Construction Litigation Through the Lens of Engineering: Differing Site Conditions, Design Errors, and Construction Defects

WEBVTT
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Nice to have you all join us. My name is Jeffrey
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Hunt, and I'm joined here by my colleague, Dr.
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Saj Salam. And we will be giving a webinar today
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on construction defects, design errors, deficiencies,
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and talk about some of our experience in working
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with lawyers in construction litigation. And
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we'll present some of our views. Maybe some tips
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and tricks that we've learned in working with
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construction lawyers. Again, this is from an
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engineering point of view. So we'll walk through
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some of the typical steps that we. Step through
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in an investigation and then on the 2nd half
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of the presentation. We will go through some
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case studies. So. Saj, if you want to advance
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to the next slide, we can give a quick introduction
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to ourselves. So again, Dr. Jeffrey Hunt, I am
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a principal engineer in exponents Orange County
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office in our civil and structural engineering
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practice. I've got a PhD in structural engineering.
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I'm licensed. in California and several other
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states and I primarily work in the investigation
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of damage or collapses of buildings and structures
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and I investigate design issues or construction
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defects and various types of construction including
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residential commercial and industrial facilities
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and specialize in evaluating the standard of
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engineering care. Saaj. Good afternoon, everyone.
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Thanks for joining us. My name is Saaj Salam.
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I'm a managing engineer in the civil and structural
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engineering practice at Exponent. I am licensed
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in California, Texas, and Illinois. And my education
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background is in civil and geotechnical engineering.
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as well as data science. And I have experience
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in providing both reactive and proactive consultation
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to my clients. And today we are gonna present
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about the construction litigation through the
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lens of engineering. And as Jeff mentioned, we
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are gonna focus on construction defects, design
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errors, and in particular, we are going to look
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at how experts and engineers can work effectively
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together from the beginning of an investigation
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toward the litigation and successful dispute
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resolution and trial. So moving forward, we have
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divided this presentation in three sections.
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We are going to start with common construction
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disputes and key project participants. And then
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we are going to talk about the investigation
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process in forensic engineering. We are going
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to look at this process from two perspectives.
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One's from experts' perspective and one's from
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the console perspective. And we go over what
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actions they can take at each step. And lastly,
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we are going to look at the application of this
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forensic engineering process in some real cases
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and some examples. When an engineer becomes involved
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in a construction dispute, usually we are provided
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with some legally framed questions. But behind
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those, there are some technical questions that
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we need to answer. So here we have a framework
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that shows those technical questions that an
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expert needs to answer in construction disputes.
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At the top level, we have four categories that
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are frequently used to describe the construction
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disputes. There are differing site conditions
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or DSC, design errors, construction defects,
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and product failures. And at the lower level,
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we have delays, cost overruns, and fatality and
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or injury. And we have intentionally separated
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these from the one above because these three
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categories are usually the consequence of one
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or more technical issues that we see at the higher
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level. For example, if during the excavation
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they noticed some different material like hard
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rock that pushed the contractor to change their
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excavation method and that can become a different
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site condition, it can itself result in some
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delays or additional cost for the excavation.
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So we are going to go over each of these categories
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in more detail so we will have a better understanding
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of what each of these mean and what they can
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involve. So let's start with differing site condition,
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which in my opinion is one of the most complicated
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one. It is defined as a physical condition that
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is encountered during the construction and is
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materially different than what was identified
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during the contract and what could be reasonably
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expected or predicted before before the construction.
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We have to note that something unexpected does
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not automatically mean deferring site condition.
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Let's go over one example as it's shown in this
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cartoon here. Your contractor may have access
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to the boring logs and some subsurface explorations
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that has been done before the construction or
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before the design and based on those information
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they may expect soil below some soft soil below
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the ground but while they start the construction,
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they may encounter some blocks. So they may need
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to change their construction method and they
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may claim that, okay, we are encountering something
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materially different and this is a different
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site condition situation. But from an engineering
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perspective, like what we do, we are gonna review
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all the available informations, all the information
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in the contracts. and what was discussed in the
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geotechnical report and expected variability
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in what was mentioned in the contract. And then
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on the other side, we're going to characterize
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the actual condition and be able to evaluate
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these two against each other. And then we can
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say if the claim is valid and if indeed we have
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a different side condition, something that is
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materially different and causes the contractor
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to change their method of construction or method
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of excavation. And at the same time, council
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can do some actions like going through the contract
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to review the contractual DSC provision, risk
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allocations, notice requirements, or some other
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things that is beyond the scope of expert. So
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let's go to the next one. It's design errors
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and omissions. It can involve deficiencies in
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plans, specifications, or engineering calculations
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and these things usually can result in unsafe
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conditions or even failure of your structure
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element. But this category is not limited to
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mathematical mistakes. It can involve some incorrect
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assumptions, some missing details in drawings
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or something that technically exists in the drawings
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but is really hard or impossible to construct
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in reality. And we are going to go through a
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few examples. Actually, Jeff is going to go through
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some examples that shows this type of category
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that is kind of common in reality. The next one
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is construction defects. So here we are shifting
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our focus from design to what actually was constructed.
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And this type of technical issues usually involve
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improper workmanship, failure to follow plans
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and specifications, poor quality control or deviation
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from industry standards. And what experts can
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do in this category, they basically go and look
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at what was built and evaluate it against the
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specifications and drawings. So now I can say
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that in many construction disputes, there is
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one central question like, was the design adequate
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or was an adequate design constructed incorrectly?
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Sometimes the answer is one, sometimes it's the
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other and sometimes it's both. Each of these
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contributes relatively to the alleged damages.
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So moving to the next one is product or material
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failure. This can involve the failure of the
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material itself or manufactured equipment or
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construction product or simply something that
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has been used it's not suitable for the project
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specification. For this type of construction
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dispute, the preservation of the evidence is
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very important and consoles need to facilitate
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the site access and taking evidence and example
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as soon as possible. We are going to discuss
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this later when we go through the forensic engineering
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investigation process. Next one is construction
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delays and disruptions. This can be due to many
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different technical circumstances. For example,
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design change or weather, owner actions, supply
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chain issues. So some of these may not sound
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technical, but basically your expert can go and
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review the situation, do the analysis and evaluate
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the technical circumstances that has led to the
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delay. For example, if there is a change and
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some rework is needed and the contractor is claiming
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that we needed to redo some work, we can go and
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study if that work was just a corrective work
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or if it was because of a design change or it
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was included or a part of the original document's
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original design. And besides, the engineering
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experts for this type of construction disputes
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usually scheduling experts go and look if the
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event was part of the critical pass and how much
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of that claim is compensated. So this one, just
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one example that sometimes you have different
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experts working together to help you to resolve
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a dispute. Next one is payment and contract disputes.
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This one is less engineered, focused, and it's
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more like what is in the contract. But again,
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there are some technical issues underlying this
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type of construction disputes, and your expert
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can go and do analysis to establish those technical
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issues and see if, for example, the change order
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that was submitted by the contractor is a valid
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one or it was something that was already included
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in the original design. And lastly is fatality
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and injuries. This one can involve safety conditions,
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temporary works, or structural stability. The
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stakes are different here, but still those basic
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forensic methodology remains the same here. So
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we have to go preserve the evidence, understand
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the mechanism of the event, reconstruct the sequence
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of the events. and identify the root cause and
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evaluate the causation. Okay, so this was about
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the construction dispute categories that I showed
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in the diagram. And now we can move forward and
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look at the multi -party communication and the
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importance of this concept in construction disputes.
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Jeff, do you want to take over? Yep. I think
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a lot of the issues Saaz has mentioned involving
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design errors and construction defects or workplace
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accidents even come down to issues with communication.
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And there are multiple people involved, multiple
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firms, multiple parties. I'm showing that graphically
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here with a simple sketch. And this is for a
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traditional project delivery method of design
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bid build here where the owner developer hires
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a design team. Those are the architect or engineers
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involved and the owner hires a construction team
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quarterbacked by the general contractor. The
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owner has for both of those parties has to define
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their scope and communicate some level of their
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vision for the project. And you can see with
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the arrows deliverables or ways of communication
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between these parties. So the design team for
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example has to memorialize their design back
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to the owner through design drawings and calculations.
