Scaffolding collapse

[Weatherlawyer]

Interesting damage zone in the scaffold in that it was a straight shear all the way down from top to bottom. Faulty erection wouldn't have done that.

Also the piles of planks laid our from the far end of the building to the top of the heap right next to the crane was odd too. How should it have fallen if it was a buckling, overloaded platform?

I would imagine it falling from the middle of the stress, out into the street away from the wall. And the chances of such a clearly defined shear line?

It looks like someone dropped a pallet full of something in the range of 1 or 2 tons from too great an height at too great a speed onto the top. I'm glad it wasn't me.

I'm suprised that the news media don't have someone with more qualifications than the average reporter to go out on accident scenes of any sort. Just having someone with a fundamental grasp of physics shouldn't be that hard to find surely?

Why have they always got to be dancers and hairdressers?

[meow2222]

I also was surprised they didnt have the usual line up of speculation.

Even worse was the reporting of the venus/earth weather link, in which the reporter suggested the earth would end up like Venus at 477C due to the greenhouse effect, despite the fact that this is obvious bunk, nothing to do with the greenhouse effect, and clearly not what the professor was saying. But BBC and science... no

NT

[Weatherlawyer]

Actually it's not that speculative. There is Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus thus it stands to reason if a trace of it can be found in Earth's the world will melt in about that time. If not sooner.

Bloody soundbiters!

[The Medway Handyman]

I wondered if it was something to do with the recent reports that safety training on sites has become difficult if not impossible due to the language barriers. The building industry employs huge numbers of eastern europeans lately. A good line of investigation for a decent journalist - if we had any.

Because the media is run by dancers and hairdressers. Give them time however and they will dig up an 'expert'.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Weatherlawyer wrote: |> I'm suprised that the news media don't have someone with more |> qualifications than the average reporter to go out on accident scenes |> of any sort. Just having someone with a fundamental grasp of physics |> shouldn't be that hard to find surely? | |I wondered if it was something to do with the recent reports that safety |training on sites has become difficult if not impossible due to the language |barriers. The building industry employs huge numbers of eastern europeans |lately. A good line of investigation for a decent journalist - if we had |any.

I have heard the Beeb mention it several times, but then it is language, not science.

[Phil]

Reporting so far seems to suggest that 2 floors collapsing triggered the scaffold collapse, although I cannot make this out from the pictures so far.

Phil.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I know, Who talks Irish for gods sake?

Or Estuary English?

Sadly the scaffolding was erected by Irishmen.

[Weatherlawyer]

Two floors of the building's interiors? Bearing in mind the state of the interiors might include unfinished uper structures?

Hardly.

It's going to be an expensive dish-out all around. I pity the poor buggers involved through no fault of their own.

[Malcolm Stewart]

Living in Milton Keynes within 3km of the site, and being outside around the reported time of the collapse, I was amazed to hear that high winds were being suggested as the cause. Unless there was some sort of mini-tornado which hasn't been suggested. We've certainly had high winds recently, but nothing exceptional, at ground level anyway, yesterday.

I have photographs of the scaffolding taken a few weeks ago, and then, it went all round the building.

The grid road system with its multiple redundancy will allow most of Central MK to continue functioning as normal, but it's bad news for companies close to the site, as the police have set up a 200m wide exclusion/safety zone.

[Cicero]

======================== I think the main contractors (Irish) sub contracted the scaffolding to another company.

Cic.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No..the way I heard it on the beeb was that the main contractors subcontracted to an Irish scaffolding company.

[Ian Stirling]

It might. Floor 5 fails. Floors 14-6 fall down, crushing 1-4

[Matt]

For some people a 200 mile exclusion zone around Milton Keynes might be seen as a good thing :)

The last time I had the misfortune to visit there appeared to be acres of housing estates with deserted roads and the only "attraction" was a huge shopping centre and right next to it a teepee like cinema was just being built. I guess it would have been in the late 80's. I found it totally soulless and a very intimidating place to be and even though I failed to see a concrete cow I don't harbour any intense desire to return (especially when the risk of flood from dodgy plumbing is so high)

[jim_in_sussex]

snip///

Could be, but more likely it was due to us having had the coldest winter for decades . Do I live on the same planet as that woman? Certainly not the same island.

[Malcolm Stewart]

Well, things have changed a bit since your visit, and trying to build higher is what's going on just now, complete with the attendant risks. (Used to be limited to around high tree level.) The teepee style cinema is part of the "Easy Cinema" group, and we now have another multiplex cinema, real snow slope and free-fall "Airkix" if you're into that sort of thing. I too haven't been close to the repainted, yet again, concrete cows recently, and the roads are no longer deserted. There's even talk of gridlock, but that's from people trying to sell newspapers...

[Cordless Crazy]

Either way it will be interesting to see it the scaffold has bee designed to TG20 (BS EN12811) or the old BS 5973.

I wonder if it was tied to the building at the required centres or wer the Irish using those 'invisible' ties

-- Cordless Crazy

[Weatherlawyer]

And seldom in the same country as her leader, our beloved president.

Fancy spending Arfur Miion on a olliday wiv ver ressover werkurs an avin to come ome arfway froo, jest ter deal wiv a bunch ov sickoes.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

"jim_in_sussex" typed

She obviously inhabits a different world from mine.

Here on the London Fringes, we've had little frost, snow or rain. It's not been windy enough to blow any tiles off my roof (which I have had on previous years).

I have had a high gas bill though.

[meow2222]

and if the spam is anything to go by, faulty erection is a common problem.

NT

[Weatherlawyer]

It isn't masonry it is a web of steel.

Brickwork relies on its own weight to hold each unit in place. Once a line of bricks is moved the 3 or 4 inches over the upright joints, the structure collapses. If that shold happen then the floor will go one at a time and yes the shear would also be straight down.

In a scaffold, if the crosstubes (the tie-bars) are all so loose the long tube can move, they will move several feet. And they will move it independently of the other tubes. But the whole system is like a spider's web.

It would require an incredible force to do such a thing to a scaffold. In fact, I doubt that dropping a 2 ton pallet on it would do it. If you have ever worked on one you'd realise how strong the structure is.

Thinking about it now, most firms of the size that could take on such a site as the one where the collapse are pretty hot with safety issues. They have lads on the books who are paid to check on any changes to the structure that some trades might need to make.

They can be quite a PITA. It makes me realise how handy they are in the long run though.