Roof Collapse - Hampton, VA

dmx

Active Member

Luckily the building was empty. Can only imagine if this were to have happened during a performance with a full house! Odd thing is, we haven't had any weather (rain, snow, etc.) in the recent past that could have been contributing factors. Building was built in 2002!Screen Shot 2021-04-07 at 12.37.42 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-04-07 at 12.37.12 PM.pngScreen Shot 2021-04-07 at 12.37.16 PM.pngScreen Shot 2021-04-07 at 12.37.36 PM.pngScreen Shot 2021-04-07 at 12.37.42 PM.pngPhotos from:
 
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One of the local stations had a chopper shot, here is a top side view:
WAVYchopperimage.PNG
 
"Jeff Kraus, a spokesperson for VCCS, said that the main truss in that portion of the roof failed, sending about sixteen inches of concrete crashing down. Why the truss failed is unknown; VCCS is working with the Virginia Division of Risk Management on the investigation."

Yeah -- don't believe everything you read as theories start to circulate. No way they would've had a roof with a 16" concrete slab.
 
I do wonder if all facilities that are being shut down for over a year are being routinely inspected. I mean a minor plumbing leak could add up to lots of damage if not detected for months. Not that the problem here was plumbing BTW.
 
"Jeff Kraus, a spokesperson for VCCS, said that the main truss in that portion of the roof failed, sending about sixteen inches of concrete crashing down. Why the truss failed is unknown; VCCS is working with the Virginia Division of Risk Management on the investigation."

Yeah -- don't believe everything you read as theories start to circulate. No way they would've had a roof with a 16" concrete slab.
Would the main truss be the one in the first image?

This exterior bulge is interesting
Screen Shot 2021-04-07 at 10.21.43 AM.jpg
 
The sixteen inches might refer to the top of the wall that was supporting the roof truss. The still frame at the the start of the video shows the top of the masonry wall bowed out at the top.
 
That bulge is most likely from either the bottom of the truss deflecting or the truss bracing deflecting. Those can be a cause or a symptom, but I'm not an engineer.
 
A structural engineers worst nightmare. No obvious cause to point to, but there will be lots of finger pointing in court!

Not that much finger pointing. Usually structural stuff comes down to the engineer, the contractor, or the supplier. In a case like this, the supplier seems unlikely as this type of construction is common and isn't anything particularly custom or complex. So then it comes down to the engineer or the contractor.

There could be external factors though. That other theater that's roof collapsed recently clearly had backed up roof drains that caused a bunch of water to back up on the roof and was clearly the direct cause of the collapse. Doesn't seem like that's the case here though.
 
Structural, contractors (general, steel, concrete, roofing), suppliers for all above (engineer for the truss supplier!), architect, maybe plumbing engineer, plumbing contractor, facilities maintenance, soils reporting,

and lastly anyone else the lawyers can make up an excuse to blame.
 
Structural, contractors (general, steel, concrete, roofing), suppliers for all above (engineer for the truss supplier!), architect, maybe plumbing engineer, plumbing contractor, facilities maintenance, soils reporting,

and lastly anyone else the lawyers can make up an excuse to blame.

My late father was an attorney. The rule of thumb is name EVERY possible party as a defendant and let the court decide who is without complicity and gets removed from the suit.
 

Luckily the building was empty. Can only imagine if this were to have happened during a performance with a full house! Odd thing is, we haven't had any weather (rain, snow, etc.) in the recent past that could have been contributing factors. Building was built in 2002!View attachment 21774
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Rick, so good that the hall was empty and there were no injuries or deaths. We can fix concrete and steel...
 
My late father was an attorney. The rule of thumb is name EVERY possible party as a defendant and let the court decide who is without complicity and gets removed from the suit.
Like for example JBL being named in the RI fire and quickly settled just to make it go away. The issue is there were JBL speakers which had foam surrounds on some of the speakers.
 
Like for example JBL being named in the RI fire and quickly settled just to make it go away. The issue is there were JBL speakers which had foam surrounds on some of the speakers.

Yes. Harman decided it was cheaper to offer a settlement of $100,000 because the cost of defending themselves would have been greater, and just how much greater was a variable they wished to avoid.
 
First off: We are all fortunate that no one was in there.
Second: Wow! Could you imagine if you onstage when it went? It would have been scary but fascinating.
Third: The lawsuits will fly. But an 18 year old building with no one inspecting it for 14 months? The building is on a peninsula between the James and the Chesapeake, at the ocean and has survived multiple hurricanes, including last hurricane season. I'm willing to bet that all who built it will be found not responsible.
 
I do wonder if all facilities that are being shut down for over a year are being routinely inspected. I mean a minor plumbing leak could add up to lots of damage if not detected for months. Not that the problem here was plumbing BTW.
We had a water valve break open in the mechanical room behind the booth in one of our spaces last month. If not for a student walking past the lobby and reporting seeing it raining inside to a separate department who came and found me, the only theater staff member in the building at the time, we probably wouldn't have found it for days. Standing water on the booth level in both sides of it and 2 storage closets with most of our video equipment and misc lighting equipment, and water raining through light fixtures in the lobby and the light locks of the theater entrances. Haven't looked recently to see if they've fixed the ceiling drywall.
 
We found 5' of water in our orchestra pit last month after the sump pump failed. As of yesterday, we've finally stripped out all of the waterlogged wood.
 
We found 5' of water in our orchestra pit last month after the sump pump failed. As of yesterday, we've finally stripped out all of the waterlogged wood.
We're built on a swamp so we have 2 sump pumps stacked one above the other and a spare sitting on the shelf. A high water alarm is tied to our security panel. It still isn't failsafe.

A dance mom unplugged the pumps so she could power a curling iron for her precious pumpkin and never plugged it back in. Some time later we had heavy rain and our first row ended up with a few inches of water in it. As fate would have it, the high water alarm had been set to "ignore" by the monitoring company a decade earlier for a little maintenance job and never got turned back on.
 
We have a truck dock that is about 3 inches above the water table, which also happens to be the place that our entire parking lot tries to drain into. It is a matter of constant vigilance with 2 sump pumps, a dock sensor, and 2 cameras pointed at it to ensure that thing does flood every time it sprinkles. When everything is work, it doesn't get more than damp. When it isn't, it can flood over the door frame in 5 minutes.
 

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