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They have to communicate with the construction
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team through responses to requests for information
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or review of submittals, comments on those submittals,
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to make sure that the construction team's interpretation
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of their design follows the design team's intent.
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And then the construction team has to communicate
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with the owner through its actual physical construction
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and purchasing of materials, and with the engineer
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through RFIs and submittals. So these two -way
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paths of communication become very important,
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and it's important that they're clear and follow
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the duty of care that engineers and contractors
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owe to each other and to the owner. Off to the
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side on this slide, you can see a couple of other
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examples of other parties. The HJ or authority
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having jurisdiction, you know, the local building
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department issuing permits or performing inspections.
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They also communicate and work with. Design team
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and the construction team. Special inspectors
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also are involved and sometimes 3rd party representatives
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for the owner. Their technical eyes and ears
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are sometimes hired separately. to communicate
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with the general contractor on progress and making
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sure that the owner stays involved from an independent
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point of view. So any one break in the link here
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can cause or initiate some of these types of
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claims. Okay, so yeah, that's about the first.
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section of the presentation today, and now we
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can move toward the investigation process in
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forensic engineering. In this section, we are
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going to go over a five -step framework called
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investigation process in forensic engineering,
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and we are going to do it here, both engineering
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expert and consult perspective. So you will have
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the gold color which represent the actions that
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needs to be taken by the console at each step.
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And then we switch back and forth between gold
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and blue or teal color that represents the actions
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that are taken by the expert at each step. So
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let's start with step one, which we call it gather
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facts. So in this step, the console is supposed
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to notify the insurance and engage their experts
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as early as possible and preserve evidence. For
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example, for construction disputes, for most
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of them, specifically for the product or material
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failure, this step is really important because
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what is the subject of the dispute could be or
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that evidence could be perishable or it could
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be gone, like one failed retaining structure
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can be repaired. or an excavation can be backfield.
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So you want to be timely and be at the site and
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take examples and make observations. So following
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up on that, the console needs to collect relevant
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records and get as much as documents that they
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can. either it's design, construction, or whatever
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else, and also facilitate site access and testing,
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because you will see shortly that your expert
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during the first step needs to do a site visit
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or site inspection. And it's helpful to identify
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key witnesses so your expert can communicate
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with them and understand better what happened
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and basically reconstruct the sequence of the
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events. So meanwhile, during the step one, your
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expert is going to meet with project team and
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do interviews, do the document reviews. Hopefully
00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:21.730
they have received some documents before going
00:18:21.730 --> 00:18:24.890
to the site and review them beforehand. And they
00:18:24.890 --> 00:18:27.950
will do site inspections. And when they're at
00:18:27.950 --> 00:18:32.589
the site, they can do some observations, do interviews
00:18:32.589 --> 00:18:36.029
with the owner or some other key witnesses that
00:18:36.029 --> 00:18:39.829
hopefully are present to help to explain what
00:18:39.829 --> 00:18:42.650
happened and how the failure occurred. And they're
00:18:42.650 --> 00:18:45.430
going to do some data collections like taking
00:18:45.430 --> 00:18:48.809
evidences, taking examples. And they can do even
00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:51.470
some testing at the site. And for some specific
00:18:51.470 --> 00:18:53.809
projects, they may need to take some samples
00:18:53.809 --> 00:18:56.309
to do additional testing and measurements in
00:18:56.309 --> 00:18:59.829
the lab. Throughout this process, we are going
00:18:59.829 --> 00:19:03.710
to use one example as this retaining wall failure
00:19:03.710 --> 00:19:07.970
to just make you follow the actions in different
00:19:07.970 --> 00:19:12.269
steps and understand everything easier. So let's
00:19:12.269 --> 00:19:15.390
move on to step two. We call it determine the
00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:19.069
failure mechanism. At this step, console needs
00:19:19.069 --> 00:19:22.569
to help their expert and obtain the missing records.
00:19:22.930 --> 00:19:27.269
Your expert to do their analysis may need documents
00:19:27.269 --> 00:19:30.690
from the design phase, like contracts, design
00:19:30.690 --> 00:19:33.490
drawings, calculations, or any report that was
00:19:33.490 --> 00:19:37.750
produced. during the design phase, and they may
00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:40.490
need to review the construction phase documents,
00:19:40.849 --> 00:19:43.750
like again contracts, erection drawings, shop
00:19:43.750 --> 00:19:46.390
drawings, all the way to even photographs or
00:19:46.390 --> 00:19:49.349
daily reports from during the construction. And
00:19:49.349 --> 00:19:52.150
if the failure happened during the operation,
00:19:52.430 --> 00:19:55.710
they may need to review the documents that were
00:19:55.710 --> 00:19:59.150
produced during the operation, like any renovations
00:19:59.150 --> 00:20:01.869
or remodels that caused some additional load
00:20:01.869 --> 00:20:05.400
or removal of some supporting elements from your
00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:10.819
structure. And while you provide all these documents
00:20:10.819 --> 00:20:13.960
and establish the timeline of the project from
00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:16.900
the idea to the construction and then operation,
00:20:17.400 --> 00:20:21.839
you need to allow independent analysis. So you
00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:25.339
only need to frame the question, the legal question
00:20:25.339 --> 00:20:29.740
to your expert and basically tell them what questions
00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:32.599
matter. what you need to answer, but you need
00:20:32.599 --> 00:20:34.900
to let them to approach the problem from their
00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:37.240
own engineering perspective, because there is
00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.480
a very important concept in forensic engineering
00:20:41.480 --> 00:20:45.619
that says that evidence first, hypothesis second.
00:20:45.859 --> 00:20:49.279
So you shouldn't put anything in their mind about
00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:51.839
what could have happened or what could be the
00:20:51.839 --> 00:20:54.359
mechanism of failure. So you need to allow the
00:20:54.359 --> 00:20:57.940
independent analysis by your expert. So at this
00:20:57.940 --> 00:21:00.569
point, let's move to what the expert is doing
00:21:00.569 --> 00:21:02.710
during the step two, which is determine the failure
00:21:02.710 --> 00:21:07.349
mechanism. So in the photo, you can see that
00:21:07.349 --> 00:21:10.109
now there is a lateral pressure to the retaining
00:21:10.109 --> 00:21:13.289
wall and some outward movement of the wall. So
00:21:13.289 --> 00:21:15.589
that is basically showing that what is happening
00:21:15.589 --> 00:21:18.349
to this wall. And that is what your expert is
00:21:18.349 --> 00:21:21.430
doing during the step two. They are back from
00:21:21.430 --> 00:21:24.309
their site inspection. They have reviewed some
00:21:24.309 --> 00:21:26.890
documents that they have been provided up to
00:21:26.890 --> 00:21:29.539
that point. They have required some additional
00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:32.180
document from you. By putting all those things
00:21:32.180 --> 00:21:34.779
together, they are forming their opinion about
00:21:34.779 --> 00:21:38.480
the mechanism of the failure, which says how
00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:41.519
that failure happened. So this is different than
00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:44.259
why the failure happened, because the question
00:21:44.259 --> 00:21:48.160
why is related to the root cause of this failure.
00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:50.839
So at this point, we only need to define the
00:21:50.839 --> 00:21:53.799
physical behavior of the system during the failure.
