New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel Collapse

New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel Collapse

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New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel Collapse

Hard Rock company is a well-known gaming and hospitality company. The company is owned by the Seminole Tribe in Florida (Borchard, 1998). The company operates several casinos in various states. On October 12 the under-construction New Orleans Hard rock hotel collapsed. Almost seven floors of the under-construction building were collapsed (Ralph Ellis and Alta Spells, 2019). Several people were injured while three people were died due to the collapse. Although, the cause of the collapse still under investigation yet sources have claimed that the reason for the collapse was in the structural design of the building. So when the contractors tried to remove the support of the floors, the concrete started to deflect. Although, not all the temporary floor shoring was removed yet still the building collapsed.

The collapsed raised several issues yet one of the most important issues was the removal of cranes that were left behind at the construction site. As the building collapsed the owners of the hotel and the city of New Orleans decided to demolish the whole building. To remove the cranes from the construction site, several difficulties were faced by the workers. However, after several efforts, one end of a crane made it to the ground while the other remained hanging over the building. The part of the crane that made it to the ground also damaged the sewer line and broke windows of the nearest theater while it was being taken down. During the demolition process, many workers were stuck inside the building and it became more difficult to evacuate the area and let the people out of the collapsed building safely.

After the demolition, the main problem was to safe workers and to search for a dead body of the worker stuck in the building. Additionally, the part of the crane that was left hanging over the building was another main problem that occurred after the demolition. To correct the issue, the government officials of New Orleans devised a plan with the team of engineers and law enforcement officials to bring the part of a crane to the ground safely. The officials decided to evacuate the zone of a construction site while also prohibiting vehicles and people until the demolition was completed. The workers than with the help of suspended buckets attached small explosives to the various part of the crane. After the collective efforts of workers and engineers, a series of explosions cause severe damage to the cranes (Ralph Ellis & Alta Spells, 2019). This resulted in weakening the cranes and causing them to collapse. After the removal of cranes, workers who were stuck in the building were able to get out of the building but were severely injured.

In the collapse, many people were severely injured. They also filed a lawsuit against construction companies that were given the contract of New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel. The construction companies are liable for the incidence as due to their negligence the concrete deflected that results in the collapse. It was the responsibility of the construction companies to not only plan but to assess and monitor the construction design while also considering the construction site. Additionally, project engineers are also responsible for the collapse as the design of the building was not stable due to which after removal of structural support the building collapsed. It was the responsibility of engineers to provide adequate structural support to the building while making it. However, they failed to determine the weight of concrete and required structural support due to which the building collapsed.

This incident taught several lessons especially the importance of construction regulations. The international building code (IBC) is responsible for establishing uniform standards while constructing any building (IBC, 2006). Additionally, the incident taught more about the importance of types of material used in the construction. Also, the area where this incident happened was densely populated. So many people would have been injured. Thus, it is necessary to follow all the protocols of construction and while constructing a building to protect a building from collapsing.

References

Borchard, K. (1998). Between a hard rock and postmodernism: Opening the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 27(2), 242-269.

IBC, I. (2006). International building code. International Code Council, Inc.(formerly BOCA, ICBO and SBCCI), 4051, 60478-5795.

Ralph Ellis and Alta Spells, C. (2019). Two cranes were toppled at the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans. The next step is searching for bodies. Retrieved 25 October 2019, from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/20/us/hard-rock-new-orleans-crane-demolition/index.html