Toronto Star: Inspectors saw risk
May 17, 2007 04:30 AM
Robyn Doolittle
Staff Reporter
The slab of marble that plummeted off the side of First Canadian Place was one of hundreds identified as a risk during a recent inspection, a city official says, adding that none was thought to be an immediate threat.
The 115-kilogram panel plunged 51 storeys to a third-floor roof on Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured, but police closed surrounding streets, which caused traffic chaos in the financial district all day yesterday.
King St. W. remained closed last night and will continue to be blocked for several days while the investigation continues, leaving 48,000 streetcar riders and thousands of drivers facing major delays.
“I’ve been told this one that cracked and fell was a one-off, an anomaly, and that none of the others (are unsafe),” said Jim Laughlin, Toronto’s deputy chief building official. “They’re now looking at these with a fine-tooth comb. We’re demanding that this happen.”
STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR
Workers inspect tiles a day after winds ripped a slab of marble off First Canadian Place on May 15, 2007.
The City of Toronto has issued a work order against First Canadian Place to resolve remaining safety concerns. Brookfield Properties, which owns and operates the King St. tower, routinely conducts audits of the building’s siding, which is covered with thousands of the marble slabs. Engineers search for cracks and bowing in the 2.5-centimetre-thick panels – held in place by steel brackets – then replace potentially problematic slabs as needed.
Building engineers spent most of yesterday painstakingly examining each panel of the tower. By late afternoon, police had reopened Adelaide and Bay Sts. but Brookfield spokesperson Melissa Coley said the south side facing King St. W. has not yet been cleared.
Inspection crews got off to a late start, she added, because of strong morning winds.
Gusts of up to 75 km/h hammered the tower’s west side Tuesday afternoon. At some point a corner panel cracked in half and dropped to a rooftop below.
“They’ve closed off everything,” said Frank George pointing to the door of an outdoor patio furnished with tables and chairs. The slab landed a few dozen metres away.
“We’re just lucky that no one got hurt,” said the veteran First Canadian Place maintenance worker. “They’ve been fixing them for years, replacing old ones with new ones.”
The type of marble in question is soft, Italian Carrara stone, the same material Michelangelo used to carve David. Without speculating what could have caused the accident, principal architect Michael McClelland of E.R.A. Architects said when First Canadian Place was built in 1975, little was known about the use of veneer marble slabs on buildings.
“At the time of construction, using thin veneer stone was fairly new and I don’t think they were fully aware of the property of thin stone veneer and how it would function over the long term. We know much more about the functioning of veneers now than in the ’70s when it was built.”
Police were quick to point to the severe weather as a factor.
Strong winds and rain pummelled the GTA on Tuesday afternoon. Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said wind gusts at ground level were clocked at 48 km/h at 3 p.m. Typically, winds would be 50 per cent stronger near the top of First Canadian Place, which is the country’s highest office building.
While police cordoned off streets and sidewalks surrounding the tower, passersby circled the area, gawking at the glaring hole on the building’s southwest side.
Many paused to take photos with camera phones. Even rerouted drivers and streetcar commuters paused at the King and Bay Sts. intersection to steal a view. TTC spokesperson Marilyn Bolton said the added delays for streetcar riders are unfortunate, especially since the King St. line is one of the busiest routes.
“This is an inconvenience to our costumers but I never think inconvenience is a problem when safety is involved.”
Inspections will continue throughout the day.
source: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/214892
CP24：Commuters Dread Second Day Of Gridlock As King St. Stays Closed
Wednesday May 16, 2007
How can something so high up be causing so much trouble so far below? That’s just one of the questions drivers are asking after enduring the first of what could be a very long few days of gridlock in one of the busiest sections of the downtown core. It started just after 3pm Tuesday, when a 140-kilogram tile fell from the 60th floor of First Canadian Place. It hit the third floor atrium, preventing it from reaching the ground and potentially hitting a pedestrian or smashing into a car. But the danger was far from over.
Cops made the difficult decision to close three major arteries – King St. W., Adelaide St. W. between York and Bay, as well as a section of Bay St. itself, because there were no guarantees another deadly bit of debris wouldn’t come crashing down at any minute. The result – all day gridlock that only left motorists’ blood pressures going fast. Cars barely moved, as pedestrians, also hampered by the closure, left them standing still.
But some taking a stroll in the financial district admitted they looked up at the dangerous gap the fallen tile had left and wondered about how safe they really were. “Think about it. You’re walking; all of a sudden something just falling on you. Of course you’re going to pay a little more attention to it,” one concerned passerby agrees.
Another notes, “I’m always aware of it, it’s like when you have windstorms and so on, you can feel things of water falling off the roof but I’m not really afraid of it or anything.”
And the Better Way became the more frustrating way, as vehicles that run along the busiest streetcar route in the city were forced to turn off onto Wellington, Queen and Spadina, creating new traffic trauma on the alternates.
Finally, around 3pm, came the first bit of good news in a while – authorities decided to re-open Bay and Adelaide, just in time for the afternoon rush. What took so long? Inspectors spent the day going over every single tile on the building. But while that eased the problem, it won’t end it. Authorities admit they may be forced to keep King St. closed for the rest of the week until they can be sure there are no more hazards.
Meanwhile, the owners of First Canadian Place, which insists that inspections are held every six months, aren’t off the hook for all this fuss. The city of Toronto has issued a safety work order against the building to ensure compliance with all regulations. But for Thursday and into Friday, that will do little to help those who work in the area.
Officials think violent thunderstorms that tore through the GTA Tuesday may be to blame for the loosened white marble square. The building is covered in thousands of them. Your best bet? Use the underground PATH system if you’re walking or take the subway past the sealed off area. But if you must use your car, you’ll also need to use something else Toronto drivers aren’t noted for – your patience. And that may be a lot harder to come by.
source: http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_11040.aspx
King Street closure to last several days
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 – 05:34 PM
By: Shauna Hunt and 680News staff
Toronto – A portion of King Street, which surrounds First Canadian Place, will remain closed for several more days after a chunk of marble tile fell off the skyscraper during Tuesday’s storm.
The 140-kilogram tile plummeted 60 stories, but fell on a third floor roof below.
King, Bay, Adelaide and York streets were closed to pedestrians and traffic after fears that more marble tiles may fall of the building’s exterior.
King Street West remains closed to both traffic and pedestrians between Bay and York streets; however, Bay Street and Adelaide Street West and York Street reopened late-afternoon.
Meanwhile, structural engineer Christian Baldini told 680News Toronto is an aging city – as many skyscrapers were built decades ago and most of the city’s brownstone structures were built over a hundred years ago.
“We have found buildings that have been been poorly maintained over their history,” he said.
He called the falling marble on King Street a rare occurrence, but does admit that some of the city’s building maintenance is not up to par.
“Hopefully this having happened on one building will spur other building owners to get out there and take a look at their buildings,” Baldini said.
He added there is no program in place to make sure the city’s buildings are kept up to safety standards, as it is the owner’s responsibility.
http://680news.com/news/topstory/article.jsp?content=20070516_102631_5196
