Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-02
Deny Having Received Com
plants AIIegedIy Made y
by Contractor. "a
HOLD KNOWLEDGE PUTS
RESPONSIBILITY ON HIM
Heron Todd Explains Collapse Of
Structure in Open
Statement.

hois SO bAd1 the municipal ArCnlteCt
and the National Construction Co were
responsible for the crash a week ago
Of the steel framing OF the Roosevelt
High School auditorium, made by
Heron Todd, president OF the steel
erection concern which bears his name
were met today by District oficials with
the counter claim that none of Todd,s
complaints ever had been made oficialIy
before.
knowledge OF the danger OF collapse
from any Of the reasons cited by Mr..
Todd, it was commended at the District
Building, placed responsibility for point
ing them out squarely upon the Heron
Todd Construction Co.
Explanation In Letter.
Mr.. Tcdds explanation Of the COL
lapse of nearly 10 tons of structural
steel were contained in an open state
ment addressed to the National Con-
struction Co, general contractor for
the building; the Lehigh Construction
Co. steel contractor; the Massachusetts
Bonding g. Insurance Co. and Mai. H
L. Robb. u. S. A., Assistant Engineer
Commissioner of the District
Lewis ]. Newman. inspector for the
municipal architects once At the
Roosevelt High School job, failed to
show up on time today, and his absence
caused furry of excitement owing to
the charges made overnight by Mr..
Todd. A substitute inspector was
rushed out to the job, but Mr.. Newman
showed up shortly afterward. He ex-
planned he had failed to get his pay
yesterday and had come down to the
disburSing office at the District Build
ing today to get it without first report
ing at the job.
Maj. H. L. Robb. Assistant Engineer
Commissioner. in. charge of conStruc-
Todd's. letter. called in H. II. Marsh.
who drew the plans, and Assistant Mu
nicipal Architect S. B. Walsh early this
morning and went over the charges with
them, sentence by sentence.
Fall Changed Braces.
AS to the charge that the footings
for the steel columns were not on the
same level, Mr.. Marsh said IL would be
impossible TO tell whether this was true
or not.
When the steel blew over the strain
of the falling columns changed the at
titudes on all of the steel bases, and in
some cases even rooted anchor bolts up
out of the concrete. But assuming that
the bases were not level at the time that
the steel-erection company started work,
they should have called the attention Of
the inspector to the fact ut that time
and refused to go ahead until the err
rorS, If any, were corrected.
The charge that the building code
was violated by the provision for
q Inch bolts instead of 1s-inch bolts
securing the columns TO the bases was
met by Mr.. Marsh by statement that
the section of the code referred to had
to do with columns in a skeleton con-
struction job, where all the weight on
the walls and roof is taken by the steel
columns. The Roosevelt School Is not
such a job. 1t is a brick wall job. with
the weight of the roof supported on
the walls, and the steel columns are
introduced into the walls as wall stiff
fsners."
He pointed to the last sentence in the
paragraph of the code referred to which
reads however, when the foundations
with membrane waterprooflng, such
bolts may be omitted, provided proper
means are taken for the safe erection
of the columns" According to this. Mr..
Marsh said, it would have been within
the code to leave out the bolts altogeth-
er, but they were put into the plans in
order to hold the columns in place until
the masonry could be built around them.
Bracing Not Required.
The same reply was made to Mr..
Todd's charges that the plans did not
call for suficient wind stress and brac-
ing. Such bracing, Mr.. Walsh said, Is
necessary on a skeleton job, but not in
one such as the Roosevelt job as de-
scribed above. He said another sec
ton of the code applied here, section 3.
paragraph S, part 2. which says "aS
erection progresses the work shall be
securely bolted to take care of all dead
load, wind and erection stresses
And also part l of the same para
graph which says 1.-The framework Of
buildings shall be carried up true and
plumb and temporary bracing shall be
wherever necessary to take
care of all loads to which the structure
should be subjected such bracing
shall be left in place as long as may
be required for safety" The fact that
the wind carried the steel down shows
that the bracing, made by guy wires,
was not SUFFICIENT.
Yesterday, before Mr.. Todd's letter
had been made public, Mr.. Marsh and
Lieut. E. K. Schilling. one of Mai.
Robb's subordinates, explained the plans
for the school in great detail to Engi-
neer Com missioner John C. Gotwals,
and Mai. Gotwals thoroughly approved
Of all features of the plans. including
hose now criticized by the Heron Todd
letter.
Additional Guys Ordered.
Mr.. Marsh specifically denied the COL
INN slabs were not planed, as charged
oy Mr.. Todd. He said he saw the slabs
and could not be mistaken about this.
A good deal of the letter is devoted to
against the National Con-
struction Co., which has the general
contract for the school, the Heron Todd
60. being q subcontractor for the steel
erection work. AS to these charges, the
District officials had no comment ex-
:ept to say that they had no notice Of
hem until publication of the letter.
AS to the statement that the steel
vas sufficiently guyed, this is directly
by the finding of En-
yineer Commissioner Gotwals on an in
CONTINUED on Page 2, Column 81