Pittsburgh -- The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, closed about two weeks ago when part of a loading dock floor collapsed, will reopen on March 9, officials said today.
Engineers blamed the structural failure on a support beam, which apparently weakened from variations in air temperature that expanded and contracted the steel beam. The joint will be replaced and 25 other steel beams, which are also more exposed to the outside air, will be reinforced before the center reopens, according to public officials.
On Feb. 5, a 20-by-60-foot-long concrete slab collapsed under the weight of a tractor-trailer on the second-floor loading dock. The slab fell 30 feet to a walkway below. The collapse also caused a large forklift, known as a cherry-picker, to fall from the loading dock to the walkway. No one was injured.
In a similar incident two years ago, part of a support beam pulled apart, dropping two-and-a-half inches, but did not fail, according to Mary Conturo, who heads the Sports & Exhibition Authority, the public entity that owns the center.
"At that time we called in any one who was responsible -- the architect, the structural engineer, the steel fabricator, and the steel erector -- and their response was that a bolt was too tight," Conturo said at a press conference today, adding, "Other bolts were checked, and that was the extent of what was done at that time."
The most recent accident caused the cancellation of the Pittsburgh International Auto Show, one of the center's largest shows.
The first event scheduled for the reopened center is the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, which was originally scheduled to begin March 2.
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