00:21:54.920 --> 00:21:58.500
Moving forward during step three, which we call
00:21:58.500 --> 00:22:02.839
it determine the root causes, the council needs
00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:06.859
to provide competing evidence or if the opening
00:22:06.859 --> 00:22:10.000
parties have produced any reports and it's shareable,
00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:12.700
they need to share that with their expert. They
00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:16.200
need to identify the contractual requirements
00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:19.599
and also discuss alternative theories and test
00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:21.920
assumptions because at this point your expert
00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:25.410
has started to form some opinions about the root
00:22:25.410 --> 00:22:28.849
causes of this failure. And I would like to explain
00:22:28.849 --> 00:22:31.789
the last two bullet points using this photograph
00:22:31.789 --> 00:22:36.930
that you see on the right. That cat apparently
00:22:36.930 --> 00:22:40.690
did not cause the failure or the sagging in that
00:22:40.690 --> 00:22:43.309
steel roof. So that means that the correlation
00:22:43.309 --> 00:22:47.349
does not imply causation. So at the failure,
00:22:47.650 --> 00:22:51.970
a crack may exist, a construction deviation may
00:22:51.970 --> 00:22:55.099
exist at the failure. An unusual weather event
00:22:55.099 --> 00:22:59.460
may exist, but the engineering role is not if
00:22:59.460 --> 00:23:02.299
something existed at the failure or not. Their
00:23:02.299 --> 00:23:07.940
role is to tell if that factor had a causal role
00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:11.700
to the observed failure. So at this point, you
00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.019
need to question your expert. If they come to
00:23:14.019 --> 00:23:16.180
you about the mechanism of the failure and some
00:23:16.180 --> 00:23:18.680
root causes that they have identified, you need
00:23:18.680 --> 00:23:20.960
to challenge them. You have to question them.
00:23:21.069 --> 00:23:24.869
What evidence is supporting your opinion? What
00:23:24.869 --> 00:23:27.930
other theories you have considered to form your
00:23:27.930 --> 00:23:31.009
opinion? And what other evidences may cause you
00:23:31.009 --> 00:23:34.069
to change your opinion? And I keep saying challenging,
00:23:34.269 --> 00:23:37.630
not changing, because you shouldn't make your
00:23:37.630 --> 00:23:39.970
expert to change their opinion. You just need
00:23:39.970 --> 00:23:44.829
to challenge your expert. Okay, let's move to
00:23:44.829 --> 00:23:47.589
the third step. I briefly discussed that when
00:23:47.589 --> 00:23:50.920
I was talking about the console. actions during
00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:55.180
step three. So during this step your expert knows
00:23:55.180 --> 00:23:58.720
about the failure mechanism. Hopefully they have
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:01.160
been provided a lot of documents and they have
00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:03.619
reviewed them and they are in the process of
00:24:03.619 --> 00:24:06.680
doing their engineering analysis to answer some
00:24:06.680 --> 00:24:11.160
important questions. Like if the work done by
00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:15.720
firm X or contractor Y played a role in this
00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:19.890
failure, if the design was appropriate. if construction
00:24:19.890 --> 00:24:23.049
was appropriate, or maintenance was appropriate,
00:24:23.490 --> 00:24:26.549
like was environmental loading extreme? And they
00:24:26.549 --> 00:24:29.670
also need to identify some irrelevant errors
00:24:29.670 --> 00:24:33.569
on missions and actions. To better explain these
00:24:33.569 --> 00:24:36.430
bullet points, I'm going to again use the cartoon
00:24:36.430 --> 00:24:40.329
that we have on the right. We have, as you can
00:24:40.329 --> 00:24:43.849
see, we have added rainfall to this cartoon.
00:24:44.049 --> 00:24:47.029
So let's assume we had an unusual weather event,
00:24:47.210 --> 00:24:50.380
a lot of rainfall. a lot of seepage behind the
00:24:50.380 --> 00:24:53.660
wall. So it will cause, it may cause some hydrostatic
00:24:53.660 --> 00:24:57.599
pressure to the wall, but the rainfall by itself
00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:00.319
cannot establish a failure because we have to
00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:03.859
look at the drainage condition and ask the question
00:25:03.859 --> 00:25:07.539
if the drainage was properly designed. And then
00:25:07.539 --> 00:25:10.339
we have to ask if the drainage was properly designed,
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.240
was it constructed properly? If it was constructed
00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:17.799
properly, Was it maintained properly and was
00:25:17.799 --> 00:25:22.240
letting water to just be drained and be out from
00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:24.660
behind the wall? So we have to answer all these
00:25:24.660 --> 00:25:29.200
questions and identify all the factors and among
00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:32.460
all those, find the root cause. So there is one
00:25:32.460 --> 00:25:36.500
important, another important concept in forensic
00:25:36.500 --> 00:25:39.259
engineering that is to understand that something
00:25:39.259 --> 00:25:43.160
can be deficient, but not causative. So we have
00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:47.750
to find the one that is the primary cause of
00:25:47.750 --> 00:25:52.269
the failure. So let's now move to the step four.
00:25:52.569 --> 00:25:57.450
We call it evaluate contributing factors. So
00:25:57.450 --> 00:26:00.089
at this point, you have been provided some opinions
00:26:00.089 --> 00:26:03.730
about the root cause and maybe some other contributing
00:26:03.730 --> 00:26:06.710
factors to the failure. And you need to start
00:26:06.710 --> 00:26:11.049
connecting findings to claims and defenses. And
00:26:11.049 --> 00:26:14.319
in a multi -party construction disputes, which
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:18.099
is very common. You rarely have one construction
00:26:18.099 --> 00:26:20.119
dispute that there is only two parties. Usually
00:26:20.119 --> 00:26:24.240
there are several parties. So you need to explore
00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:28.259
multiple causes and multiple parties. And also
00:26:28.259 --> 00:26:31.000
at this point, you need to assess need for further
00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:35.490
investigations. Now let's move on and look at
00:26:35.490 --> 00:26:38.230
what the expert is doing at this step. So at
00:26:38.230 --> 00:26:41.609
this step the engineering analysis has been done
00:26:41.609 --> 00:26:44.670
and they are looking at different factors and
00:26:44.670 --> 00:26:48.269
they are trying to identify the primary cause,
00:26:48.970 --> 00:26:52.230
secondary causes and relative contribution of
00:26:52.230 --> 00:26:56.750
each factor. So as I mentioned before something
00:26:56.750 --> 00:27:00.750
can be wrong but not important to the failure
00:27:00.750 --> 00:27:04.549
or there might be some separate factors that
00:27:04.549 --> 00:27:07.190
individually may not have produced the failure,
00:27:07.309 --> 00:27:10.589
but they may have interacted with each other
00:27:10.589 --> 00:27:13.630
leading to the failure. And here in the cartoon,
00:27:14.109 --> 00:27:17.910
I have added the added search. So maybe we had
00:27:17.910 --> 00:27:22.450
a lot of water behind behind the wall and the
00:27:22.450 --> 00:27:25.869
drainage was not working properly. But maybe
00:27:25.869 --> 00:27:30.609
the load. that was being applied by the hydrostatic
00:27:30.609 --> 00:27:33.190
pressure was not enough to cause the failure.
00:27:33.670 --> 00:27:36.809
But when you combine that with the added surcharge
00:27:36.809 --> 00:27:39.910
behind the wall, that caused the failure. So
00:27:39.910 --> 00:27:43.829
this is a very complicated step for the experts
00:27:43.829 --> 00:27:47.230
to just do the sensitivity analysis and to determine
00:27:47.230 --> 00:27:52.250
what was the primary cause and what were the
00:27:52.250 --> 00:27:56.569
secondary causes for the failure. Okay, let's
00:27:56.569 --> 00:27:59.509
move on to step five, which is the last one.
00:27:59.509 --> 00:28:02.750
It's called develop engineering opinions. I definitely
00:28:02.750 --> 00:28:06.029
don't mean that the console is developing the
00:28:06.029 --> 00:28:09.869
opinions. They are going to be provided the opinions,
00:28:09.930 --> 00:28:13.329
but they need to use those and define relevant
00:28:13.329 --> 00:28:16.849
litigation questions. And still they need to
00:28:16.849 --> 00:28:19.890
challenge and test the opinions by their expert
00:28:19.890 --> 00:28:23.970
and also prepare their expert for testimony and
00:28:23.970 --> 00:28:26.819
deposition. and they have to practice to communicate
00:28:26.819 --> 00:28:30.240
those findings clearly and sometimes in plain
00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:35.660
language for the jury. And finally, the last
00:28:35.660 --> 00:28:39.980
step, step Y, your expert is gonna draft the
00:28:39.980 --> 00:28:42.519
report and explain the scientific method that
00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:45.700
they have adopted for their analysis and also
00:28:45.700 --> 00:28:49.000
all the engineering conclusions in their report.
