1971 – Jan 25, Construction Failure, 16-Story Apartment Building, Boston, MA — 4

— 4 Carper and Feld. Construction Failure. 1997, p. 8.
— 4 Delatte. Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers. 2009, p. 133.
— 4 Pletcher. Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. 2006, 178-184.

Narrative Information

Delatte: “Four workers died when about two-thirds of a 16-story apartment building in Boston under construction collapsed on January 25, 1971….Rescue operations were delayed because of concerns about the stability of the remaining structure…Almost 8,000 tonnes (8,000 tons) of debris were removed before the bodies of the workers could be recovered…A building that had been in development for more than six years collapsed in a few minutes. Fortunately, the collapse occurred slowly enough that most of the people working on the site were able to escape.

“Punching shear was determined to have triggered the collapse. An inves¬tigation called for by the mayor of Boston found that there had been many errors and omissions-associated with the apartment building. Over the long period of development, there had been many changes in the building’s owners and designers, leading to considerable confusion (Granger et al. 1971). It was difficult to trace the project ownership and to determine who was responsible for the safety and structural integrity of the project. A summary of the events leading up the incident is provided by King and Delatte (2004).

“Design and Construction
“The building was cast-in-place reinforced concrete flat-slab construction with a central elevator shaft core. The floor plan is shown in Fig. 5-2. This style of construction is popular for multistory buildings because it reduces the slab thickness and the overall height of the building (Feld and Carper 1997). The flat slabs were 190 mm (71/2 in.) thick, except for some bays near the elevator core and at stairwells, which were 230 mm (9 in.) thick. This design made possible a story height of 2.7 m (9 ft) for most of the floors.

“The building at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue was designed to be 16 stories high, with a mechanical room above a 1.5-m (5-ft) crawl space on the roof. The building was 55.1 x 20.9 m (180 ft 10 in. x 68 ft 6 in.) in plan. The structure also had two levels of underground parking. A swimming pool, ancillary spaces, and one apartment were located on the first floor, and 132 apartments were on the 2nd through 16th floors….

“Construction began on the site late in fall 1969. Almost all of the work was subcontracted. Only one representative from the general contrac¬tor was on site during construction. At the time of collapse, construction was nearing completion. Brick¬work was completed up to the 16th floor, and the building was mostly enclosed from the 2nd to the 15th floors. Plumbing, heating, and ventilat¬ing systems were being installed throughout various parts of the building. Work on interior apartment walls had also started on the lower floors. A temporary construction elevator was located at the south edge of the build-ing to aid in transporting equipment to the different floors. It is estimated that 100 people were working in or around the building at the time of the failure…

“After interviewing many eyewitnesses, the mayor’s investigating com¬mission concluded that the failure took place in three phases. These phases were punching shear failure in the main roof at column ES, collapse of the roof slab, and, finally, the progressive and general collapse of most of the structure (Granger et al. 1971)…..” (Delatte, Norbert J. Jr. Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers. 2009.)

Pletcher: Fatalities:

James Cingolani, 26, welder. (pp. 178, 180 and 182)
Ciraco Dilorio, 40, welder. (pp. 178, 180 and 184)
Michael Papasedro, 29, construction foreman. (pp. 179-180)
Daniel Tintindo, 46, welder (pp. 178 and 182)

Sources

Carper, Kenneth L. and Jacob Feld. Construction Failure. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=-jnlb-oJxcEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=true

Delatte, Norbert J. Jr. Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers Press, 2009.

Pletcher, Larry. Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Guilford, CN: Insiders Guide, 2006.