Davenport Iowa | partial apartment collapse analysis
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2023
- In this video we analyze the new information on this tragic collapse and the clear criminal negligence. We take a close look at the video of the collapse and fotos of to poor state of the collapsed wall released by the city. Included are my animations of the collapse.
The Davenport Apartments at 324 Main St, in Davenport, IA collapsed on May 28, 2023.
Three residents died in this collapse. Branden Colvin, Ryan Hitchcock and 60-year-old Daniel Prien. Nine were recued.
The apartment building is owned by Andrew Wold.
Thanks to Randy Heggen for use of his drone footage. • Building collapse Dave... - Věda a technologie
I lived in that building on the 6th floor from April 1997 to October 1998. My unit was on the opposite side of the collapse but even back then it was not uncommon to find water dripping from the ceilings out in the hallways especially on the side of the building which collapsed.
You should have a MILLION SUBSCRIBERS, not just 31K. The quality and depth of your knowledge and presentation is phenomenal. Thank you! 🙂
Thanks... Working on it! 😁
@@Mike-Bell You're welcome Mike! If you're looking for topics, would love to get your perspective on the leaning Millennium tower in San Francisco. That just made the news again. Sounds like they thought they fixed it, but it keeps leaning more and more.
@@paulrybarczyk5013 hi Paul. I appreciate topic ideas. But my typical video take long so I have only so many opportunities in a year. The leaning Millenium tower involves technical aspects outside my knowledge base and I don’t want to risk talking nonsense 🤣.
But it is a very interesting problem.
A couple of things to note. The engineer that inspected the building put a recommendation (or a requirement, you'll have to read the inspection report) for needle beams and a minimum of 6" x 6" boards. The contractor who was doing the work is owned by Andrew Wold (the owner of the building).
Can it be that the city ordered the demolition of the building so quickly after the collapse in an attempt to minimize the finding of more negligence by the city officials?
No. That order was probably issued quickly to keep him from attempting "repairs".
Notice it says "demolition will commence upon securing a contractor". Qualified demolition contractors aren't going to show up the next day and start knocking down walls - they study the building and plan the demolition.
VERY POOR communications from the mayor.
@@lazygardens But isn't the city capable to prevent the owner to do anything to the building before the investigation of the collapse is over?
@@doblove That's what that demolition order does - keeps the owner from doing anything.
All he could do is go to court and try to get the order removed, because no contractor will work on a building with a demolition order unless they are the demolition company with a signed contract.
The city will hire the demolition contractor and bill the owner for the cost. After the investigation.
@@lazygardens Oh, Ok. Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.
@DOB Love the evidence is plain to see and they can’t hide from it. I think it’s more of a case that the city wants the headache to go away.
I can't stress enough, as you mentioned: this avoidable tragedy was a result of ignoring structural deficiencies and nothing to do with aesthetics. The building dept for the town is most liable in my opinion because a "resigned" inspector signed off on the bracing a day before the collapse. Next is the current owner for refusing the proper fix. Third in line is the fraud of a previous owner recently selling the building as certified safe. My heart goes out to all those directly affected... "Ask not for whom the bell tolls".
I live on the east coast and we have lots of older builds that do not collapse. Age is not the problem.... it's the lack of maintenance and greed of owners and lack of city inspections. I am not a fan of lawsuits BUT sue the lot of them.
That was a fair assessment. Well done. The City tried ( and thankfully failed ) to demolish the building which would have made it nearly impossible for investigators to get at the true cause - talk about burying the evidence? And what about the Fire Department? Why was their first search not thorough? Questions need to be asked there. NIST ought to be involved. All the defendants-to-be are now scurrying furiously to pass the buck for responsibility. There is something rotten in Davenport.
Thanks so much for covering this. Lived in this area my whole life, mom works a couple blocks down. Theres been enough outrage about this locally that hopefully the owner and any others potentially responsible will be held properly accountable. Only seeing my city in the news for things like this breaks my heart, but hopefully the international attention will mean justice is served.
I hope justice is served. Those with money too often get a legal pass.
This is fascinating. Your presentation is on point. My condolences to the people who lost their lives and all of the people that are now without a home. So many missed opportunities to prevent this tragedy.
