TSA was given an assignment to determine the cause of a building collapse. The building was a new gymnasium addition to a high school, and the structural frame was being erected at the time of the collapse. Luckily, the worker nearest the collapse was able to jump from his man lift to avoid sustaining a direct hit from the collapsing structural steel.
TSA performed a typical collapse investigation, which includes review of eyewitness accounts of the collapse, review of patterns of distress, review of available drawings, review of weather data, and analysis of the structural system to determine likely causes of the distress.
The biggest challenge with any collapse investigation is separating the initial distress that relates to the cause of the collapse and consequential damage that is the result of the collapse. It may seem counterintuitive, but the areas with the most distress are often not associated with the initial collapse.
After performing the investigation, TSA was able to narrow down the location where the collapse began to a relatively small portion of the structure and was able to identify construction defects that likely caused the collapse.
