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Fredericton Water Tower Failure and Collapse
Author(s) -
Pelley Kevin
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
opflow
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1551-8701
pISSN - 0149-8029
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8701.1993.tb00329.x
Subject(s) - tower , crew , forensic engineering , engineering , environmental science , civil engineering , aeronautics
It felt like an earthquake and it looked like a bomb exploded when Fredericton's newest water tower on Regent St., which had just been filled with 500,000 gal (1,892,500 L) of water, dramatically collapsed. The 90‐ft (27‐m) high steel and concrete tower collapsed midafternoon on December 19, 1990, only minutes after being filled to capacity by the City of Federicton work crew. Ironically, the new tower was built for safety reasons to replace an old concrete tower. The article describes the accident in some detail. According to an investigator, the tank used 7/16 in. (12 mm) thick steel near the bottom section of the tank, and that steel should have been twice as thick.