The MSU Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center suffered a complete roof collapse in the center’s south gym in early March, followed just days later by the collapse of the roof in the center’s north gym.
The engineering college dean at Montana State University says he doesn’t see the collapse of two gym roofs on campus as a failure by engineers who designed the buildings.
Golly, who could have predicted snow would fall in Montana???
Engineers and engineering students get participation awards in the form of college diplomas and certificates of achievement. It is unfair to the ignorant, stupid, the halt and the lame to demand results commensurate with their titles.
We had that ugly system where engineering and architecture were populated predominantly with white males from upper middle class families. Restructuring education and certification to include the disadvantaged is much more wholesome. I’m sure you will agree we are much better off this way.
No one was hurt when the South and North gym roofs collapsed on March 7 and 9
Engineering College Dean Brett Gunnink tells the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that in all likelihood it was an unusual natural event that the structure was not designed for.
Gunnink says buildings are designed to withstand earthquakes but if an earthquake is severe enough, nothing can stay standing. He says the same holds true for snow.
The Bozeman area had received snowfall that was well above average in February before the roofs collapsed.
It reminded me of the Florida pedestrian overpass that collapsed before it opened to the public.
Oops.
So sorry.
I hate it when that happens.
more lawsuits filed over the miami bridge collapse
The $14.2 million pedestrian bridge was intended to allow students to safely cross from Florida International University’s main campus over a six-lane highway to a cluster of off-campus housing.
Celebrated as a “one-of-a-kind” project by the university, the bridge was raised over the course of a Saturday morning. Then, five days later, it collapsed.
The lawsuits emerged after the Florida Department of Transportation released a transcript of a call made by the project’s lead engineer, telling state officials that he had spotted cracks in the structure.
Here’s part of what the engineer said in his voicemail, according to the provided transcript: “Calling to, uh, share with you some information about the FIU pedestrian bridge and some cracking that’s been observed on the north end of the span, the pylon end of that span we moved this weekend. Um, so, uh, we’ve taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done but from a safety perspective we don’t see that there’s any issue there so we’re not concerned about it from that perspective although obviously the cracking is not good and something’s going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that.”
The voicemail was left days before the bridge’s collapse. FDOT said the message wasn’t heard until March 16 because the employee was out of office on assignment.
FDOT also said the agency normally issues a permit for partial or full road closures “if deemed necessary and requested by the FIU design build team.”
The federal investigation into the incident is ongoing and the exact cause of the collapse has yet to be determined. It’s not clear if any known cracks are the actual cause for the bridge’s failure.
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