T O P 1 0 C O N S T R U C T I O N FA I L S
Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse In 1981, two walkways at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, fel four floors onto the lobby below where a dance competition was being held. In this catastrophe 114 people were killed and more than 200 were injured, and it was considered the deadliest structural collapse in US history until the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. An investigation into the accident
1
found that changes to the design of the walkway meant that the tie rods and support beams were forced to hold the weight of both the second floor walkway and the fourth floor walkway. This proved fatal, as the added weight of the people on the walkway was too much for the ties and beams to hold, and it gave way. After the investigation, $140 million was given to the victims and their families in compensation.
31