Phenomenal video! The illustrations with overlays are great & very helpful. Thank you for creating the video!
You're very welcome!
We live in the age of enlightenment. Building owners are enlightened to the fact that it's cheaper to pay off inspectors than to make repairs. I hope you were all enlightened by this comment.
😂
If this was in China, it would be called Tofu-dreg building repair.
4:10 Love your animations. Between your channel and a couple other ones, I can get a lot of good information.
The distinction between the brick facade and the bricks that were the actual structure of the building is the key to understanding this collapse. A facade brick falling is not too serious, but when the facade is being pushed out by the structural brick you have a serious situation. The bracing used was only trying to hold the facade. The most telling part of your video is at 4:10 where you can see a hole near the bottom right that is the actual support column missing.
The facade bricks were never a decorative veneer. They were originally tied to the inside bricks..when it was built, the entire thickness of the wall was structural. When the outside brick wythe was allowed to separate from the inside brick wythes, the wall was weakened and allowed to deteriorate.
You mean they could have retrofitted a steel skeleton just inside the outer wall to take the load off the bricks? I’m surprised they didn’t do that decades ago. Having it half supported by steel and half by brick seems unorthodox.
@@MoneyManHolmes The brick walls of the building were never half supported by steel. Instead the brick walls had pockets that supported one end of the steel beams that supported the floors. The other end was supported by steel columns in the core of the building. Mike’s animation shows this accurately.
He didn’t show up to his court hearing today either. He’s hiding in protective custody and needs to pay for this. Not only did Davenport lose a historical building, but 3 died, many injured, and everyone that lived there is now homeless and lost everything. Local businesses around the building are forced to close and need compensation for that. Another historic building across the street also managed by one of this scumlord’s llc’s was evacuated this week because of structural issues. It’s extremely sad because all of this could’ve been prevented for 50000 yet the multi Millionaire scumlord was too cheap to pay to have it done correctly
Great video!. You covered many aspects of the story and paid respect for the victims. Thank you!
Look I get taking a conservative approach to declaring a building unsafe and ordering an evacuation. But back in Fire School we were taught a few basics to use for making a quick judgement. 1. are all of the lines on the building still straight and square? Are windows still square? Still lined up? Any obvious bulges or distortions of the outer presumed load bearing walls? 2. Is anything falling off the building? 3. Are any large visible deformities noticeable in the outer walls of facade? Cracks? Or large ripples in a distinct pattern or covering a large area. If these are yes, get the people out and get somebody to wake up the building inspectors.
I agree. Common sense is an undervalued thing. It works great and doesn’t cost a cent.
Unfortunately, common sense isn't common enough.
Very sad. Thank you for sharing
This building is only 3-4 miles away from me, and is in the city I grew up in. It is heartbreaking to all of us here that three people lost their lives (and one woman rescued by amputating one of her legs) due to the neglect of one man. It was a preventable tragedy.
The city is a responsible as he is. The fire department was called out and checked the building the day before and chose not to evacuate.
I lived in the Mississippi from 1999 to 2004, and in 2004 when everyone was forced to move out of the Mississippi, almost moved into The Davenport. I'm thankful now I didn't.
This is the neglect of more than one man. He has owned the building for a relatively short period of time. This has been going on for a long time. Even a commentor above mentioned this neglect was going on since 1997-1998. My question in all of this is that it has been mentioned that this building was listed on a historical register. What impact did this have on the building not being repaired correctly or not torn down completely long ago? There are so many people that protest when someone wants to tear down a historic building but then get outraged when something like this happens. I have lived in this area all my life until about eighteen months ago and have been in the businesses on the first floor of this building. Unfortunately Davenport is full of these buildings that are nothing but ticking time bombs.
I was going so say let's not forget poor Peach who was trapped and had to have an onsite amputation to be freed from the collapse
@@pjaypender1009 But there was this letter shown in this video here to evacuate the building from February 27, 2023 onwards? I think this was valid until the collapse.
I live in a similar woefully-maintained building, also in Iowa, about 100 miles from Davenport. The landlord could be the twin of Mike Wold, in both appearance and property management philosophy.
Mike Bell - wish you could come here and give this place a once over. Your jaw would drop to the ground.
