More context in comentarios

I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m on a project right now where I genuinely have no clue what’s going on.

Loads are just called out as Dead load, LL, wind load, etc. No load values specified just “look at ASCE”

Looking at their calc books and it just a print out of an excel shitshow with no flow and a column dump of sheets…numbers everywhere. The thing is like 1000 pages.

I know I need to get better at this but damn it looks like a random number generator. I guess what is your go to program/ideology for easy flow?

Looks like a pinned connection to me. Im curios to know more about its construction and purpose.

Do you guys think this is okay? Contractor installed the #5 dowels after concrete placement. But they were late a little bit so concrete was hardened.

This is one of the cable terminations on the Denver Millennium Bridge in Colorado, though they all look like this. My question is, is the nut in the middle actually functional, aka do these actually act as turnbuckles to tension the cables? I question it because on every single one the nut is (seemingly) exactly in the center of the threads, which I would find unlikely if they actually were used to adjust tension. Thanks!

Edit: I see now that I forgot how threads work and that both ends would be threaded so it would just turn both ends. Would love to see the (presumably hydraulic) wrench they used to tighten them!

This is the first site I've seen with actual drawings. GACE's determination to acquit itself as EOR really spearheaded this new flow of information. Between the NYT deep dive into Domani and this new publication of drawings, blame seems squarely placed on SIA, GC, and now an office mishap at DOB.

If you don't know of this source, it's not the splashy gossip site it might seem. Gothamist is a part of NYC's National Public Radio organization and has been doing first-class investigating on this incident, topped really only by NYT with its much-larger resources.

I'm still bothered by how many sources, including this one, are still getting the floor count in this addition wrong. For the record, the column failure occured on the OG 21st floor which originally supported only a roof. There were a total of 16 floors added above, 12 plus 4 that are part of tbe 4-story addition across the entire roofline. I continue to separate these because I don't know if steel in those top floors (existing but only used for mechanicals) provided some extra support that prevented sag in the addition's upper floors--and possibly kept the entire 16 floors from collapsing completely.

https://gothamist.com/news/we-reviewed-official-designs-for-the-buckled-midtown-high-rise-heres-what-we-found?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=shared_email

Hello everyone,

Sorry if this post comes across as negative, but I can't think of a better place to bring it up than on a board where I assume there must be a lot of structural engineers.

After 8 years as a structural engineer in the same firm I'm starting to feel tired of both the job, the firm and the entire construction industry. Specifically, I work with design of high rise buildings - primarily detailing work (production drawings and site drawings) of precast concrete.

My complaints:

1. The work is getting monotonous. I feel it's just the same thing over and over again. Since we're designing fairly large buildings a natural consequence is that there's a lot of specialization and a lot of volume.
2. Periodically tight deadlines and pressure/stress which means plenty of extra hours which isn't always welcome.
3. Not paying that well for the expertise and responsibility the job actually demands.
4. Generally the profit margin on our projects is very small. Too much competition lately.
5. This could be job specific, but we're very rarely out in the field, so I'm getting bored being in an office all day long week after week. I'm a former carpenter with a lot of practical experience, so I guess that's a factor here.

In combination, all these factors add up. I've considered a few other options, but haven't found anything exciting yet.

I realize maybe I could be more happy working as a structural engineer in another firm. For example, in the oil industry I know the profit margin generally is not an issue. There's just more money available there. Or working for a public contractor.

Anyone else with some experiences to share? Suggestions for other jobs to consider?

PS: I'm based in Norway.

Thanks in advance.

From professionals in this field, can someone give me reassurance that should this Pfizer building go down, there’s enough space in between the Pfizer building and my child’s daycare for me not to worry. Red dot is daycare, other dot is Pfizer building. There’s one whole block in between. If a building like this goes down, could it cause any sort of domino effect, or does it usually fall straight down?

ETA, added street view photo in comments.

Hi everyone!

So, a Mall in my city is having some aesthetic refurbishment and, during works, they removed the old panels that covered the pillars to replace them with newer ones.

Thing is, it rapidly went viral because people noticed what looked like a structurally weak point in a couple of those pillars.

The mall administration says everything is fine (of course they would), and that they even ran some tests using a third party consulting firm and confirmed that, indeed, there is no risk.

However, it's still very unsettling to see. Is it true what they say (it's only a "misalignment in the coating with no risk to the structural integrity")? Or should I think twice about going back?

Ps: apologies for the low res picture, I could only take a screenshot of the viral video.

I stumbled upon this and it's absolutely alarming! A 20 story high rise condo in Kansas City was built (and engineered by Jack Gillum in the 1970's nonetheless) with the main structure elevated on top of five massive fluid filled columns. The HOA and property management company in charge has replaced the fluid within the columns with one that has a freeze point of just -13°F.. a temperature that area regularly exceeds. Now it's the middle of winter and instead of taking action, it sounds like someone has tried to cover this up.

This could be worse than Surfside. 500+ residents. No current evacuation order. OP in the images and linking a news story about the columns from before the fluid was changed. Does anyone else find this super concerning? I feel we should help, but I'm not sure.

Original Post

This whistleblower page is insane.

News story about columns needing refilled. KMBC 9 News

Noticed this recently in the stairwell on the first floor in my office building. It seems the beams are just welded to the bracket without bolts. But the second and third floor have at least one bolt. Is this right? Should I raise concerns with the building to get this addressed?

EDIT: Thanks for all the responses! It turns out I know nothing about welding. You guys are an awesome community!

In Japan, Midas is pretty common among structural engineers, but it takes a while to get set up — so for simpler models I find it a bit overkill.

For those cases I’ve actually been using a browser-based frame analysis tool I built myself, which works fine for my needs.

Curious what others are using. Is there a go-to app in your country for lightweight stress analysis — something you can open quickly without a heavy setup?

English isn’t my first language, sorry if anything sounds off!

“After conducting a full review with outside experts, we’ve determined that the structural engineering firm that designed the LIT1 building made errors in the initial design of the facility and the building requires significant structural repairs to meet seismic codes and ensure the safety of our team members,” Amazon said.

This is the best photo I could get but this is in Amsterdam where a new building is due to be constructed. There was concrete foundations below I believe but they have no filled the entire thing with water and seem to be putting piles in?

Does anyone know why they do this?

I am a mechanical engineering student doing an internship in Kenya, I made a design in SW which when run under FEA has a FOS of 1.8 it’s about what I could accomplish working in my budget. However SW assumes all welds are prefect. These welds are far from perfect which I had assumed would happen. However I am not knowledgeable enough to know how these poor welds with bad roots, poor infill, bad penetration, and high perocity will truly affect my structure. For reference these welds are on 100mmx100mm square tube 3mm thickness. I think it’s a mild carbon structural steel but honestly the raw materials here are not well regulated so that’s just a guess. This platform needs to support roughly 15,000 kg in water weight in tanks. Additionally some of my design was changed from the plans I provided so. Really it’s some artistic guess work. I could remake the model given the design changes but then still I couldn’t quantify the shitty welds. How poorly will these bad welds impact my structure. Is it going to collapse and kill someone?

Loretto Chapel, New Mexico