Numerous design errors were uncovered when the five-story Harbor Cay Condominium, Cocoa Beach, Florida, collapsed under construction in 1981, killing eleven workers and injuring twenty-three. Incredibly, no punching shear calculation had been made for the concrete floor slabs. Furthermore, the slabs were only 200 mm (eight inches) thick and should have been 280 mm (eleven inches) thick to satisfy the ACI Building Code minimum. The chairs used to support the slab steel were 108 mm (4 inches) high, which coupled with the thin slabs led to a very small effective depth (McKaig 1962, Kamintzky 1991).
References:
- Chapter 5 of the book Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers, Delatte, Norbert J., ASCE Press.
- Kaminetzky, D. (1991). Design and Construction Failures: Lessons from Forensic Investigations. McGraw-Hill, New York, N. Y.
- Lew, H. S. et al. (1982). Investigation of construction failure of Harbour Cay Condominium in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Rep., U.S. Dept. of Comm., Nat. Bureau of Standards, S/N 003-003-0245-8, Washington, D. C.
- McKaig, T. (1962). Building Failures: Case Studies in Construction and Design. McGraw-Hill, New York, N. Y.
Illustrations from Chapter 5 of the book Beyond Failure: Forensic Case Studies for Civil Engineers, Delatte, Norbert J., ASCE Press.
