Two separate failures of three cantilevered flanges of three precast, prestressed-concrete double-T parking-deck sections—reinforced with a non-code-compliant, high-strength carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer grid—are putting the spotlight on the structural safety of corrosion-resistant FRP grids for transverse reinforcement of double-Ts.
The failure of the world’s largest engineered slope a year ago at Charleston’s Yeager Airport has generated widespread speculation from the international engineering community because of the scale of construction and the numerous prizes for design the project had garnered, says Chrys Steiakakis, a geotechnical engineer at Geosysta Ltd., Attiki, Greece.
Until the events of 9/11, the skywalk collapse at the former Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, Mo., was the most devastating structural failure ever in the U.S. in terms of loss of life and injuries—and the cause was a direct result of engineers who violated their ethical code
