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Walkways collapseRemoval of span displeases mayorKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Workers using torches and a crane dismantled the last remaining walkway over the Hyatt Regency Hotel lobby before dawn Thursday, and the mayor warned the action “would not build public confidence” in the investigation of last week’s disaster.The four sections of the 45-ton third-floor span were hauled on a huge flatbed truck to a warehouse four blocks south of the hotel, joining debris from the two walkways that coilapsed on a crowd of dancers Friday, killing 111 and injuring 188“We felt it was unacceptable to continue any condition that presented any possibility that the events of Friday night could be repeated in any degree,” said James C. McClune, president of Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., owner of the hotel which is managed by the Hyatt chain.McClune said the walkway had already been examined in place by lawyers and investigators, and he said further inspections could be done more safely in the warehouseCrown Center said the debris would be available to inspectors who submit a written request to see the wreckage. Two federal inspectors were refused admission to the warehouse Wednesday because they had failed to submit the proper requests.Mayor Richard Berkley said federal officials told him “there would be advantages to testing the third bridge in place” in efforts to determine what caused the second- and fourth-floor walkways to fail. The third-floor walkway was not positioned between the others and remained standing.Berkley, informed after midnight by a reporter that the walkway was being removed, called Donald Hall, president of Hallmark Cards, Inc., parent company for the redevelopment corporation. Details of that 2 a.m. conversation were not madepublic.“I don’t know why (the removal) needed to be done in the middle of the night,” Berkley said, “It also seems to me that this kind of action does not build public confidence.”Berkley called several city officials in the pre-dawn hours to see if the city had any way of halting the removal. He was told the city was powerless because the dismantling was on private property.“The horse is pretty-well out of the barn,” replied Dan Jackson, assistant city attorney, when asked byreporters if action was planned to halt the move.John E. Shamberg, an attorney representing victims of the collapse, said an engineer hired by his firm had examined the third-floor span Wednesday and found indications of stress.In Friday’s accident, the fourth-floor span, 45 feet above the lobby, dropped onto the second-floor span, 30 feet directly below. The third-floor walkway is 30 feet above the ground and just east of the two that fellMeanwhile, Myron Calkins, city public works director, said he had been surprised to learn that during construction in October 1979 a large section of the atrium roof crashed four stories into the lobby.A spokesman for Crown Center had said at the time that a single beam had fallen, but the collapse was documented in photos released Wednesday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Freedom of Information Act.“I don’t recall in detail what was told to me,” Calkins said, “but it would not have been anything about a roof falling or else it would have been of more importance than justpassing interest.”
Newspaper Details
Panama City News Herald
Panama City, Florida, US
Fri, Jul 24, 1981
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Toni L.
NA, NA 16 May 2023
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