Fortunately even though crumbling buildings are too common, collapses are very rare. This is probably partly why this landlord was so cavalier because he had seen lots of dodgy construction that always stayed up.
I live in this community. Thank you for your reporting
Great recap and calm, but precise and honest conclusions. I don't even want to know how many other buildings all around the world are being neglected the same way and are right now at the edge of collapsing ... Thanks for putting this together!
You don't let roof water run down the back wall for years, 2nd when fixing this you don't undermine the beams...
Well done Mike. There should be criminal charges but we dont put the rich in jail
Thanks. It looks like the good people of the world need a revolution to change the current system because it’s pretty broken. Wouldn’t it be nice to actually have the rich got jail.
@@Mike-Bell It's like a repeat of the Gilded Age. "Steal a loaf of bread, they make you a prisoner, steal a railroad and they make you a Senator."
partially the problem of being poor and no choice but choose cheap housing. I have lived in squalor conditions before due to finances. Thankfully in the DC area they tore down a bunch of these type of buildings. Bad thing is now cant afford to live there anymore.
@@mrj-charles6383 That's happened all over Minneapolis and St. Paul. They'll renovate the old buildings, kick out the current residents and sell them as condos. One rotten slum building where I lived is now in a chic neighborhood where I could never afford to live. Ain't that sick?
As with most property owners, profit over proper maintenance. Greed is rearing it's ugly head pretty commonly in this era we are in.
Reaganomics. The government is the problem. Building codes are an assault on liberty. Private profit, socialized risk.
that is an incorrect statement.
Your voice is so relaxed and calming. Definitely I wish you have more subscribers. Have a good time.
Thanks for the effort you put in for this content
Glad you enjoy it!
Thank you for the detailed analysis. We won't get anything like this to be released by the city. They're in full coverup mode.
Wow, this was such an in depth study. 10/10
I have watched many videos regarding the Surfside, FL condo collapse, and now this Davenport, IA, apartment collapse, and your discussion of what most likely happened to cause both of these tragic events is the best, simplest, and are the easiest to understand. Subscribed.
Regarding a few of the comments that I have read, not all the "rich" are evil, but it sounds probable that the guy who owned this building needs to be charged with criminal negligence and if convicted should be put in prison pursuant to the law.
Sounds also like the city officials of Davenport should have a lot to answer also.
An LLC owned the building (and still does)... not a guy
Correct, and technically anyone who goes after this in court will actually be going after the LLC, protecting the owner or owners from being held personally responsible for debts and liabilities.
This was the best analysis i have seen on this..good job
First time seeing a pic of owner. For some reason I thought of him much older.
Same.
Excellent job explaining what happened in terms that everyone can understand. This owner was negligent in his stewardship of this building and will hopefully face all legal ramifications.
Clear, informative.
Glad you think so!
One of the best explanations I have seen. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent video, Mike. I appreciate the quality and extent of your research, the use of fast forward and reverse to clarify the nature of the collapse, and the animation that clarified the sequence of failure. This is a criminal situation on so many levels. The residents and workers were all at terrible risk, and some paid with their lives. The City of Davenport failed to protect the people, and the property owner was criminally irresponsible. I hope they show this video at the upcoming trials.
I believe the collapse was caused by the movement of the support wall away from the center of the building over many years which resulted in the floor pulling away from the "2 inch lip" as described in the original plan which was intended to carry the weight of the floor. The entirety of the weight of the free floating floor was then borne by the beams that had already begun pulling from their pockets. Over time, the beams continued to withdraw from the pockets as the bearing wall continued to move away from the center of the building.
I think if you look at the photos in the document titled "Nuisance Abatement 23-6454" at times 2/9/2023, 03:39:12 PM and 2/10/2023, 12:12:41 PM, you will see evidence of the free floating floor and also that the beams have pulled four to five inches out of their pockets. At the time the photos were taken, the building was set to collapse.
Instead of the floor pulling out of the wall, I believe the wall pulled away from the floor
What makes you think the outer brick was a non structural “veneer” or “facade”?
Loads relocate to the strongest points, not the weakest, duh
Duh, the mayor wanted the evidence destroyed
These clues were not hidden. they were in plain sight on an exposed wall that anybody could see. Where did you get such a notion?
