The Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkways Collapse

On July 17, 1981, during a weekly tea dance, two suspended walkways in the atrium area of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapsed, killing 114 people and injuring 185. The collapse was one of the most serious structural failures in the history of the United States. 

The hotel included a 40-story guest room tower, a four-story wing containing restaurants and meeting rooms, and a large, open atrium. The atrium contained three suspended walkways at the second-, third-, and fourth-floor levels which cormected the tower section with the restaurants and meeting rooms. Each walkway was 120 feet long and approximately 8 /2 feet wide. 

The second- and fourth-floor walkways were constructed one above another along the west wall of the atrium. The third-floor level walkway was independently suspended from the atrium roof trusses and was built about 13 feet toward the center of the room. The third-floor walkway was not involved in the collapse. The second-floor walkway was suspended from the fourth-floor walkway, which in turn was suspended from the roof framing. 

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the mayor of Kansas City requested that the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) conduct an independent investigation to determine the cause of the collapse (16). There were, of course, other investigations and hearings as well as at least 150 lawsuits seeking total damages of 1.5 billion. 

Instead of using continuous rods, however, the contractor hung the walkways from two separate sets of rods. Each fourth-floor hox beam had two holes at each end, one 2 inches from the end and the other 6 inches from the end. The upper hanger rod passed through the outer hole, while the lower hanger rod, onto which hung the second-floor walkway, passed through the inner hole. A nut-and-washer cormection was used on the ends of the rods. 

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