Montreal Precast Failure
Montreal Precast Failure
(OP)
From Toronto Globe and Mail:
"Léa Guilbeault didn't have a chance. What began as a romantic birthday celebration ended in unimaginable horror for a Montreal couple as a slab of concrete came crashing down on them in a downtown restaurant.
Ms. Guilbeault and her husband, Hani Beitinjaneh, were dining at a sushi bar in the atrium of the Marriott Residence Inn on Thursday night when the slab fell 18 storeys, killing the 33-year-old woman and injuring Mr. Beitinjaneh.
"It hit the woman right on the head, and her head was smashed," an emotional witness, Kali Subramanian, told Montreal CTV News.
Mr. Beitinjaneh, also 33, who suffered serious injuries to his hand, was in shock as he was transported to Montreal General Hospital."
From the attached photograph it appears that the failure occurred at the precast connection.
"Léa Guilbeault didn't have a chance. What began as a romantic birthday celebration ended in unimaginable horror for a Montreal couple as a slab of concrete came crashing down on them in a downtown restaurant.
Ms. Guilbeault and her husband, Hani Beitinjaneh, were dining at a sushi bar in the atrium of the Marriott Residence Inn on Thursday night when the slab fell 18 storeys, killing the 33-year-old woman and injuring Mr. Beitinjaneh.
"It hit the woman right on the head, and her head was smashed," an emotional witness, Kali Subramanian, told Montreal CTV News.
Mr. Beitinjaneh, also 33, who suffered serious injuries to his hand, was in shock as he was transported to Montreal General Hospital."
From the attached photograph it appears that the failure occurred at the precast connection.






RE: Montreal Precast Failure
http://www.canada.com/Coroner engineers report site Montreal concrete death/1805232/story.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
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Dik
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
http:/
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
While this type of event seems relatively rare, the results can often be catastrophic. It makes me think about how important these types of inspections are, how I can improve any future inspections that I may be involved with and also about ways the inspection process could be improved, especially when dealing with multiple hidden anchorages.
With keen interest, I await the results of the report and recommendations related to this story.
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
The building looks like it was put up in the 70s, if that was the case then it would have been there for approximately 30 years.
No facade will last forever when subjected to the shrink/swell of thermal movement. Even the best designed facade connections will jam up a little with age and therefore induce fatigue in their metal parts.
As all these connections are usually hidden away they are hard to find during a routine inspection.
I wonder if this will induce a requirement for mandatory facade inspections at certain intervals.
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
Anyway, this has been an issue for many, many years and there's no reason to expect it to go away soon.
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
Apply a small load and "listen" to the facade panels reaction. If the recorded vibrations vary significantly from a secure panel, then further testing is required. I imagine this is a lot like a chain drag on a concrete surface.
Not sure about a standard or failure during testing.
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
tg
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
Dik
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
It'd be interesting to see what wind code requirements were around for tall buildings at the time.
Clearly, the corners will receive the higher wind load due to wind vortices. I don't think it's a coincidence - probably fatigue failure of some sort and obviously poor maintenance.
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
None of the ones I worked on caused injury, just property damage. That's fortunate. The one in Montreal is truly tragic.
RE: Montreal Precast Failure
The 1961 NBC has a 'Handbook of Pressure Coefficients for Wind Loads' and for tall square buildings, the Cpe for corners is -1.5 from halfway up the building to the top and is -0.8 for the lower portion.
I don't know if the NBC was applicable in Quebec. At that time, most of the provinces had their own codes.
Dik