00:28:49.099 --> 00:28:51.880
And sometimes we are being asked about the standard
00:28:51.880 --> 00:28:54.779
of care, so they need to include that in the
00:28:54.539 --> 00:28:59.980
in their report. So this is the complete process
00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:03.579
for the investigation process in forensic engineering.
00:29:04.099 --> 00:29:07.500
This looks linear but this process is not linear
00:29:07.500 --> 00:29:11.140
and in fact it's an iterative process because
00:29:11.140 --> 00:29:14.839
at each step you may be provided with some additional
00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:18.119
documents or a report from other parties can
00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:22.059
become available or a new piece of information
00:29:22.059 --> 00:29:25.980
is disclose in the position. So sometimes you
00:29:25.980 --> 00:29:28.940
need to go back to some earlier steps and rework
00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:32.799
your assumptions or your analysis. So it's not
00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:35.319
like you when you pass a step two or step three,
00:29:35.339 --> 00:29:38.119
you never go back to that step. So this is an
00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:45.650
iterative process. So you're done with the With
00:29:45.650 --> 00:29:48.390
the investigation process now, let's look at
00:29:48.390 --> 00:29:51.650
the application of this forensic engineering
00:29:51.650 --> 00:29:55.529
process to construction litigation. In this section,
00:29:55.549 --> 00:30:00.089
we are going to go over some examples that shows
00:30:00.089 --> 00:30:02.769
those different types of construction disputes
00:30:02.769 --> 00:30:07.329
and how those different parties work or the correspondence
00:30:07.329 --> 00:30:11.710
between those parties can cause a dispute during
00:30:11.710 --> 00:30:18.509
the project. So I'm gonna start with one project
00:30:18.509 --> 00:30:22.250
that I'm sure most of you are familiar with.
00:30:22.589 --> 00:30:27.650
It's the Boston Big Big. During the peak of the
00:30:27.650 --> 00:30:30.869
construction in this project, this was the biggest
00:30:30.869 --> 00:30:36.549
public works project in the states. And it included
00:30:36.549 --> 00:30:41.079
more than 13 mile of tunneling. and a lot of
00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:44.619
deep excavations in very developed urban area
00:30:44.619 --> 00:30:48.539
as you can see in the top left photos. And you
00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:51.640
can see the scale of the excavation in the bottom
00:30:51.640 --> 00:30:55.579
left photo and some tunneling on the offshore
00:30:55.579 --> 00:31:01.019
areas. So what made this project very complicated
00:31:01.019 --> 00:31:05.259
was the type of material that they were dealing
00:31:05.259 --> 00:31:10.220
with in this area. The downtown Boston was is
00:31:10.220 --> 00:31:16.140
built on top of some uncompacted field and some
00:31:16.140 --> 00:31:21.500
abundant utility lines. So during the excavation,
00:31:22.039 --> 00:31:26.799
they encountered some centuries old seawalls,
00:31:27.180 --> 00:31:31.259
some abandoned utilities, and even a completely
00:31:31.259 --> 00:31:35.940
intact sunken colonial ships during the construction.
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:40.960
This kind of complexity and this type of details
00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:45.799
or subsurface information that not all of them
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:50.240
were basically discussed in the geotechnical
00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:54.240
reports and contract documents caused a lot of
00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:57.380
delays or additional costs or different side
00:31:57.380 --> 00:32:00.599
condition claims. And the resolution of those
00:32:00.599 --> 00:32:04.420
claims actually lasts 15 years after the project
00:32:04.420 --> 00:32:08.809
completion. that the last chapter of the dispute
00:32:08.809 --> 00:32:12.210
resolution actually happened in 2014, almost
00:32:12.210 --> 00:32:17.130
10 years ago. So, and here I just want to show
00:32:17.130 --> 00:32:21.029
like just two examples of what was going on and
00:32:21.029 --> 00:32:24.589
what caused a lot of disputes. On the right,
00:32:25.029 --> 00:32:27.910
you are looking at the depths of the bedrock
00:32:27.910 --> 00:32:31.029
where they were supposed to build the tunnel.
00:32:31.349 --> 00:32:33.829
So they had to, in some sections they had to
00:32:33.829 --> 00:32:37.930
trace the level of the bedrock to place the tunnel.
00:32:38.829 --> 00:32:42.089
And you can see that in the geotechnical report,
00:32:42.309 --> 00:32:45.390
in some stations, there was a big difference,
00:32:45.730 --> 00:32:49.970
almost a 10 feet difference between the bedrock
00:32:49.970 --> 00:32:52.910
level in the reports and what was encountered
00:32:52.910 --> 00:32:57.049
in the field. So just imagine what would happen
00:32:57.049 --> 00:33:01.029
if you need to do 10 feet additional rock coring.
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:05.400
or excavation of rock to be compliant with the
00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:08.240
design drawings. And on the right, you can see
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:12.640
the map of all the utility lines under the ground.
00:33:13.259 --> 00:33:17.420
So it looks that it's almost impossible without
00:33:17.420 --> 00:33:20.380
running to some of these utility lines that will
00:33:20.380 --> 00:33:24.579
cause some difficulties in the excavations. So
00:33:24.579 --> 00:33:27.039
there are so many different site condition claims,
00:33:27.460 --> 00:33:31.130
which some of them were awarded. and they're
00:33:31.130 --> 00:33:33.930
valid and so many others that were not awarded.
00:33:34.470 --> 00:33:38.069
So I don't want to go into the details because
00:33:38.069 --> 00:33:41.269
of the scale of this project. I will let Jeff
00:33:41.269 --> 00:33:45.130
to continue with some of the examples that we
00:33:45.130 --> 00:33:48.589
have done in the past and it will cover the different
00:33:48.589 --> 00:33:51.910
type of construction disputes that we presented
00:33:51.910 --> 00:33:54.789
earlier in the presentation and also some of
00:33:54.789 --> 00:33:57.759
those investigation process steps that you need
00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:04.740
to take in every construction dispute case. Thanks,
00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:09.579
Saj. The first example I'll discuss here relates
00:34:09.579 --> 00:34:14.760
to a project in Las Vegas. It's right on the
00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:20.820
strip at the city center development, specifically
00:34:20.820 --> 00:34:26.579
what was the Harmon Tower. as part of that city
00:34:26.579 --> 00:34:29.139
center development. So this is right at the south
00:34:29.139 --> 00:34:32.579
edge of the strip for those of you familiar with
00:34:32.579 --> 00:34:35.460
Las Vegas across the street from Plano Hollywood
00:34:35.460 --> 00:34:41.500
and right near the Cosmopolitan. But the problem
00:34:41.500 --> 00:34:44.579
child here with this city center development
00:34:44.579 --> 00:34:48.639
was the Harmon Tower. I've circled it in red
00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:53.139
there on the photo on the left. It's a reinforced
00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:57.719
concrete tower and it's sort of that oval shape
00:34:57.719 --> 00:35:01.119
and plan and it was originally designed to be
00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:07.559
a 50 -story tower. The bottom 25 floors was planned
00:35:07.559 --> 00:35:12.159
to be hotel and then the top half was planned
00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:15.760
to be condominium units and the construction
00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:18.940
of this development was happening around the
00:35:18.940 --> 00:35:24.550
2006 through 2008. and nine timeframe, not a
00:35:24.550 --> 00:35:28.610
great time for Las Vegas given the market collapse
00:35:28.610 --> 00:35:33.369
in 2008. And that was a thread in the story here
00:35:33.369 --> 00:35:37.690
that we'll get into. But during construction,
00:35:37.969 --> 00:35:43.110
there were some issues that arose. And they arose
00:35:43.110 --> 00:35:51.369
around about halfway up floor 18 or 20. An inspector
00:35:51.369 --> 00:35:55.150
from the building department for Clark County
00:35:55.150 --> 00:35:59.349
noticed some issues and that threw a wrench into
00:35:59.349 --> 00:36:02.409
the whole construction process and the design
00:36:02.409 --> 00:36:06.010
was put under a microscope and the owner who
00:36:06.010 --> 00:36:10.889
was MGM initiated a lawsuit against the general
00:36:10.889 --> 00:36:13.929
contractor and then the general contractor then
00:36:13.929 --> 00:36:16.590
brought in all of the subcontractors including
00:36:16.590 --> 00:36:19.949
the reinforcing steel subcontractor. and the
00:36:19.949 --> 00:36:24.329
formwork subcontractor, and also third -party
00:36:24.329 --> 00:36:29.309
inspectors who worked on the project. So, Saj,
00:36:29.329 --> 00:36:32.630
if we can go to the next slide, I can talk a
00:36:32.630 --> 00:36:35.869
little bit about what happened about halfway
00:36:35.869 --> 00:36:38.489
up when that inspector from the county visited
00:36:38.489 --> 00:36:41.949
the site as they do periodically to observe construction.