I understand paint was also detrimental to the bricks. Thanks for this explanation. I wish it could be used in court against Andrew Wold.
Well explained. You make easy for us lay folk to understand
Hey, Mike. This has got to be the best structural integrity report I have seen. Thank you. From Cape Town.
Mr. Bell - again, thank you for your analysis and conclusions concerning the building collapse. It was a masterclass. I have learned many new things from this video and your other videos on other disasters.
Thanks for this overview.
Glad it was helpful!
This needs more attention.
It’s outrageous that the city allowed that building to be occupied!….Criminal!
Right on. Thanks for sharing.
Not "sunbaked clay bricks"! They would be lower quality bricks, lower firing temperature, and not glazed and fired for water resistance like the bricks on the outmost layer.
Thank you so much
Thanks. Keep watching 😀
This is an excellent and understandable presentation.
I really enjoyed your analysis!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Criminal negligence and 3 cases of involuntary manslaughter, should be the minimum he gets charged with
Another ironic fact is that the City Hall is across the street and you can see the building that collapsed from the windows of the inspectors office😅😮
You are brilliant! You truly should be at millions of subscribers, and I don't doubt you WILL get there. Your exacting and informative approach is extremely impressive sir.
So I lived in this building from April 2020-May 2022. A few notes. The first month living there was fine until something happened with the property management team leading to none of my maintenance requests being answered for the rest of the duration of me living there. The apartment floors became so dirty due to no cleaners or maintenance team that there is zero chance it could've passed an inspection. The locks on the door were failing leading to criminals coming in and stealing packages and pissing on the floors and elevator. This all lead to roaches of course. Every email I sent was unanswered so I just stopped paying rent and broke my lease.
In June 2021 the building changed to ownership to Andrew Wold. That may explain the lack of response.
@@Mike-Bell That makes sense
Appreciate your work in illustrating this building structural failure. Wonder if they had scanned the building with a laser it would have shown the outer wall was out of plumb?
They did have a drone monitoring building motion with Lidar after the collapse. I assume the found the structure was stable and then sent in the rescue crews.
@@Mike-Bell - FEMA sponsored Heavy Search and Rescue teams are equipped with that gear to help keep team members safe.
Hey William
I don’t think that wall was out of plumb in any significant way. The rest of the building seems very solid steel frame and that stiff frame was keeping the wall in line. But parts of the wall had settled by perhaps 2 or 3 inches. I can’t comprehend how engineers did not see that. Even architects would know it was really bad.
@Just Looking I don’t agree. I have been carefully looked at/ scrutinised buildings over a 35 yr career and have a keen eye for out of plumb. It is one thing I don’t think this building suffered from.
I live in this area - if you find the owner (he's fled) send him back for trial!!
Excellent video
This video was more helpful than other channels' hour+ wastes of time. Cheers :)
Glad to hear that!
Great video, and thanks for showing the owner, who might as well have committed murder. Amazing that just a bit of misdirected water over the years rotted those load bearing bricks out.
I lived on 3rd and brady, which is only blocks away. Wow, i drove past this heap daily for a full year. On that note, my apartment constantly had leaks and it was one of the most expensive apartments in the city of Davenport. Sad to hear about my old city on such terms. Davenport is a very old construction city, very beautiful.
Thank you for giving a face to the POS owner. I can now envision someone responsible - a lay some worthy wishes upon him!!!!!
I also find it helpful to put a face to something. He will probably welcome protective custody right now because there are many angry people.
The city official's need to held responsible as well as owner. So many infrastructures failures and parties responsible skate out of it. Draw the line now before its too late
Thank you.
You're welcome!
Gravity always wins.
Think about how you'd try to support a falling person: You'd grab them under the arms and lift. The last thing you'd do is take a sledge-hammer to their ankles. This failure is an example of "progressive collapse". It was utterly preventable. The cracked and peeling facebrick was screaming "THE STRUCTUAL WALL HOLDING ME UP IS FAILING!!!!
EVACUATE THE BUILDING!!!
RIGHT NOW!!!!"
