Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse (1981)

A Case Study Presented to the

Faculty of the Instrumentation and Control Engineering Department
College of Engineering, Architecture, Fine Arts and Computing Sciences
Batangas State University
Batangas City

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Science in Instrumentation and Control Engineering

By:

Silang, Jhayrald C.

15-58634

July, 2019
 Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse (1981)

Construction on Hyatt Regency

Kansas City began in the late
1970’s. This 45-story, Missouri
hotel was once the city’s tallest
building, measuring in at 504 ft.
The defining feature of the hotel
was the lobby atrium consisting
of three overhead walkways.
These crossings connected the
north and south wings for the
second, third and fourth floors.
On July 17th, 1981, two of these
walkways collapsed during a hotel event in which 1,600 people were in attendance. This disaster killed 114
and injured 214 people. To this day, the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse remains a sobering example of
industry negligence and a constant reminder of why accuracy in design and prefabrication is crucial.

The cause of the incident can be traced all the way back to the design process specifically a fatal
change the steel manufacturer made to
the original walkway design plan.

The original plan, designed by Jack D.

Gillum and Associates, called for six
steel hanger rods to run directly from the
second floor walkway to the ceiling for
support.

However, the steel manufacturing

contractor objected to this design. The
plan required rods be screw threaded to hold the fourth floor walkway in place, and the contractor identified
this as potential material hazard that could cause threading damage.

Havens Steel Company proposed a new plan: a set of tie rods that connected the fourth floor walkway to
the ceiling, and a separate set that connected the second floor walkway to the fourth floor walkway.
In the revised design plan, which was ultimately used for construction, the second floor walkway support
was connected to the fourth floor walkway and therefore the upper hanger rods of the fourth floor walkway
took on undue strain.

What designers didn’t realize at the time and what investigators discovered after the fact is that this
configuration effectively doubled the load of the fourth floor walkway since it took on the load of the
walkway below it. Investigators found that the tie rods connecting the fourth floor walkway to the ceiling
could barely hold the dead load off the fourth floor walkway alone much less the added weight of
spectators. As a result, the fourth floor walkway fell onto the second floor walkway, and then both structures
fell to the crowded lobby below.

In conclusion one of the greatest errors made in the construction of the Hyatt Regency walkways
was miscommunication. A lack of collaboration between the construction company and the steel contractors
lead to faulty prefabrication, unstable design, and an overall shoddy structure. Unsafe acts were emphasized
when the constructed support was done since this design was never tested and calculated by the engineers
assigned in the design while Unsafe condition were met when the walkway is rendered safe to operate
without any further test. If one thing can be learned from this tragedy, it’s that every stage of a construction
project has a significant effect on safety. From prefabrication, to erection, negligence at any project stage
can have dire consequences. This disaster has changed engineering and has even been used as a case study
for students across the globe.