00:36:42.710 --> 00:36:46.929
They saw an iron worker. For the rebar subcontractor
00:36:46.929 --> 00:36:51.469
had a torch out and was cutting off Rebar they
00:36:51.469 --> 00:36:54.369
were getting ready to place concrete for one
00:36:54.369 --> 00:36:57.590
of the floors and Mind you they were they were
00:36:57.590 --> 00:37:00.670
pouring a new floor every five days. So they
00:37:00.670 --> 00:37:04.110
had a really fast schedule moving up Contractor
00:37:04.110 --> 00:37:06.489
wanted to meet their schedule. So the inspector
00:37:06.489 --> 00:37:09.869
asked the iron worker. What are you doing cutting
00:37:09.869 --> 00:37:13.110
steel? With your torch and he says well this
00:37:13.110 --> 00:37:16.199
rebar it's in the way We can't get our vibrators
00:37:16.199 --> 00:37:18.280
in to vibrate the concrete. We've got to move
00:37:18.280 --> 00:37:21.380
on and keep with construction. So we're cutting
00:37:21.380 --> 00:37:25.800
the steel off that's poking up. And in the bottom
00:37:25.800 --> 00:37:28.480
photograph there, you can kind of see some torched
00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:32.519
off rebar. That's the top hook of what's called
00:37:32.519 --> 00:37:37.219
a stirrup for a beam. And these were called link
00:37:37.219 --> 00:37:39.760
beams. These beams are very important for the
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:42.900
structure. They connect the concrete walls together.
00:37:43.469 --> 00:37:47.190
So Las Vegas is in a seismically active area
00:37:47.190 --> 00:37:52.250
and those link beams help the walls move together
00:37:52.250 --> 00:37:54.510
side to side an earthquake and provide strength
00:37:54.510 --> 00:37:57.170
and utility so the building doesn't fall over.
00:37:58.150 --> 00:38:01.809
So the inspector got very concerned and ordered
00:38:01.809 --> 00:38:06.510
a stop to construction and then MGM initiated
00:38:06.510 --> 00:38:13.010
an inquiry into the process and. questions were
00:38:13.010 --> 00:38:17.230
asked about the design and the size of the walls
00:38:17.230 --> 00:38:20.250
and how much rebar was being put in these walls
00:38:20.250 --> 00:38:24.389
and beams. And it turns out there was too much
00:38:24.389 --> 00:38:28.130
rebar for that volume of space to be able to
00:38:28.130 --> 00:38:32.429
place the rebar per the drawings. The contractor
00:38:32.429 --> 00:38:36.309
and its subs had to move the rebar to the side
00:38:36.309 --> 00:38:40.500
or push it down to be able to actually Place
00:38:40.500 --> 00:38:43.360
and vibrate the concrete without forming voids
00:38:43.360 --> 00:38:47.380
and and honeycombing as we call it rock pockets
00:38:47.380 --> 00:38:52.139
in the concrete so that that's a design responsibility
00:38:52.139 --> 00:38:57.820
to make sure that a designer's Work product their
00:38:57.820 --> 00:39:01.099
design is constructible But at the same time
00:39:01.099 --> 00:39:03.739
the contractor can't just go and start moving
00:39:03.739 --> 00:39:06.480
things around and cutting things off Ideally,
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:10.960
they should initiate a RFI and said, hey, we're
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:13.079
having trouble putting this in the link beam,
00:39:13.239 --> 00:39:18.440
this rebar in the link beam. What do we do? And
00:39:18.440 --> 00:39:21.320
meanwhile, it turns out that the special inspectors
00:39:21.320 --> 00:39:24.179
that were hired were issuing fraudulent reports.
00:39:24.380 --> 00:39:28.659
They were copying and pasting their reports and
00:39:28.659 --> 00:39:31.099
issuing those. So they got brought into the lawsuit.
00:39:31.980 --> 00:39:35.820
One tip I would have for you all is working with
00:39:35.820 --> 00:39:41.730
your clients. is be careful what, or at least
00:39:41.730 --> 00:39:43.489
advise them, be careful what you put in emails.
00:39:44.510 --> 00:39:49.489
So when this issue arose and people started peeling
00:39:49.489 --> 00:39:53.050
back the layers in terms of what the design looked
00:39:53.050 --> 00:39:58.369
like, these are some excerpts from emails, part
00:39:58.369 --> 00:40:01.690
of the document production process that Saj mentioned,
00:40:02.909 --> 00:40:08.320
emails within the design team talking about shortcomings
00:40:08.320 --> 00:40:11.420
or failures in their design, you know, hoping
00:40:11.420 --> 00:40:14.059
that they don't have to defend their design because
00:40:14.059 --> 00:40:17.059
there's holes big enough to fall through or hoping
00:40:17.059 --> 00:40:21.380
that MGM pulls the plug on the tower because
00:40:21.380 --> 00:40:26.519
condos weren't selling in 2008. So they capped
00:40:26.519 --> 00:40:29.360
the building at half height. They didn't want
00:40:29.360 --> 00:40:32.000
to build the rest of the building. And the story
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:35.309
from the contractor side is Well, they're calling
00:40:35.309 --> 00:40:38.590
all of these issues defects because they can't
00:40:38.590 --> 00:40:41.130
sell the condo units because the markets crashed
00:40:41.130 --> 00:40:47.869
So as part of our work as experts we have to
00:40:47.869 --> 00:40:49.929
dive into all of these details we have to look
00:40:49.929 --> 00:40:53.070
at the design we have to look at construction
00:40:53.070 --> 00:40:57.789
tolerance codes If we go to the next slide sage
00:40:57.789 --> 00:41:00.409
We could talk about some of the work that an
00:41:00.409 --> 00:41:03.510
expert typically does at the site for example
00:41:04.420 --> 00:41:11.460
The owner elected to have over 1200 areas of
00:41:11.460 --> 00:41:14.559
the structure, not just limited to those link
00:41:14.559 --> 00:41:16.679
beams, but now they're concerned about all of
00:41:16.679 --> 00:41:21.079
the construction. So they initiated this program
00:41:21.079 --> 00:41:23.539
of destructive testing, opening up the walls
00:41:23.539 --> 00:41:27.099
and opening up the columns, looking at the reinforcement
00:41:27.099 --> 00:41:29.980
placement. So teams of engineers would then go
00:41:29.980 --> 00:41:32.860
to the site. and document, measure where the
00:41:32.860 --> 00:41:36.179
rebar is in relation to the face of the concrete.
00:41:37.559 --> 00:41:40.500
And you can see on the bottom left photo there,
00:41:40.659 --> 00:41:44.960
all the orange dots are areas where the structure
00:41:44.960 --> 00:41:48.820
was opened up. And there were some issues. There
00:41:48.820 --> 00:41:51.679
were some workmanship issues. The contractors
00:41:51.679 --> 00:41:54.480
and subcontractors acknowledged that and said,
00:41:54.559 --> 00:41:57.860
well, it's some areas of sloppy work, but it
00:41:57.860 --> 00:42:01.190
can be fixed. and the owner was saying, well,
00:42:01.710 --> 00:42:04.250
it's so bad that we have to demolish the entire
00:42:04.250 --> 00:42:06.789
building, and we're claiming over $300 million
00:42:06.789 --> 00:42:11.630
in damages. The contractors were claiming about
00:42:11.630 --> 00:42:15.389
10 % of that, 30 million, saying that you could
00:42:15.389 --> 00:42:18.909
fix it for about $30 million if you wrap those
00:42:18.909 --> 00:42:22.090
columns in fiber reinforced polymers, for example.
