Hartford Civic Centre Roof Collapse
Group 16
Sarah Ross, Eoin MacDomhaill, Aisling O’Halloran, Shane Kelly & David Kavanagh
Introduction
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Located: Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Design started: 1970
Opened: 1975
Roof collapsed: 1978
The architect Vincent Kling appointed 3 engineers to
design the roof truss for the arena with a tight budget. A
space frame roof design was decided upon which would
save money. During a snow storm in 1978 the roof
collapsed.
Structure
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Space Frame Roof Structure
Structure (cont’d)
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Comprised of a series of linked pyramid trusses
What could lead to failure
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In order to save money, roof was built on the ground.
Deflections at nodes were excessive; engineers were
aware of this.
When in position, deflections had doubled from that of
the computer analysis. Engineers said such deviations
were expected.
Deflections of frame was so great, there was difficulty
fitting steel supports for the fascia panels.
One year after completion a citizen brought concerns of
the noticeable deflections to the engineers but they
reassured structure was safe.
Mode of Failure
3 major design errors and a 20% underestimation of the
roof’s self weight:
1. Top layer's east and west face compression members
were overloaded by 852%.
2. Top layer's exterior north and south face compression
members were overloaded by 213%.
3. The top layer's interior compression members in the
east-west direction were overloaded by 72%.
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Finally, midpoint braces for rods in top layer had been
omitted.
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Conclusions
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Contract sub divided into 5 lead to confusion over
responsibilities and so mistakes went unnoticed.
A construction manager oversaw the project not a
structural engineer and so the significance of the
deflections were not realised.
Over reliance on a computer analysis meant that any
modes of failure not examined by the computer
programme were not considered.