On July 17, 1981, just after 7;00 PM, two skywalks hanging from the ceiling in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, collapsed.  One hundred fourteen people perished and 216 were injured, some very seriously. The skywalks were simply supported at each end.  Between the end supports, the skywalks were hanging from the roof framing of the lobby by six threaded rods.  The original design of the connection was to use one threaded rod at each location to collect the reactions from both skywalks, one located above the other.  But the fabricator changed the design and had a rod connecting the lower skywalk to the girder in the upper skywalk, and another threaded rod to connect the upper skywalk to the roof framing. This change resulted in the connection of threaded rod in the upper skyway to carry twice the load it was carrying in the original design. The post-collapse investigations indicated that the changed threaded rod connections in the upper skywalk failed first and that skywalk collapsed on the lower skywalk, and together they fell on the floor of the atrium.  The investigations also revealed that the original design of the failed connections was barely sufficient to carry the weight (i.e., dead load) of the skywalks.  The changed design of the connection in the upper skywalk could carry barely half of the design load. The webinar, first, will present the engineering aspects of the case. Then, in the second part will focus on the engineering ethics issues regarding the lack of compliance on the part of the structural engineer of the record as well as the fabricator, with the 1^st Canon of the Code of Ethics for Engineers, which states:  Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall “Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.”  Engineers who designed the original connection did not hold safety paramount. The fabricator’s engineer who did the design change for the connection also did not respect the first Canon to hold safety paramount. And, the final fatal engineering ethics violation was by the structural engineer of the record, that apparently without checking the adequacy of the changed connection detail approved it for construction. The two structural engineers who were responsible for the design lost their P.E. license in Missouri and Texas on the order of an administrative judge. The webinar concludes that if the engineers in charge of the structural design, fabrication, and inspection of the skywalks had followed the 1^st Canon of Code of Ethics and held safety paramount, the tragic collapse would not have occurred. References and Recommended Further Readings:

1. NBS, (1982). “Investigation of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse”, National Bureau of Standards (Current NIST). https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/BSS/nbsbuildingscience143.pdf
2. Concepts and Cases-Engineering Ethics, a textbook by Charles E. Harris et al., published by Cengage2019.
3. Ethics, Technology, and Engineering, a textbook by Ibo van de Poel and Lambèr Royakkers, Wily-Blackwell, 2011.
4. The Ethical Executive, a 2010 book by Robert Hoyk and Paul Hersey, Stanford Business Books.
5. Texas A & M University Civil Engineering Ethics Site (2023), “Essays and Hyatt Regency Photos”, https://ethics.tamu.edu/essays/
6. Code of Ethics of National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethics/CodeofEthics/NSPECodeofEthicsforEngineers.pdf
7. NSPE Ethics Guide https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethics/EthicsReferenceGuide.pdf
8. ASCE Code of Ethics-2020 https://www.asce.org/-/media/asce-images-and-files/career-and-growth/ethics/documents/asce-code-ethics.pdf
9. Ethics, Technology, and Engineering, a textbook by Ibo van de Poel and Lambèr Royakkers, Wily-Blackwell, 2011.
10. Buried Truths, and the Hyatt Skywalks, a 2010 book by Robert Hoyk and Paul Hersey, Stanford Business Books.

Date: Wednesday June 12.  2 - 4 pm ET Credits: 2 PDH Units

Learning Objectives

At the successful conclusion of this course, you’ll be able to identify and discuss:

• The structural system used in the collapsed Skywalks of Hyatt Regency KC.
• What caused the tragic collapse?
• Why the original design of the collapsed skywalks did not comply with the Kansas City, MO, building Code?
• Why the changed design of the threaded rod connections also did not comply with the Kansas City, MO, building Code?
• What ethical issues were involved in structural design, construction and inspection of the skywalks that directly resulted in the collapse?
• What lessons were learned or not learned from this tragedy?
• Why was the violation of Code of Ethics for Engineers, and its 1^st Canon, to hold safety paramount was directly responsible for this tragic collapse and loss of 114 lives and injury to 216 people?

Special Webinar Instructions

After payment, please visit this webinar page, click “Start Course” and fill out the Webinar Registration Form.  You’ll receive email notification and details on how to join the webinar.  You will then be able to access the webinar slides, test your system and receive webinar reminders.  After completing the webinar requirements, your certificate of completion will be saved and available for download in your profile. We value your feedback! Please rate this webinar after completion.

Group Discounts Available

Biography

Dr. Abolhassan Astaneh is a professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a 2013 Minner Faculty Fellow in Engineering Ethics and Social/Professional Responsibility in the College of Engineering. He is the winner of the 1998 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award of the American Institute of Steel Construction, the most prestigious award in his field. He is a licensed civil engineering Professional Engineer (P.E.) in California. Dr. Astaneh is currently a structural engineering and bridge engineering consultant, an expert witness in court cases, continues his research and publication of technical information and gives lectures and w/seminars in structural engineering, earthquake engineering, and engineering ethics.  He has published more than 300 journal papers, conference proceedings papers, technical reports, book chapters and has had hundreds of press interviews on technical aspects of subjects in his areas of interest. His research and expertise are in structural analysis, design, earthquake engineering of steel, steel-concrete, concrete, and timber buildings and bridges, failure analysis of buildings, bridges, and other structures, blast protection of structures, and protection of buildings, bridges, and other structures against terrorist attacks. He has been involved in the design, construction, research, teaching, and studies of buildings and bridges for 54 years, including buildings of up to 73 stories and long-span bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. Dr. Astaneh has performed failure analysis of several collapsed structures, including the World Trade Center Towers, the I-35W Bridge in Minnesota, the I-5 Bridge in Washington State, and the Florida FIU Pedestrian Bridge.  He has taught seminar courses and 12 Ncite Engineering Hub (https://nciteengineeringhub.com/) webinars focusing on engineering ethics.