January/February 2014

NSPE TODAY
Unsafe Scaffolding Repaired After Report by NSPE/NAFE Members

NSPE members, who were recently on a break from attending seminars on forensic engineering in Charleston, South Carolina, came across a serious public safety issue and did as all professional engineers should do—they took action.

The PEs, who are also members of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers, were walking on Charleston’s King Street, a busy area with many shops and restaurants. When they came across construction scaffolding erected over a sidewalk, they noticed that two parts of the scaffolding had separated. They immediately contacted police, and a construction crew came quickly to fix the problem.

NSPE and NAFE member Klas Haglid, P.E., told Charleston’s WCBD-TV, “I think it would have been extremely easy for somebody to bump into another cross-brace, and at that point the structure would have become unstable and it would have fallen.” He added, “It could have easily crushed somebody.”

The January 11 incident reminded NSPE and NAFE member Richard Rice, P.E., of a collapse in Atlanta in 2008. He compared the scaffolding in the two situations, saying they were very similar. And he should know—Rice was the main investigator for the 2008 accident, in which one person was killed and others were injured.

Coincidentally, Rice had just finished presenting a paper on the Atlanta incident to NAFE members when he and fellow engineers noticed the faulty scaffolding on King Street.

NAFE, founded in 1982, is a chartered affinity group of NSPE.