I'm a licensed architect in California. I have an architecture degree from Cal Poly Pomona. I taught architectural design, structural engineering, construction materials and methods, and codes and law at various technical and design colleges for 15 years. This incident is outrageous! In Californa, architects have the authority to "red tag" unsafe buildings. I would have immediately done so if I'd encountered this on the job - after calling the police, fire, and building deparments to notify them of the danger it presented to occupants.
Progressive collapse occurrs when the failure of part of a small part of a structure causes a larger part of the structure to fail. It can happen suddenly or it can happen slowly. In this case, it happened very slowly, over decades as the structural masonry behind the facebrick deteriorated due to water intrusion, then suddenly after contractors neglegently demolished face-bricking from the bottom up. Over the years, repeated freeze-thaw cycles slowly rotted the structural masonty during the winter and spring months. It was only a matter of time before the uninsulated, unreinforced, stupidly tall, double wyth brick masonry wall would catastrophically fail without proper renovation.
All it takes is a hairline crack in the face-brick or a small leak in roof or window flashing to start the process. Plumbing leaks can do the same thing, but I don't know if there were mechanical services in the wall. Another video showed what appears to be a mechanical chase / stack mid-wall so that's another possible source of moisture intrusion.
That wall rotted from the inside out. By the time the face-brick started peeling off, the load bearing wall behind it had ALREADY FAILED.
That is the key point.
The bearing wall failed structurally decades ago, with the loads it carried shifting to the floors and face-brick it was designed to carry. Whenever windows and doorframes start twisting and racking in a building, rest assured, some sort of structual failure has occured and/or is in progress.
Always. Even if it's just due to differential settlement of the footings in a brand new building. The structure is moving, and rule number one in structural engineering of (conventional) buildings is that they are not supposed to MOVE. At all. Especially in the vertical plane. It's very basic. The bearing wall was no longer able to support the floor and roof loads it carried, and it was COLLASPSING in SLOW MOTION. For decades if Google Street images are correct. The loads it carried then shifted to the building's "skin" - the face bricks, and the non load bearing floors and cielings inside the aparments, causing them to rack and slope as the wall that supported them started pulling them down as it fell.
The first contractor understood this, and wisely refused the job because the owner refused to pay for proper shoring to stabilizethe structure. A lesser contractor took the job, didn't use structural shoring, and started banging away at at the BASE of the wall with a sledgehammer, where loads are highest. Here's a tip: Work from the TOP DOWN to safely asesses the structural integrity of any suspect building. Remediate problems / provide additional shoring as the work progresses DOWNWARD.
Again, this is BASIC. you can teach a child (or a slow witted adult contractor) this principal by building a multi-story card house, and then pulling a bottom card out. House go BOOM!
That building was / is a death trap owned by a degenerate landlord who hired a cut-rate, incompetent contractor trying to save money. The city knew the structure was unsafe, but failed to enforce it's evacuation order.
3 innocent people lost their lives as a result.
Such a shame.
That was an excellent summary and demonstration of what happened. It’s clear the owner and the authorities will have to face up to 3 deaths.
Outstanding anaylysis and visual presentation of an utterly preventable tradgety. The building owner is guilty of multiple manslauter at the very least if not 3rd degree murders ( deaths that occurred as part of the comission of another crime - ignoring evacuation orders / proper construction shoring orders)
I'm a licensed architect in California, and I was an architecture professor for many years as well. I taught structural engineering, construction materials and methods, codes and law, and a host of other subjects related to building safely and effciently.
This video reduced me to tears. "Predicting" this collapse isn't / wasn't the issue. RECOGNIZING that the wall was in the PROCESS of collapsing and that it had been apparently been collapsing for decades prior to catastrophic failure is the issue. Pleanty of blame to go around, but most of it falls on the owner for failing to make proper repairs, and the City for failing to condem and evacuate the building a long time ago. The contractor hired to do the cosmetic work bears some responsibility for failing to stabilize the rotten brickwork uncovered by his demolition of the face brick. I'll do another post above about the role I believe the face-brick demolition played in the collapse above.
Best video on this subject.
Based on the design, it looks like this failure was contained in that area only. The rest of the building unaffected and could be repaired. Seems like it may have been CYA for the city. I would suspect their insurance carrier could be nervous right now.
