:: rawblogXport ::

:: Saturday, April 24, 2004 ::

Changes in Design Preceded Collapse of Casino Garage By ERIC LIPTON, New York Times
What remains unclear to all the engineers involved is how the construction could have moved ahead with such obvious flaws, regardless of whether they had been based on a troubled design or just poor execution of the revised design.

"Everywhere along the line, the checks and balances failed," said an engineer for one of the contractors, who asked that he not be named because of the ongoing investigation.

The laborers and carpenters at the site, in interviews, said they did raise objections about a condition they thought was hazardous: the insufficient shoring that was being used to hold up the not-yet-dry concrete floors. Workers said they noticed that some of the shores - essentially temporary steel or wooden pogo sticks that go from the ceiling to the floor - were under such stress that they were bending or bowing. Laborers also reported troublesome-looking cracks in the concrete. But George Tolson, one of the Fabi laborers who noticed this condition, said he was told to keep working.

"All they wanted," said David R. Hand, 33, a laborer for Fabi who was pouring the concrete "is to go faster, faster, faster. Time is money. That was it."

posted 3:20 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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