re: Part of the new Hard Rock Hotel collapses (NOLA) 3 dead, Cranes Down-ish

The dumpster at best was secondary. New info is that the decking supports were 30 feet across, but people in the know are saying that generally you have supports every ten feet. Concrete weights
Weighs 4,000 pounds a square yard a thirty by thirty space would have 10 squares or 40,000 pounds of weight without support.

Sounds like cost cutting will be the number one culprit.

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Found another pic of building in New Orleans. 30' by 30' span, concrete poured & not one fill beam. A yard of concrete weighs over 4000 pounds. Decking manufacturer says no more than 7 to 10 feet without support. In my 36yrs of Ironwork, I never saw a span of more than 10' without support. This was a sh$t job from the start!! What a shame!

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Project lead architect was a LSU architecture school grad.

This is a stupid FB repost. The concrete wasn't "unsupported", it was poured into a corrugated steel deck pan. I believe they are called orthotropic, but I'm not an engineer.

Open spans require increasingly large members to support them as the span increases, but that's not to say they're unsafe.

Concrete varies in weight depending on the predicted compressive strength and admixtures. When poured, the weight can greatly vary per sqft or per sqyd depending on the slab thickness.

In summation, I'd be highly suspect of shite posted on FB.

Oh, there's no doubt that something went wrong. I'm just as curious as you are to find out. I just think if there were concrete slabs sagging and/or structural steel deformation for days or weeks beforehand, somebody with some sense would've raised a red flag.

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All of y’all are dumb if you think this is not covered by insurance.

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All depends on how big of an umbrella/excess policy the GC and probably a few key sub-contractors have. My guess is they don't have enough to cover the full financial impact. As other have said earlier, this GC is done for good

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When do GC’s not do this?

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On a project this size the developer/owner is usually driving the cost cutting. It depends on how much risk the GC is willing to take to meet those demands... in this case its not looking like a good decision.

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there's no doubt that something went wrong. I'm just as curious as you are to find out. I just think if there were concrete slabs sagging and/or structural steel deformation for days or weeks beforehand, somebody with some sense would've raised a red flag.

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One would think, right? But a poster here just moments after the fall said his son saw bowing the night before without elaborating on what exactly that meant

Someone seeing some deflection less than 12 hours before the collapse is not the same thing as construction workers saying that 30' open spans are unsafe and seeing 3" deep birdbaths in the floor slabs for days or weeks prior to the collapse.

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On a project this size the developer/owner is usually driving the cost cutting. It depends on how much risk the GC is willing to take to meet those demands... in this case its not looking like a good decision.

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Value Engineering is one thing but Engineers have building codes and factors of safety that overrule (or should) cost cutting measures.

The fact that this structure collapsed even when the vast majority of the loads were absent points to a deficient structure with little redundancy. If the design is found to be deficient the person whose stamp is on those Structural drawings is in hot water.

Keep in mind there were still hundreds of tons of framing, exterior finishes, mechanical equipment, wiring, glass, sheetrock, carpet, furnishings, etc. not even in the building yet.