ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997 TAG: 9703280102
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SPOKANE, WASH.
SOURCE: NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS ASSOCIATED PRESS
Among other factors, professor Ken Carper blames an emphasis on reducing construction time and costs that began in the 1970s for a series of collapses.
Ten years ago, a section of seats collapsed during renovation of the University of Washington's Husky Stadium. Now a professor from rival Washington State University is explaining why in a new book on construction failures.
The collapse of the addition to the stadium's north stands is one of 150 case studies in Ken Carper's ``Construction Failure.''
Understanding why structures fail is as important as understanding why they succeed, according to Carper, a WSU architecture professor.
``Fear is one of the most effective emotions in the creative process,'' he said in a recent interview.
But there are a lot of obstacles to open discussion of construction failures. People are reluctant to talk about their errors, and builders often face the threat of huge lawsuits, Carper said. Also, many failures occur on small projects that don't garner much attention.
Some notable failures included in Carper's book are the 1981 collapse of a Hyatt Regency Hotel skywalk in Kansas City in which 114 people were killed, the sinking of the Lacy V. Murrow Floating Bridge outside Seattle in 1990 and widespread building failures caused by earthquakes in San Francisco in 1989 and Los Angeles in 1994.
There is no comprehensive study on whether the rate of construction failures has increased in recent decades, but Carper said there is a perception in the industry that failures are up. He blames that on an emphasis on reducing construction time and costs that began in the 1970s.
``Society began to define the `best' project as the one that could be completed in the shortest possible time and for the least initial cost,'' he wrote.
At the same time, people wanted projects of more complexity and used new materials that might not perform as advertised over the long haul - factors that increased the potential risk, Carper wrote.
He is also critical of the increased use of computers in design work. ``Computers don't go to bed at night worrying about the mistakes they made during the day,'' Carper said.
Computers can process information quickly, but ``the designer may lose critical time for reflection as a result,'' he wrote.
The construction industry has no equivalent to the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency that investigates aircraft accidents, noted Glenn Bell, chief executive officer of the engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. in Arlington, Mass.
He praises Carper for seeking to fill the gap with The Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, which Carper established in 1987 to publish articles about why structures fail.
Carper brings social consciousness to engineering and architecture, said Pamalee Brady of the Army Corps of Engineers, a colleague in the field of forensic engineering.
``He is motivated by a deep commitment to ensuring public safety,'' Brady noted.
Carper believes the Husky Stadium collapse is a classic example of poor construction planning.
``The design was more than adequate,'' he said, but some cables used to temporarily stabilize the roofed, 20,000-seat addition were removed on Feb. 25, 1987, before permanent stabilizing structures were finished. As a result, the cantilevered roof and stands collapsed - folding to the ground like an accordion. No one was injured or killed.
The temporary lack of support is the most probable cause of the structural failure, Carper wrote. There was no indication of wind or seismic activity sufficient to be a factor, he said.
``Construction Failure'' is actually a second edition of a landmark book first written by the late Jacob Feld, a New York City engineer, 30 years ago. The book became an industry bible.
Carper spent six years updating the book, and 80 percent of the material is new, reflecting not only changes in building methods and technology, but changes in society and the world. In the past, designers of public buildings were not required to consider whether structures could withstand terrorist attacks, he said.
That issue became important in 1983, when the U.S. Marines barracks were bombed in Beirut, Lebanon. After that, the State Department required that its buildings in foreign countries be constructed so they would not collapse in the event of a bombing.
The issue was revisited in the United States after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and the Oklahoma City federal building bombing two years ago, Carper said. He served on a Federal Emergency Management Agency panel that studied the destroyed federal building.
The panel found that if the federal building had been built to the standards imposed in earthquake-prone areas - requiring such precautions as reinforced connections between building-support columns - the structural damage would have been far less, he said.
``Damage would have been 7 to 10 percent of what occurred there,'' Carper said. ``Damage would have been limited to two or three floors.''
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Ken Carper believes the Husky Stadiumby CNBcollapse at the University of Washington is a classic example of
poor construction planning.