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THE STATE OF California has revoked the licence of a building contractor, which was found to have “willfully ignored” building plans which resulted in the death of six people, including five Irish nationals, when a balcony collapsed in June 2015.
All aged 21 and 22, Irish students Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Shuster, Lorcan Miller, Eimear Walsh and Irish-American Ashley Donohoe died when a balcony collapsed during a party at an apartment in the US city of Berkeley, California.
They had been on a J1 for the summer, and attended UCD.
Yesterday, Segue Construction of Pleasanton agreed to the terms of a settlement with the California Contractor’s State Licensing Board (CSLB) after it stood accused of using cheaper, weaker material on the balcony than the building plans specified.
The company both diverted from the plans and specifications, and departed from accepted trade standards, according to the CSLB.
Under the terms of the agreement reached:
In the state’s documents, it detailed how the company entered into a contract to construct the Library Gardens Apartments in 2005, and completed the project in 2007.
Instead of using “three/four-inch plywood as called for in the plans and specifications” for the balconies, three layers of oriented strand board (OSB) was used instead.
This was despite the project plans stating that “OSB is not an acceptable substrate”.
Also, the building specification of a “sacrificial membrane” to be applied to the balcony deck prior to final waterproofing was not applied, and over 38 inches of rain fell in the area during the construction phase.
Furthermore, it was the state’s case that if the balconies had been built as per the plans and specifications, the balcony would not have collapsed:
Design and load analysis of the balcony established that if the balcony had been built as designed, the imposed load of the 13 students was well within the design limits of the balcony.
“Forensic examination of the cantilever balcony established the existence of dry rot/decay of the balcony deck joints and the three layers of OSB that were in direct contact with the balcony desk joints.
It was the decay of the joints that caused the balcony to collapse on 16 June, 2015.
In September, California passed legislation that would enforce greater regulation and oversight of construction procedures.
Heartbreaking to see all those beautiful smiles…Rip.
Said it immediately at the time. This was down to corruption and not just of the rotten wood variety. US building inspectors as I recall working as a kid there in ’85 are like the gestapo if there isn’t a sheet-rock screw every eight inches down it comes and start again same will all else. Someone brown enveloped someone here and the result as it so often is was utter tragedy. This was notable because it was so appalling but many many go unnoticed every day. Whoever is responsible for this should be shot. But it’s no difference from who was responsible for putting sub-par rivets in the Titanic’s hull. She was designed to survive what sank her. This balcony no less.
Grieving families amputated futures utter loss of hope. Because some corrupt SOB either took a bribe or was incompetent to do their job.
Proper order too a decent punishment too for the cowboy builders.
Wish they’d learn something here.
When you look at priory hall and the flouted fire regulations and the potential for multiple death s if there’d been a fire. And no ones head has rolled over it. I’m sure its not the only construction either built sub par.
@Mrs parrott: a few thousand in fines and a corporate entity that can be shelved in a trice and replaced by another brass plate losing its licence for five years? That’s a ”decent punishment” for all those young lives destroyed and their families too through corruption?
Other kinds of murderers get the needle the chair and the supermax. Why not here?
@John O’Driscoll: yes true I suppose. I’m probably a bit naive thinking they may actually be out of business for 5 years.
@John O’Driscoll: Oddly enough, CBS in San Francisco reports this – “Meanwhile, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office found that the incident didn’t warrant criminal charges.”
I don’t understand that. I can only imagine that there isn’t a solid enough case to bring against anybody specifically (the project manager might have been following orders or the owners might have been oblivious to a subordinate cutting corners) and though corporate manslaughter would seem to be an acceptable charge, the US doesn’t seem to have that on the books.
I should have said I utterly agree with you Mrs Parott otherwise. And it’s totally refreshing to meet an humble gracious fellow poster. Good evening to you madam.
2good2betc. Politics. Call was made from a Congressman’s office in the pocket of certain lobbyists doubtless. The US is / was pushing TTIP, making it illegal to do anything to affect a corporation’s profits. I read years ago while working for GM, Alfred Sloane’s book in which he mourned the fact GM or its prev incarnations missed the oppo of WW1 and only made a few hundred million supplying materiel. WW2 tho he didn’t miss, and 12 billion in then currency was GM’s revenue between 1941 and 1945. And didn’t build a single passenger car in North America. Armoured cars and tanks and guns. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex, the Iron Triangle, the Rough Beast. But because he was afraid of his Congressional colleagues, he didn’t mention the hypotenuse: politics.
Such a tragedy!! God love the parents!!
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