its own weight let alone dozens of people. o A little while after 7: 50 PM the walkways collapsed and fell, killing a 114 people in the process and injuring over 200 others.

What could have been done o If the design had not been changed from a single beam to 2 bolted beams the walkways would have been able to support its own dead load plus its live load. o If the Dead load means a static structures own weight without anything like a house with nothing in it. o Live load means a dynamic load which includes live people, furniture and any other additions. Old Design New Design

Aftermath o In the aftermath the Board of Architects, Professional Engineers, and Land Surveyors removed the licenses of the architects and the firm that had designed the building. o Oh and a whole lot of people were sued.

Sources o http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_coll apse#Disaster o http: //images. search. yahoo. com/search/images/view? bac k=http%3 A%2 F%2 Fimages. search. yahoo. com%2 Fsearc h%2 Fimages%3 Fp%3 DHyatt%2 BRegency%2 B%2 Bwalk way%2 Bcollapse%26 ei%3 DUTF-8%26 fr%3 Dyfp-t 100%26 x%3 Dwrt&w=198&h=225&imgurl=antoine. frostbu rg. edu%2 Fphys%2 Finvention%2 Fcase_studies%2 Fdisas ters%2 Fimages%2 Fkc_walk_collapse. gif&rurl=http%3 A% 2 F%2 Fantoine. frostburg. edu%2 Fphys%2 Finvention%2 Fc ase_studies%2 Fdisasters%2 Fkansas_city_walkway. html &size=40 k. B&name=kc_walk_collapse. gif&p=Hyatt+Rege ncy++walkway+collapse&type=gif&no=2&tt=15&oid=c 7 dc ff 3 ad 9 a 30220&ei=UTF-8