Hyatt Regency Hotel Kansas Collapse Group 3 John Norris Johnny Clarke Simon Jones Brían Cooney

Background 114 People killed & 200+ Injured Erected July 1980, one year later----- DISASTER! On Friday evening 17 th July 1981 at a dance contest two footbridges contained in the multi-storey atrium tragically failed The disaster has been attributed to a late change in the design. An act ominously feared by engineers At the time of collapse this catastrophe was the worst recorded in the US

Technical Analysis of Failure The two walkways were suspended from a set of tie rods, the 2 nd floor walkway was hanging directly under the 4 th floor walkway Walkways were intended to be supported by 3 crossbeams suspended from 3 steel rods. The 3 rods were supposed to run all the way from the 2 nd floor to ceiling passing through the 4 th floor walkway. The steel company indicated a design change requirement- the proposed threaded rods were to be substituted with two rods and the 2 nd floor walkway would now be supported by the 4 th floor box beam Calculations for the new design were not carried out by the engineers and the new design was illegally implemented without proper analysis of its structural integrity

The Design Change The original design was to have the threaded rods running through the beam on the second and third level walkways as shown in diagram on right. Due to the aesthetics of having threads all along the rods, the steel company decided to use shorter separated rods and join them as shown on left.

What went wrong?? Load on the beams on the forth floor was doubled due to the rods being shorter The new design could barely handle the dead load weight of the structure itself and with the imposed load of all the spectators added- the box beam crumbled The nut and washer at the end of the beams tore through the beam causing the walkways to collapse The picture shows the beam where the rod tore through it

The Consequences 114 people were killed and more than 200 injured The engineers that signed off the design lost their licences in both Missouri and Texas $140 million was paid in compensation to the families of the victims 1000s of people were affected by the negligence of a small company of engineers

Conclusions This atrocity shows the importance that the proper construction codes and ethics are adhered to strictly Engineers have a duty to carry out their jobs in a professional way. Incompetent actions can have huge ramifications on large amounts of people