00:42:22.670 --> 00:42:25.489
We ran into some issues that aren't really addressed
00:42:25.489 --> 00:42:28.860
in building codes. Some rebar, that's supposed
00:42:28.860 --> 00:42:32.340
to be placed in that bottom photograph, for example,
00:42:33.739 --> 00:42:36.519
you're supposed to have some of the rebar hooking
00:42:36.519 --> 00:42:39.519
around vertical rebar. And you look in the code
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:42.360
and says that rebar should engage the vertical
00:42:42.360 --> 00:42:44.460
rebar. Well, what does engage mean? Does that
00:42:44.460 --> 00:42:48.400
mean touching or close enough to work? And then
00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:51.500
what about if you have slightly slanted rebar
00:42:51.500 --> 00:42:54.460
and not parallel with the floor? It's not something
00:42:54.460 --> 00:42:58.079
that's explicitly defined in concrete tolerance
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:02.500
codes. So we wanted to analyze the effect of
00:43:02.500 --> 00:43:05.980
that and the best way often to do that is to
00:43:05.980 --> 00:43:09.340
just build it and put a bunch of load on it.
00:43:10.219 --> 00:43:16.599
So we worked with local professors at UCLA and
00:43:16.599 --> 00:43:24.820
UC Berkeley to construct a perfect column or
00:43:24.820 --> 00:43:28.820
a perfect wall, and then what we called a Frankenstein
00:43:28.820 --> 00:43:31.639
column or wall where we put all of the bad stuff
00:43:31.639 --> 00:43:35.480
we saw in that one specimen to see if it could
00:43:35.480 --> 00:43:38.519
hold the same amount of load as the good column
00:43:38.519 --> 00:43:41.840
or wall. So we had to go to Berkeley for the
00:43:41.840 --> 00:43:44.420
column test because we needed four million pounds
00:43:44.420 --> 00:43:48.300
to push down on the column. It's the biggest
00:43:48.300 --> 00:43:54.489
such testing apparatus in the country. Good news,
00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:58.909
I think, for us engineers and the public is even
00:43:58.909 --> 00:44:03.610
when you try to make the column rebar sloppily,
00:44:03.690 --> 00:44:06.289
you still get the code required strength. There's
00:44:06.289 --> 00:44:12.610
a lot of fat in the design, which helped the
00:44:12.610 --> 00:44:15.030
contractors be able to stand behind their view
00:44:15.030 --> 00:44:17.469
that this could be fixed or this could be addressed
00:44:17.469 --> 00:44:21.349
and helped push aside some of the claims that
00:44:21.349 --> 00:44:28.659
the entire structure had to be demolished. So
00:44:28.659 --> 00:44:31.139
this is all part of our investigation process
00:44:31.139 --> 00:44:36.539
in terms of analyzing the effect of construction
00:44:36.539 --> 00:44:40.820
defects, and then casting some of these issues
00:44:40.820 --> 00:44:45.920
into the realm of design errors, where if you
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:48.579
design something that's not constructable, that
00:44:48.579 --> 00:44:54.780
doesn't help the construction team. Let's move
00:44:54.780 --> 00:45:00.860
to another example here. This is a port city
00:45:00.860 --> 00:45:05.719
on the West Coast. Where the port district. Was
00:45:05.719 --> 00:45:10.480
looking to construct a fireboat station. Along
00:45:10.480 --> 00:45:15.239
the along the waterfront and this is a. A station
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:17.960
that houses specialty boats that put out fires
00:45:17.960 --> 00:45:24.010
on cargo ships. The structure for this. Fireboat
00:45:24.010 --> 00:45:28.130
Station is relatively simple. It's a steel framed
00:45:28.130 --> 00:45:30.989
structure. You can see in that bottom center
00:45:30.989 --> 00:45:34.969
photograph, it has these tapered steel columns
00:45:34.969 --> 00:45:39.170
and steel rafters that go up to meet at an apex.
00:45:39.630 --> 00:45:44.570
You can see it there during construction. All
00:45:44.570 --> 00:45:48.250
of a sudden, right at about the time that, at
00:45:48.250 --> 00:45:50.469
the point that that middle bottom photograph
00:45:50.469 --> 00:45:55.599
was taken, The whole thing collapsed. And two
00:45:55.599 --> 00:45:59.699
people were injured critically that were working
00:45:59.699 --> 00:46:06.119
in that area. So the Port District and the project
00:46:06.119 --> 00:46:09.219
team wanted to understand what happened. Why
00:46:09.219 --> 00:46:14.360
did this collapse? So they all retained experts.
00:46:15.500 --> 00:46:18.519
And this is a case of needing to get out there
00:46:18.519 --> 00:46:24.960
early. to document evidence and the site. So
00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:29.679
if we now go to some of the details, next slide,
00:46:31.800 --> 00:46:35.500
I'll show some schematics here of the construction.
00:46:36.019 --> 00:46:42.079
So on the bottom left is, in green you see the
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:45.079
tapered columns and then yellow the tapered rafters.
00:46:46.059 --> 00:46:48.679
The structural engineer, as part of the design
00:46:48.679 --> 00:46:52.260
team, they are responsible for the design of
00:46:52.260 --> 00:46:55.739
the finished structure. So it's in its finished
00:46:55.739 --> 00:47:00.500
state. And in this case, the connection between
00:47:00.500 --> 00:47:03.179
the green, at the top of the green column, and
00:47:03.179 --> 00:47:06.280
then the base of that yellow rafter, the engineer
00:47:06.280 --> 00:47:09.519
called for a welded connection. So essentially
00:47:09.519 --> 00:47:14.079
taking a torch, an electrode, and welding or
00:47:14.079 --> 00:47:19.110
connecting those pieces of steel together. Well,
00:47:19.110 --> 00:47:22.789
the contractor has to build this frame and elected
00:47:22.789 --> 00:47:28.230
to temporarily bolt those two pieces of steel
00:47:28.230 --> 00:47:30.210
together, the rafter and the top of the column,
00:47:31.110 --> 00:47:33.309
with erection bolts. Those are shown as blue
00:47:33.309 --> 00:47:38.110
dots in the right -hand sketch. The project specs
00:47:38.110 --> 00:47:41.369
called for the contractor to submit an erection
00:47:41.369 --> 00:47:45.110
embracing plan, which it did. The contractor
00:47:45.110 --> 00:47:48.530
proposed to stabilize the structure during construction
00:47:48.530 --> 00:47:52.170
with these K rails. You can see a sketch of that
00:47:52.170 --> 00:47:55.570
on the bottom with the concrete blocks and diagonal
00:47:55.570 --> 00:47:57.630
braces. And you can see them in the photos as
00:47:57.630 --> 00:48:00.969
well. That was all in place. But what wasn't
00:48:00.969 --> 00:48:04.469
contemplated was the design of the bolts that
00:48:04.469 --> 00:48:08.150
the contractor used. And the erection contractor
00:48:08.150 --> 00:48:11.710
typically uses the same type of bolt for steel
00:48:11.710 --> 00:48:15.199
structures on every project. an A307 three -quarter
00:48:15.199 --> 00:48:20.219
inch diameter bolt, which works if you have a
00:48:20.219 --> 00:48:22.719
high -rise structure with horizontal beams and
00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:25.500
vertical columns. But in this case, we have vertical
00:48:25.500 --> 00:48:31.719
columns and slanted rafters, and that situation
00:48:31.719 --> 00:48:34.360
ends up causing additional stress on the bolts.
00:48:34.420 --> 00:48:37.900
It's almost like a pair of scissors or bolt shears.
