Chinese excavation oops!

[tootalltimmy]

I received this in an e-mail. Not sure if it has been posted before. This would be a major oops!

1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than what the pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction.

 

[9420pullpan]

Thats gonna be expensive!

What are some of those famous sayings auh Boss..........

 

[cps]

Thats something else!

 

[Hendrik]

Oooops.

 

[CM1995]

What's amazing is the building for the most part stayed intact. From the pics it looks like some really crappy soil the building was sitting on, hence the piles. Do you know what city this was in?

 

[tootalltimmy]

According to the news link it happened June 29,09 in Shanghai.



http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/06/29/shanghai-building-collapses-nearly-intact/

 

[grandpa]

yep . definitly tipped over!

 

[upnover]

The bright side is that all the apartment owners now have skylights!

 

[WColtharp]

That's putting an item on layover for sure!

 

[special tool]

I'll buff that right out in a jiffy with turtle wax.

Chinese engineers.....

 

[JDOFMEMI]

I wonder who thought it was a good idea to dig that close to such a tall building?

 

[lgammon]

omg

alright guys you keep bitching that the drawings need to be bigger and have more detail, i think these should do! i may need a bigger plan table

 

[watglen]

alright guys you keep bitching that the drawings need to be bigger and have more detail, i think these should do! i may need a bigger plan table

drawing scale 1 foot = 1 foot

The only thing worse than the building falling over is reading all these smart ass remarks!:drinkup

 

[landrvrnut22]

My dad was in Shanghai when this happened, and got to see the aftermath. I have pictures somewhere that he took.

Construction in China is much different than we have here. Timken built a new plant there, and my dad helped get it up and running. He told me about the landscaping.

They had 3 different crews to plant trees. One dug the hole, one planted the trees, one filled in the hole. So Monday a crew comes, and digs all the wholes by hand, Tuesday the guys that plant the trees don't show, Wednesday guys come and fill in the holes.

The information I got was they were supposed to put the parking garage in, then put up the building. There is no glory in a parking garage, so go big or go home. Oops.

 

[Iron Horse]

That is unreal , what a stuff up . They are the worst footings I have ever seen . Apart from those inadequately reinforced concrete pillars , it seems it was just sitting on the dirt . That thing should have been sitting on steel reinforced concrete trench footings 15' deep .

 

[chris-law]

iv seen houses sat on ring beams that size , but not a block of flats , thats shocking

 

[DPete]

Made in China

 

[AmerIndependent]

Made in China

Hahaha. Kinda scary that Timken is going there...

 

[JDOFMEMI]

Well, on the bright side, the concrete they built the complex out of must have been strong and well built, or it would have crumbled as it came down.

I wonder how many people were home when it came down. That would have been quite a ride.

 

[CM1995]

That is unreal , what a stuff up . They are the worst footings I have ever seen . Apart from those inadequately reinforced concrete pillars , it seems it was just sitting on the dirt . That thing should have been sitting on steel reinforced concrete trench footings 15' deep .

Hey Iron Horse, I am going to play a little devils advocate. First of all I am not a structural engineer but did stay in a Holiday Inn once.

Yes the footings look small for such a large building, but it still amazes me that the building, including the footings and foundation stayed intact. The pre-cast concrete piles were the week point, taking the brunt of the shear stresses. Concrete piles are designed to take a load vertically not laterally. The cause of the failure was reducing the bearing pressures of the soil by over excavation adjacent to the building. Plus the soil looks to be a silty clay that is saturated, not an idea soil to build on in the first place. Now the number and quality of piles used is another thing. Also makes you wonder if the wind load was the breaking point?

I agree with Jerry, that is some high PSI concrete the building was made out of.