Balcony collapsed ...

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iwire

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wow..looks like it could be overload the max. load the balcony can support...

13 people fell and 5 of them died...

 
wow..looks like it could be overload the max. load the balcony can support...

13 people fell and 5 of them died...
The-Dude.gif


 
This is right near UC Berkeley too - literally walking distance away. As much as we try to design with redundancies, there is no way to say, "let's design this small balcony for 13 full grown adults." I saw the news article this morning and I was saddened to read about a tragedy happening a mere 15 minute drive away.

This is also eerily similar to the stage collapse that happened at a high school:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/us/indiana-school-stage-collapse/

 
Holy crap...it ripped a 2 foot radius of the wall out with it when it collapsed, too. Somebody probably should have figured that holding a balcony on with stucco wasn't a good idea.

 
Holy crap...it ripped a 2 foot radius of the wall out with it when it collapsed, too. Somebody probably should have figured that holding a balcony on with stucco wasn't a good idea.
Wonder Ibc or California building code live load requirement is? Still 13 people at 2300 lb is a lot weight to carry
 
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This is right near UC Berkeley too - literally walking distance away. As much as we try to design with redundancies, there is no way to say, "let's design this small balcony for 13 full grown adults." I saw the news article this morning and I was saddened to read about a tragedy happening a mere 15 minute drive away.

This is also eerily similar to the stage collapse that happened at a high school:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/us/indiana-school-stage-collapse/




Especially when you have to account for people standing/sitting on the rails, which was implied from the news cast IMO.

 
Per the CBC, a minimum live load of 100 psf is to be used.

For you non-structural people, think of it this way: add up the dead + live loads and look at what type of stresses (or forces) you are seeing. Now at this loading the structure is to be less than some allowable loading. (No LRFD, I'm trying to keep it simple.)

Clearly it was overloaded.

The whole thing is pretty sad.

 
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I couldn't figure out why my first PE boss did everything but structural work. He said, "When you make mistakes with structural stuff, it's always in the news."

 
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I couldn't figure out why my first PE boss did everything but structural work. He said, "When you make mistakes with structural stuff, it's always in the news."
exactly...similar case, earth quake in New Zealand back in 2012, CTV building collapsed and killed like 115 people and it is deem badly designed and should not be approved

 

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