00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:40.260
Because of the weight of that rafter pushing
00:48:40.260 --> 00:48:42.699
down and pushing out on the top of the column,
00:48:43.099 --> 00:48:46.920
you get additional stress on the bolts that no
00:48:46.920 --> 00:48:49.659
one contemplated because no one thought, well,
00:48:49.719 --> 00:48:52.900
the erection plan should have also included design
00:48:52.900 --> 00:48:57.900
of the strength of those bolts. So if we go to
00:48:57.900 --> 00:49:02.860
the next slide, Saj, we go out there and we didn't
00:49:02.860 --> 00:49:04.719
know this going out there at the site, but we
00:49:04.719 --> 00:49:09.219
had to look at the pieces, the columns and the
00:49:09.219 --> 00:49:12.650
rafters and piece together what piece went where
00:49:12.650 --> 00:49:15.650
from the construction and looking at some of
00:49:15.650 --> 00:49:18.110
the details are important here and getting out
00:49:18.110 --> 00:49:20.269
there early before some of these surfaces start
00:49:20.269 --> 00:49:24.269
to oxidize or corrode. For example, when we look
00:49:24.269 --> 00:49:27.630
inside boat holes in that middle bottom photo
00:49:27.630 --> 00:49:30.989
we want to look for witness marks and you can
00:49:30.989 --> 00:49:33.050
actually see the threads of the bolt where they
00:49:33.050 --> 00:49:35.309
were digging into the steel. So I know when I
00:49:35.309 --> 00:49:38.340
look at that that a bolt was in that hole and
00:49:38.340 --> 00:49:40.820
was sheared off, we found pieces of the bolt
00:49:40.820 --> 00:49:46.619
down on the ground. But in this case, those bolts
00:49:46.619 --> 00:49:50.539
were under designed by a factor of about four.
00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:54.599
And that's the reason why this frame collapsed
00:49:54.599 --> 00:49:58.719
is because this missing design of a temporary
00:49:58.719 --> 00:50:02.840
bolt before the structure was to be welded was
00:50:02.840 --> 00:50:08.190
never checked. And the submittal requirements
00:50:08.190 --> 00:50:11.969
in the specs were not specific enough to ask,
00:50:12.150 --> 00:50:14.489
not only do you need an erection and a bracing
00:50:14.489 --> 00:50:18.469
plan, but you need a check on the strength of
00:50:18.469 --> 00:50:22.829
any temporary bolts or welds or connection members.
00:50:27.050 --> 00:50:31.030
Let's move to the next, and this is the final
00:50:31.030 --> 00:50:33.969
example. We leave some time for questions if
00:50:33.969 --> 00:50:36.409
there are any, but I'll go through this example.
00:50:39.029 --> 00:50:44.570
This project involves the design and construction
00:50:44.570 --> 00:50:50.469
of a retaining wall for a natural gas refinery
00:50:50.469 --> 00:50:55.070
facility. This is on the East Coast in a mountainous
00:50:55.070 --> 00:51:01.550
region. The owner, the refinery, wanted to expand
00:51:01.550 --> 00:51:05.050
their facility. And to expand their facility,
00:51:05.389 --> 00:51:08.349
they had to construct this retaining wall. So
00:51:08.349 --> 00:51:10.989
they're going to put some additional buildings
00:51:10.989 --> 00:51:13.710
and equipment at the top of the wall, and this
00:51:13.710 --> 00:51:16.889
retaining wall would hold back the soil and support
00:51:16.889 --> 00:51:21.469
the surcharge of the load of this additional
00:51:21.469 --> 00:51:27.289
expansion. So this wall is about a quarter of
00:51:27.289 --> 00:51:32.289
a mile long, and it's a hybrid retaining wall,
00:51:32.289 --> 00:51:38.289
meaning that the bottom half is constructed of
00:51:38.289 --> 00:51:43.610
a 50 foot tall soldier pile wall. So those soldier
00:51:43.610 --> 00:51:49.710
piles are the blue vertical columns that are
00:51:49.710 --> 00:51:52.610
encapsulated in the ground, in the rock, and
00:51:52.610 --> 00:51:56.590
then they go upwards there. That's the item in
00:51:56.590 --> 00:52:03.690
blue. And then there are these red lines. Going
00:52:03.690 --> 00:52:07.610
back those are rock anchors. Those are steel
00:52:07.610 --> 00:52:11.829
bars two and a quarter inches in diameter and
00:52:11.829 --> 00:52:15.050
they are crowded and anchored into the rock and
00:52:15.050 --> 00:52:17.690
then they are attached to the front of the wall
00:52:17.690 --> 00:52:21.849
to hold those soldier piles vertical so they
00:52:21.849 --> 00:52:25.130
don't bend outward under the weight of the backfill
00:52:25.130 --> 00:52:30.750
behind the wall. The wall itself is made of concrete
00:52:30.750 --> 00:52:34.389
panels. These are precast panels that are slid
00:52:34.389 --> 00:52:41.570
down in between the steel soldier piles. And
00:52:41.570 --> 00:52:43.929
then back fills place behind this wall. And then
00:52:43.929 --> 00:52:47.469
another part of this hybrid wall is the reinforced
00:52:47.469 --> 00:52:52.070
soil slope. That's another 50 feet on top of
00:52:52.070 --> 00:52:56.920
this rock anchored wall. And then that's where
00:52:56.920 --> 00:53:00.579
the future plant extension is placed. So this
00:53:00.579 --> 00:53:04.179
wall is very important. If we get the walls under
00:53:04.179 --> 00:53:07.860
strength or under designed, it could move significantly,
00:53:07.980 --> 00:53:11.320
which would cause movement of the backfill. It
00:53:11.320 --> 00:53:14.300
would cause damage to the building on top of
00:53:14.300 --> 00:53:19.460
it. There were issues that arose during construction
00:53:19.460 --> 00:53:25.719
and also two years after construction. The service
00:53:25.719 --> 00:53:27.739
life of this wall is supposed to be 75 years,
00:53:27.760 --> 00:53:30.559
but only after two years they noticed some issues.
00:53:31.460 --> 00:53:34.800
They noticed some of the wall panels moving,
00:53:35.159 --> 00:53:37.920
which was concerning. So of course the owner
00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:42.760
hires an expert to look at the design of the
00:53:42.760 --> 00:53:45.199
wall and look at the construction of the wall.
00:53:47.059 --> 00:53:50.199
So we get out there and we get in a basket up
00:53:50.199 --> 00:53:52.300
close to the wall and we start looking at the
00:53:52.300 --> 00:53:56.460
components. the soldier piles, the anchor points.
00:53:56.820 --> 00:54:00.019
And these photos show here the anchor points
00:54:00.019 --> 00:54:04.599
of those rods that go connect all the way back
00:54:04.599 --> 00:54:08.400
into the rock and to the wall face. They're connected
00:54:08.400 --> 00:54:12.260
by what are called whalers. And those are these
00:54:12.260 --> 00:54:17.300
beams that these two anchor rods come through
00:54:17.300 --> 00:54:22.019
and connect to. and they spread the load from
00:54:22.019 --> 00:54:25.760
the anchor rods to the soldier piles. Well, you
00:54:25.760 --> 00:54:30.980
can see here some conspicuous, readily observable
00:54:30.980 --> 00:54:35.840
deformation, concerning deformation to an engineer,
00:54:36.179 --> 00:54:39.139
and I think to a lay person as well, a lot of
00:54:39.139 --> 00:54:42.360
bending at that anchor. That's not supposed to
00:54:42.360 --> 00:54:47.059
happen. That force in the anchor rod has to be
00:54:47.059 --> 00:54:50.949
solidly resisted by the whaler. So when we started
00:54:50.949 --> 00:54:55.030
looking at the design, we realized that while
00:54:55.030 --> 00:54:59.690
the designer considered the strength of the whalers
00:54:59.690 --> 00:55:05.389
globally, they failed to consider the local bending
00:55:05.389 --> 00:55:09.130
of those plates that those anchor rods are connected
00:55:09.130 --> 00:55:12.389
to. And on the left -hand side in this slide,
00:55:12.429 --> 00:55:16.409
you can kind of see what I'm referring to with
00:55:16.409 --> 00:55:19.530
that excessive bending. Because the designer
00:55:19.530 --> 00:55:25.489
failed to specify these blue sort of cyan colored
00:55:25.489 --> 00:55:28.849
plate stiffeners, which are required by the code,
00:55:30.010 --> 00:55:33.630
the designer failed to specify those. So you
00:55:33.630 --> 00:55:36.269
get this excessive deformation. You don't get
00:55:36.269 --> 00:55:39.869
the required lock off force from the anchor rod
00:55:39.869 --> 00:55:44.389
into the wall face. But that wasn't the only
00:55:44.389 --> 00:55:47.650
issue. There were some... issues with the construction
00:55:47.650 --> 00:55:54.550
as well. So the contractor, contractors often
00:55:54.550 --> 00:55:57.869
look for opportunities to save money. And this
00:55:57.869 --> 00:56:01.909
is one proposal that the contractor had in mind.
