1973 — March 2, Skyline Plaza Apt. bldg. construction collapse, Bailey’s Crossroads, VA-14

–14 Carper and Feld. Construction Failure. 1997, p. 8.
–14 Delatte. Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers. 2009, p. 144.
–14 Leyendecker and Fattal. Investigation of the Skyline Plaza Collapse… NBS, 1977.
–14 Ross, Steven. Construction Disasters: Design Failures, Causes, and Prevention. 1984, 267.
–14 Ward. “It was Gone: String of Problems Led to 51 Deaths at Willow Island.” 4-27-2008.

Narrative Information

Carper and Feld: “Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia, March 1973. Progressive collapse of a 26-story reinforced concrete residential tower killed 14 construction workers and injured more than 30.” (Carper and Feld. Construction Failure. 1997, p. 8.)

Leyendecker and Fattal abstract: “The collapse of the Skyline Plaza apartment building by as been studied by using information contained in case records of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Department of Labor and obtained from on-site inspections by investigators from the National Bureau of Standards. Non-compliance with OSHA construction standards has been identified with regard to formwork, field-cured concrete specimens and crane installation. Specifically, the construction procedures did not comply with standards for the removal of supporting forms. It is concluded that premature removal of forms was a contributing factor to the collapse of the building.”

Ross: “….The failure started as concrete was being placed on the 24th floor of the new structure, while shoring was being removed from new concrete at the 22nd-floor level. The weight of the concrete from the 22d, 23d, and 24th floors, as well as the weight of a crane on the 24th, ripped a top-to-bottom gap through the building….” (pp. 266-267)

Ward: “On March 2, 1973 – more than five years before Willow Island – the roof literally fell in at the Skyline Plaza, a 26-story apartment complex under construction in Fairfax County, Va. Fourteen workers were killed and 34 others injured. Agency inspectors [OSHA] cited the Skyline Plaza contractors for premature removal of forms and shoring beneath the building’s top floor, and dismantling these supports without first testing and inspecting the concrete.” (Ward 1978.)

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.

Leyendecker, Edgar. V. and S. George. Fattal. Investigation of the Skyline Plaza Collapse in Fairfax County, Virginia (NBS BSS 94). Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards, Feb. 1977. Accessed 12-27-2021 at: https://www.nist.gov/publications/investigation-skyline-plaza-collapse-fairfax-county-virginia-nbs-bss-94 and https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/BSS/nbsbuildingscience94.pdf

Ross, Steven. Construction Disasters: Design Failures, Causes, and Prevention. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1984.

Ward, Ken Jr. “It was Gone: String of Problems Led to 51 Deaths at Willow Island.” WVGazette.com, 4-27-2008. Accessed at: http://wvgazette.com:80/News/WillowIsland/200804250422