DATE: Tuesday, May 20, 1997                 TAG: 9705200367

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVID REED, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                   LENGTH:   53 lines

'94 U.VA. INSPECTION MISSED CORRODED ROD

An inspection of a University of Virginia veranda three years ago missed corrosion that weakened an iron support rod hidden within the structure's sturdy wooden frame, officials said Monday.

The 176-year-old hanging balcony outside a faculty house collapsed during graduation ceremonies Sunday when the corroded portion of the rod snapped, killing one commencement spectator and injuring 18.

``Our sense is that the concealed portion of the rod deteriorated and simply broke,'' said James Murray Howard, the curator and architect for the original campus designed by Thomas Jefferson.

``There was nothing indicating serious structural damage that we could see,'' Howard said during a news conference outside the building.

The university is hiring an outside consultant to determine what caused the collapse, and the state Department of Risk Management also will investigate the accident, university relations director Louise Dudley said.

The university closed the balconies of faculty apartments overlooking the historic central lawn immediately after the collapse Sunday. Workers will place wooden support beams under the six hanging balconies to provide additional support while the structures are examined.

The wood and the iron rod were part of the original building, completed in 1821, as part of a courtyard of buildings that comprised what Jefferson, the university's founder, called an ``academical village.''

The iron rod, about one inch in diameter, penetrated a lateral wooden support beam about three inches thick and eight inches deep. It was anchored by a large iron nut.

``The part that snapped was within an area you couldn't see even if you had taken the surrounding wood facing away,'' Howard said.

Matthias Kayhoe, a professor of architecture who was involved in the apartment building's restoration in the 1980s, speculated that water may have penetrated the wood and caused the iron rod to corrode.

``It could have been a fairly recent phenomenon,'' Kayhoe said.

The balcony sat behind large white columns and was sheltered beneath an overhanging roof from which the vertical iron rods were suspended.

The two-story apartment was renovated from 1986 to 1988, and the balcony that collapsed was not replaced because it did not appear to need significant repairs, Howard said.

In 1987, the university reinforced the portion of the balcony that attaches to the apartment's red-brick wall, Howard said.

There was no indication then or during the Sept. 29, 1994, inspection that the obscured portion of the support rod that snapped Sunday was corroding. The wooden beams, made of heart pine, were ``still just as solid as a rock,'' Howard said.

Three people managed to get off the span before it fell. The others plunged about 14 feet onto a brick walkway below.

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