[El Sordo]

I know a structural engineer that was invovled in investigation. It's not too commonly known, but there is decent evidence that when the contrator made changes to the design he phoned the structural firm (contractor swore this in court, the firm denied it in court). The engineer that the contrator allegedly spoke with was a new kid. The kid signed off (again allegedly)on the change.

There were other failures, of course. The contractor was wrong to make such a change, the inspectors were wrong to not catch it. But the unfortunate young engineer played his part.

[edger]

The contractor made the change because the detail as drawn was impossible to build. The change was included on the shop drowings the contractor submitted to the architect and the structural engineer. Likely a junior engineer in the structural engineer's office was assigned the task of checking the shop drawings, but as a matter of record, the shop drawings with the detail change were approved.

Later some smartalec went through the Freedom of Information act and got the inspection pay records from Kansas City Building Department. During the construction of this $50 million building, the inspectors billed just eight and one half (8.5) minutes per week in inspections.

Don't blame the kid. It was a lousy design. If you want details, have got those too.