Oct 6, 2009 12:04 pm US/Central
Feds: Design Flaws Led To Building Collapse
By Kent Chapline
IRVING (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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Four Dallas Cowboys staff members were injured Saturday when the roof of the team's indoor practice facility collapsed.
CBS
A federal government report says the Dallas Cowboys practice facility collapsed because of problems with the building's design.
The fabric-covered building
collapsed during a thunderstorm on May 2, 2009.
Several people were hurt.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology released
a draft report Tuesday. It says the building should have stood up to the winds that day, estimated at 55 to 65 miles per hour.
The report says national standards require buildings of this kind to be able to withstand 90 MPH winds.
The building, which was constructed in 2003, was made of several arched steel frames, similar to ribs. The frames were then covered with fabric.
Government investigators say "assumptions and approaches" used in the design of the Cowboys building led to the problems. Among other problems, they say the building's designers expected the fabric covering to provide some support to the steel frames. But the government's testers say the fabric did not add any extra support.
They also say the design did not take into account the possibility that some of the steel framework might bend under strong winds.
The Cowboys facility was built by
Summit Structures, LLC, of Allentown, Pennsylvania. At least
four other structures built by the company
have collapsed in the past seven years.
The government's report also recommends that similar buildings be inspected to be sure they can handle strong winds.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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