Failure yes but who knows what structural issues may be hiding elsewhere covered up because obviously prior owners didn't care for the building properly. The core may well be solid but the outer walls on the whole perimeter should probably be treated as suspect until cleared.
Did the owner know or understand how the buildings structure worked?
The same brick appeared to be used throughout the entire back wall. Only a fraction of that wall collapsed. It appears to me that large windows were removed at some point on the bottom floor in the section that collapsed causing failure of integrity in that area of the wall. I would wager that the majority of complaints came from that one section of the building. There is no excuse on the part of the city or the owner in allowing this failure to occur. Attempting demolition smells like attempted cover up!
I just can't understand why those 2x4's didn't hold up that brick.
😂
Great job.
Thanks!
A quality drone video with 360 degree object avoidance might be useful to investigate the interior of an unstable building.
The engineer who inspected this building should have his license pulled and then he should be taken to criminal court and prosecuted. The owner of this building should be sitting in jail and prosecuted for reckless homicide.
Sue the hell out all of them
I love how relaxing your voice/ accent it, is it South African? Also thank you for the informative videos
Yes, it is and thanks 😁
I was wondering the same thing. My grandfather was South African (before gaining US citizenship in the late 50’s or early 60’s, and he passed away a dozen years ago) and he sounded so very similar - tone, accent, rhythm, etc.
The owner of this building has a ton of properties in the Davenport area. My neighbors own a bar and he wont repair the leaking ceiling and air conditioner. Knew the dude was a cheapster a long time ago.
Subscribed! How does the city demolish this building in a safe manner? The city stated that the building continues to shift.
Good job.
Thanks!
The owner should go to jail for a very long time. Shame on him 😢
At one point (maybe 1999), the building was condemned. I suspect it wasn't repaired. It was bandaged and painted.
Source?
The example of shoring at 4:14 looks impressive but it appears to be invasive with the bore holes for the steel beams. I wonder if just the act of shoring would have compromised the building and brought it down sooner if they had done that. .
Shoring is partly an art because you inevitably weaken the structure in the process. The approach varies for each case. The guys who have been doing this taught by grandad are very good at it and know the tricks.
@@Mike-Bell
Thanks for the kind answer. I can see it's not a job for the low-bidders. I would imagine the opposite scenario could be possible. Where a building could appear to be in good condition but structurally deficient or compromised that wouldn't be directly observable. Not sure if that's possible.
I Think You NAILED IT... 😎😎😎😎😎
I used my grandads hammer 🔨 😂
Looks like the library across the street will finally get adequate parking.
At 1:56 you can extremely clearly see that AC unit or whatever sinking.
Property owners will usually do this, because of warped incentives created by extreme private ownership. We need good public policy and governmental institutions to ensure that they can’t and aren’t incentivized to just throw paint over signs of serious structural distress.
It's the result of the bipartisan acceptance of Reaganomics, and of a deliberate plan for the corporate take-over of the government.
They claim to be Christian but worship the Market Fairy.
Eff off commie. Government will make a difference? Government easily blame the victims.
Creating more government after a government failure is the definition of insanity.
Corruption in government would simply ignore the new regulation when paid to, then use the new laws to hound law abiding citizens.
@@matthewmosier8439 The issue is the power of wealth and the profit motive. "Government failure" happens, no doubt, look at our foreign policy. Failure as much a matter of the power of wealth as anything.
You make assumptions, not statements of fact. "Corruption in government would simply ignore the new regulation " makes little sense grammatically as well as whatever "fact" it's supposed to represent. It's the corrupted people in government who ignore existing regulation. That does not happen often. Sometime it does, and usually it's the result of people not wanting to "hound law abiding citizens." Like the incompetent contractor or profit driven owner.
People died. Had those "law abiding citizens" been hounded more those lives would not have been lost.
The statement about the Surfside collapse doesn't hold up. Please review the videos by "Building Integrity".
this is my biggest fear
Crumbling buildings are common but fortunately collapses are very rare. But your sanity is important. Best to live in single story if you can.