00:56:01.929 --> 00:56:04.110
And I'll start on the left and move to the right.
00:56:04.969 --> 00:56:11.010
But on the left here is the top and the bottom
00:56:11.010 --> 00:56:14.650
photo on the left are what the designer contemplated
00:56:14.650 --> 00:56:18.820
for the wall construction in terms of detailing.
00:56:20.039 --> 00:56:22.440
I mentioned those concrete panels are slid in
00:56:22.440 --> 00:56:27.199
between the soldier piles and they bear on the
00:56:27.199 --> 00:56:31.079
inside flanges of those piles. The designer specified
00:56:31.079 --> 00:56:34.380
at least three inches of overlap or three inches
00:56:34.380 --> 00:56:36.820
of bearing of that panel against the soldier
00:56:36.820 --> 00:56:41.480
pile flange. Well, that would require the contractor
00:56:41.480 --> 00:56:44.480
to almost like that game of Connect 4, if you
00:56:44.480 --> 00:56:47.940
played that as a kid, slide those panels down
00:56:47.940 --> 00:56:51.639
from the top with a big crane. You'd have to
00:56:51.639 --> 00:56:54.280
get a big crane. Contractors thought, well, hey,
00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:57.219
I can do this easier and cheaper with an excavator.
00:56:57.539 --> 00:56:59.679
If you let me make those panels a little bit
00:56:59.679 --> 00:57:03.760
more narrow, I can kind of shimmy them in from
00:57:03.760 --> 00:57:07.739
ground level. I don't need a big crane. If you're
00:57:07.739 --> 00:57:10.599
okay with just an inch of bearing, which I'm
00:57:10.599 --> 00:57:13.420
showing on the bottom, photograph in the middle
00:57:13.420 --> 00:57:16.320
if you're okay with if an inch of bearing is
00:57:16.320 --> 00:57:18.159
enough structurally well this this will save
00:57:18.159 --> 00:57:20.539
a lot of time in the schedule and the designer
00:57:20.539 --> 00:57:23.619
allowed it they did a calculation and said a
00:57:23.619 --> 00:57:27.059
bit inch of bearing is enough and it is strength
00:57:27.059 --> 00:57:30.460
wise but when you consider that nobody builds
00:57:30.460 --> 00:57:33.199
anything perfectly straight or plumb it's not
00:57:33.199 --> 00:57:36.300
okay because these soldier piles you're allowed
00:57:36.300 --> 00:57:40.400
to to build them a little bit out of plumb, right?
00:57:40.420 --> 00:57:43.860
There's tolerance in construction. When you combine
00:57:43.860 --> 00:57:46.000
that with tolerance and the allowable width of
00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:48.579
the panel, they ended up having some of these
00:57:48.579 --> 00:57:52.420
panels pop out of place and they had to emergency
00:57:52.420 --> 00:57:57.079
construct some plates to stop the panels from
00:57:57.079 --> 00:57:58.940
coming out behind the wall. But it's something
00:57:58.940 --> 00:58:01.340
that the designer allowed and they didn't really
00:58:01.340 --> 00:58:03.880
have to. They just were trying to help out the
00:58:03.880 --> 00:58:14.039
contractor. Saj, do you want to take us home
00:58:14.039 --> 00:58:19.760
here? No, you can continue if you want. So yeah,
00:58:21.340 --> 00:58:24.059
I think this is our last slide. I think we want
00:58:24.059 --> 00:58:27.639
to end as some key takeaways, at least from our
00:58:27.639 --> 00:58:31.880
experience. And you can see from that diagram
00:58:31.880 --> 00:58:35.500
we showed earlier of the different pathways in
00:58:35.500 --> 00:58:38.989
communication. These types of disputes are rarely
00:58:38.989 --> 00:58:42.909
one -dimensional, and what one thinks is a design
00:58:42.909 --> 00:58:46.610
issue could be a construction issue or vice versa
00:58:46.610 --> 00:58:52.670
or both. To sift through those issues, it's really
00:58:52.670 --> 00:58:58.630
important to have an expert there by your side
00:58:58.630 --> 00:59:03.869
to walk through what documents should be triaged
00:59:03.869 --> 00:59:07.349
or collected or what witnesses we should talk
00:59:07.349 --> 00:59:10.409
to early on because people start to forget things
00:59:10.409 --> 00:59:13.869
as time passes. What evidence do we need to preserve?
00:59:14.510 --> 00:59:17.949
Do we need to go and put grease on all of the
00:59:17.949 --> 00:59:21.030
fractured connections before they start to corrode
00:59:21.030 --> 00:59:25.030
and then the metallurgist can't look for whether
00:59:25.030 --> 00:59:27.489
this was a fast fracture or a fatigue fracture?
00:59:28.070 --> 00:59:31.289
These are all things that that ephemeral data
00:59:31.289 --> 00:59:36.750
or data that's quickly lost can influence the
00:59:36.750 --> 00:59:40.550
outcome of the case. It's of course important
00:59:40.550 --> 00:59:46.510
to do an independent investigation and that again
00:59:46.510 --> 00:59:49.889
involves having an independent expert. There's
00:59:49.889 --> 00:59:52.630
probably some research you all do and experts
00:59:52.630 --> 00:59:55.849
to look at past testimony and what the experts
00:59:55.849 --> 00:59:59.969
said because you would want to make sure that
00:59:59.969 --> 01:00:02.429
they're going to be objective and fair and come
01:00:02.429 --> 01:00:07.880
to the correct conclusions in your case. And
01:00:07.880 --> 01:00:09.960
you can see through some of these case examples
01:00:09.960 --> 01:00:16.659
that investigating causation requires a systematic
01:00:16.659 --> 01:00:19.360
process. It's not just reviewing documents or
01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:21.699
talking to the project team. It could involve
01:00:21.699 --> 01:00:25.699
physical testing. The building codes and standards
01:00:25.699 --> 01:00:28.019
for construction only take us so far. They do
01:00:28.019 --> 01:00:32.179
a good job of providing the minimum level of
01:00:32.179 --> 01:00:34.679
safety, but they don't answer every question
01:00:34.679 --> 01:00:40.730
in terms of is a certain example of construction
01:00:40.730 --> 01:00:45.489
inherently safe. So sometimes independent testing
01:00:45.489 --> 01:00:49.750
is needed. And that needs to be discussed early
01:00:49.750 --> 01:00:54.090
on, especially given some case timeline restrictions.
01:00:56.929 --> 01:01:03.429
So I hope this has been helpful. Happy to...
01:01:03.690 --> 01:01:06.789
answer any questions that you would have. Saj
01:01:06.789 --> 01:01:11.389
and I are, of course, available at the following
01:01:11.389 --> 01:01:16.530
QR codes or email addresses, but really enjoyed
01:01:16.530 --> 01:01:20.570
speaking to you all and hope to stay in touch.
01:01:23.530 --> 01:01:25.329
This concludes today's presentation. We'd like
01:01:25.329 --> 01:01:28.230
to thank Jeffrey and Saj for an excellent presentation
01:01:28.230 --> 01:01:30.889
today and also give a warm thanks to our audience
01:01:30.889 --> 01:01:32.929
for joining us. Have a great day, everybody.
01:01:34.599 --> 01:01:35.380
Thank you.