BUILDING MISHAP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1939, Page 3

BUILDING MISHAP

ROOF UNDER CONSTRUCTION COLLAPSES HANGAR AT HAREWOOD AIRPORT. DAMAGE TO STEEL FRAMING. < (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. November 28. Without warning the 30-ton roof 3 structure of the partly-completed steel ‘ frame of the big hangar at Harewood airport collapsed this afternoon, weeks of work being undone. It is feared that the damage will be great, as the . roof girders and part of the steel frame of the walls were considerably buckled ) when the mass of steel fell. ) Two men were on the structure just ? before it collapsed, and several were > working nearby on the ground, but no one was injured. 5 The length of delay on the building 1 and the amount of damage will not ! be known accurately till it is known how much of the material in the hangar has to be replaced. Investigation of this will be begun tomorrow by Mr ) C. W. Turner, chief designing enginI eer of the Public Works Department, Wellington, who was directed to leave 1 for Christchurch tonight, after being 1 notified of the accident. , The cause of the collapse of the ; structure was unknown when inquiries I were made this evening. Mr F. Langi bein, district .engineer to the Public ' Works Department, said that the col--1 lapse of the roof was probably not ’ caused by a fault in the design of the structure, nor by weakness of the steel 1 components or flaws in the metal. The most probable explanation was that ' the method adopted in erecting the , arched structure of roof had some ' weakness in it. Numerous buildings of this type, Mr c Lanbein said, had been built in Australia, and had apparently given no ' trouble, and there was at least one precedent in New Zealand, since a * hangar with an identical roof construe- 1 tion had been erected successfully at * r Auckland. The contract for the construction of . the two hangars at the airport is let 1 to B. Moore and Sons, Ltd., Christchurch, and the sub-contract for the J fabrication and erection of the steel J works is let to the Wellington firm of 1 Cable and Co., Ltd. S The length of each of the hangars is s about 255 ft and the span is 126 ft, the a maximum height from ground to roof being about 35ft. The building of the n roof is on what is known as Tydarch c principle, and consists of steel ribs, 1 bent into the form of an arch. Ribs j 3 or girders are spaced at intervals of , about 15ft, and about 12 of these gir- ** ders had been erected after several weeks of work by this afternoon, their combined weight being about 30 tons. 4 The steel frames supporting the arch ll and the carrying walls had their up- g ' per parts damaged when the heavy structure of the roof fell, and the arch- 1 ed girders themselves were considerably buckled. Work on the hangars, each of which, it is believed, will have 01 cost about £lO.OOO to £15,000 on com- lT pletion, started a few months ago, and tc was expected to finish early next year. The second of the hangars is also un- ei der construction, though work on the arched roof has not yet been started. fl Difficulty in procuring steel to replace n the damaged parts of the hangar may be encountered, and consequently may w be a factor in delay in finishing. w