@@Mike-Bell i live in a 3 story apartment complex and im on the bottom floor....ha
@@isaT not to my knowledge but however there is cracking in the stucco along the walls outside my building, also 3rd floor railing is falling off...
i loved the part when the building said "its building time" and buildinged all over the place
Brand new buildings require proper maintenance. As a matter fact, they usually require more maintenance because they made out of materials that aren’t intended to last more than 20 or 30 years at the most.
Yikes that true. 😬
Seems that there are so many obvious signs i.e. Red Flags from your excellent Descriptive video... and from the Contractor who turned down the job after the owner looked at his higher bid, that would have included probably very Court worthy evidence that would greatly help with inditing the owner for involuntary manslaughter ❓️
And the fact the other Contractor warned workers away from the site. I believe the day it happened.
I see this as a murder trial and a civil trial❓️
I think the letter to vacate the building was clearly meaning the whole building, as no floor or apartment was mentioned, but the address of the building. I think the city did the right thing here.
The penalty fee though was 20 $ per day occupancy after vacation date?
This building had 84 apartments, lets say the rent is 500 $ per month per apartment, this is 42 000 $ per month, 1400 $ per day. Of cause you need to subtract maintenance etc., but 20 $ per day is a joke.
Not only is there a lot of people that need to go to jail, we need to have every penny taken away from and given to these people that were that building
More RED paint and cowbell a needed..
These days of widespread incompetence everyone has to be his own engineer, it seems.
IMO - owner was like…they are lucky to have anyplace to live they could be living on the street again. Pure arrogance.
Exactly. Obscene!
Wow I hope the owner goes to prison
Using 2x4s to prop up a 5 stories wall is like duct taping a crack on a road, utterly meaningless.
Oh the lawsuits are coming
Sun baked clay brick??!??!? Ain't NO WAY. Those brick most certainly where kiln fired.
Hey Kevin... umm yes actually I agree. I consulted someone with local knowledge who believed the norm at the time was likely sun baked, but if they were would not have carried 6 floors nor lasted 20 years. It didnt completely add up for me so I shouldnt have put that in. I have edited out that piece. Thanks for the comment.
Mmmm...was the entire building occupied when this happened ❓️
If the owner foiiowed the engineer instructions this might have been prevented. Engineer recommended/ordered the steel beams on the inside be braced to take the weight off of the brick wall area so repair to the load bearing outside brick wall. In my opinion the city wanted to demolish this building to fast to cya themselves.
Excellent analysis, it looks to be a well built building back in the day. Too bad the rear wall wasn't maintained, it took many years to fail, this disaster should have been avoided and the building still useful today, with proper maintenance, repair, using qualified engineers and contractors it would still be today. It's a decent looking old building, that looks better than most new buildings, it a shame if it's demoed. It seems city should bare some of the responsibility?
Sorry. After the partial collapse, it has to be demolished.
The shock waves of the collapsing wall damages the surrounding wall. Also the entire wall is bound be be in similar condition with water getting trapped and causing the back bricks to expand and collapse. I understand that the the eztieor of the was was double brick is a facade veneer. The interior double brick wall supports the wait and stresses.
Yes, it could be saved, but the owner would want to rebuild that engines wall and the 15(??) Apartments within.
Oh yes. The city could have been a lot stronger in acting to protect the residents. They should have been firmer to demand that problem X is fixed with in a short amount of time. The repair companies are also negligent as they were not supporting the wall properly while work was done. The repairer probably won't get chased as the damage has been evident for years. They might get slapped with an OHSA violation.
Note: I am not any Australia but have been following this for a bit, out of movies curiously.
@@gorillaau ~ All true, the city should have had responsible, authoritative people demanding an proper fix decades ago, if not they could revoke the buildings Occupancy Certificate and the tenants told they must leave. -- IMO, OHSA just gets in the way, they add expense that should be used to repair the building. -- It is said that hind sight is 20/20, the building should have been shored, the rear wall torn down and replaced with new bearing wall.
@@martentrudeau6948 I agreed that some of these safety rules seem to get in the way at times. In this case, the removing bricks from a distressed wall is asking for trouble. The diagonal bracing put up by the repairer would do nothing.
@@gorillaau ~ From a builders point of view; The rear wall could not be fixed or repaired, until all the floor, roof, other loads were shored up and supported. Then the fix could begin. This doesn't appear to have been done.