• @Justdaveisfine@midwest.social
    22•3 days ago

    If I had to guess, I’d assume there was bricks once surrounding the cinderblock nightmare. You wouldn’t want a hollow brick pillar so I could see someone just shoving a cinderblock pieces in the middle as they worked their way up, never really expecting it to be seen on its own.

    That isn’t the right way to make a pillar like this, but I’m sure this was a string of mistakes and at the end it was some poor bricklayer who had to figure it out with what he had on hand.

  • @Death_Equity@lemmy.world
    36•3 days ago

    This is the interior of the column, there was a facade around it. You can tell because the mortar in some places are flat from when it was against the facade.

    Was it made properly? Not really for supporting a lot of weight, but it was probably fine depending how that overhang was made.

      • enkers
        13•3 days ago

        I feel like this is absolutely not fine. I know the facade would help protect the interior, but if any shear force is applied to the core, that thing is less stable than a fifty-move jenga tower.

        If the facade were to rot, let’s say, and someone were to lean against it, they might end up having the whole thing collapse on them.

        I don’t work in construction, but I don’t think there’s any way that meets modern building codes. If a contractor left something like that for me, I’d be getting it inspected for sure.

          • @simulacra_procession@lemmy.todayEnglish
            4•3 days ago

            Also this. Basically, TXDOT orders review of the new Corpus Christi bay bridge after a campus bridge built by the contractors failed. Review found the pylon supports insufficient, but they also found the triangle frame connecting the box frames with cables would merc those cables with almost any sheer force. I believe changes were made, have new contractor and project is moving forward as of late last year.

            • @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              2•2 days ago

              That’s pretty wild that it made it that far before getting caught… The fact that it was caught is a testament to the system working imo.

              This is what people mean when they say that regulations are written in blood. Hundreds of people died at the Hyatt Regency.

  • @Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23•3 days ago

    This reminds me of an HGTV show episode where the main couple buys an old house and while renovating they discover the entire insides of the support columns had been replaced by bee’s nests.