Run a Google search for “Building Collapse 2019”. This is what you’ll find (in 0.31 seconds) for a period of just over one month:
- May 23, 2019 – “Building Collapse Near Gombak LRT Terminal”, Malasia (new construction);
- May 20, 2019 – “At least 3 killed in China Building Collapse”, China (existing structure);
- May 16, 2019 – “Shanghai Building Collapse: Death Toll Rises to 10”, China (existing building under renovation);
- April 23, 2019 – “Building Collapses in Instanbul, No Casualties” (existing structure affected by neighboring construction activities);
- April 21, 2019 – “Death toll rises to 23 in Brazil building collapse”, Brazil(existing structure).
The first thing that hits you is the loss of life. Any loss of life in an accident is unacceptable.
The next thing that hits you is that these structural failures took place in developing parts of the world – not in the United States. However, the United States experienced a period of structural failures and chose to do something about those life-safety issues in 1984.
After a rash of structural failures leading to loss of life and property in the 1970s and early 1980s, the US government held a series of Congressional subcommittee hearings to investigate and analyze the problem of structural failures. More specifically, “The central issue addressed by the Subcommittee during the course of its investigation and hearings was this: “Are there common problems associated with structural failures, the elimination of which would decrease the number of failures?”[1] Utilizing interviews with principals of engineering design firms and construction firms and review of the failures
of buildings, dams and bridges, the Subcommittee identified factors critical to the prevention of structural failures. One of the most critical factors identified was limited inspection during construction of principal structural components. The report concluded that a “structural engineer or his designee should be on the job site during construction of principal structural components….”. The report went on to recommend that professional associations were well suited to write building code that required the presence of a structural engineer during certain construction activities.
As a result of this groundbreaking investigation, the Building Officials and Code Administrators International (BOCA) National Building Code added a new section entitled “Special Inspections” in 1988. Since Ohio had incorporated BOCA code in 1978, Special Inspections were slowly (but not uniformly) incorporated by various municipalities in Ohio in the 1990s. It wasn’t until 2002 that Ohio adopted the International Code Council (ICC), which had replaced the BOCA code and officially mandated the requirement for Special Inspections.
The requirement for special inspections and identification of the types of inspections to be conducted are found in Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) 4101:1-17-01. It is important to note that, at the current time, each municipality specifies certain Special Inspections that they will enforce. Some require all; some require none. As such, significant differences exist from municipality to municipality. This will be discussed further in a separate article.
Currently, Ohio’s Special Inspection section of Code is organized as follows:
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Section 1701 – 1703: General, including scope, discussion of new materials and definitions;
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Section 1704: Requirements to perform inspections and tests; special inspector qualifications; statement of special inspections; reporting; approval of fabricators and inspection of fabrications; and seismic and wind requirements.
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Section 1705: Listing and discussion of required Special Inspections and Tests.
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Section 1706 – 1709: design strengths of materials, alternative test procedures, in-situ load tests and preconstruction load tests.
Section 1705 lays out the Special Inspection and Testing requirements; these typically are reflected in the construction documents prepared by the structural engineer of record (SER). Ohio requires the following[2] Special Inspections[3]:
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1705.2 Steel construction (structural steel, cold-formed steel deck, open-web steel joists and joist girders and cold-formed steel trusses spanning 60 feet or greater);
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1705.3 Concrete construction (Welding of reinforcing bars and material tests)
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1705.4 Masonry construction (Empirically designed masonry, glass unit masonry and masonry veneer in Risk Category IV; and vertical masonry foundation elements);
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1705.5 Wood construction (high-load diaphragms and metal-plate-connected wood trusses spanning 60 feet or greater)
- 1705.7 Driven deep foundations
- 1705.8 Cast-in-place deep foundations
- 1705.9 Helical pile foundations
- 1705.10 Fabricated items
- 1705.11 Special inspections for wind resistance (structural wood, cold-formed steel light-frame construction and wind-resisting components );
- 1705.12 Special inspections for seismic resistance (structural steel, seismic force-resisting systems, structural steel elements, structural wood, cold-formed steel light-frame construction, designated seismic systems , architectural components; plumbing, mechanical and electrical components; storage racks, seismic isolation systems and cold-formed steel special bolted moment frames);
- 1705.13 Testing for seismic resistance (structural steel, seismic force-resisting systems, structural steel elements, nonstructural components, designated seismic systems and seismic isolation systems);
- 1705.14 Sprayed fire-resistant materials (physical and visual tests, structural member surface conditions, application, thickness applied to floor, roof and wall assemblies, cellular and fluted decks, structural members, beams and girders, joists and trusses, and columns; density, bond strength; and primer, paint and encapsulant bond tests);
- 1705.15 Mastic and intumescent fire-resistant coatings
- 1705.16 Exterior insulation and finish systems (EIFS)( water-resistive barrier coating);
- 1705.17 Fire-resistant penetrations and joints (penetration firestops and fire-resistant joint systems);
- 1705.18 Testing for smoke control (testing and qualifications)
As shown above, owners of construction projects, both private and public, must be prepared to have Special Inspections performed during the construction process. Note that the Special Inspections are different from the inspections carried out by the building official, as outlined in OAC 4101:1-1-08, sections 108.2.1 through 108.2.14.
The last nail driven to improve inspections during construction of principal structural components was to require that all Special Inspection be paid for by the owner or by the owner’s representative. This requirement took the general contractor out of the loop of paying for inspection of their own work; eliminating the situation of the fox guarding the henhouse, so to speak.
The informed project owner understands that the performance of Special Inspections supports the project’s structural and life-safety elements, complements the project’s quality assurance goals, reduces the appearance of conflict-of-interest on behalf of the general contractor, and provides comfort that the project is built correctly from the outset.
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[1] Structural Failures in Public Facilities, Report by the Committee on Science and Technology Together with Minority Views, House Report 98-621, March 15, 1984.
[2] Some exclusions exist; please consult our Geotechnical Engineering and/or Construction Support Services Groups for details.
[3] The list of testing associated with the above-listed Special Inspections is long and will be the subject of a separate article.