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PUBLICATIONS

Investigation of Construction Failure of the Riley Road Interchange Ramp, East Chicago, Indiana (NBSIR 82-2583)

Published

Author(s)

Nicholas J. Carino, Hai S. Lew, William C. Stone, R M. Chung

Abstract

On April 15, 1982, a portion of Ramp C of the Riley Road Interchange in East Chicago, Indiana collapsed during construction and resulted in the death of 13 workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration requested the assistance of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) to carry out an investigation of the technical reason for the accident. On April 17, a team of structural engineers from NBS arrived at the accident site and initiated its study. In addition to an extensive field investigation, the team performed physical tests to characterize the behavior of various critical structural elements. In parallel with the testing, a detailed structural analysis was performed on the partially completed structure. The calculated forces in key components were compared with their expected strengths, from which the most likely cause of the failure was determined.
Citation
NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 82-2593
Report Number
82-2593
NIST Pub Series
NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)
Pub Type
NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NBS.IR.82-2593
Structural engineering and Disaster and failure studies

Citation

Carino, N. , Lew, H. , Stone, W. and Chung, R. (1982), Investigation of Construction Failure of the Riley Road Interchange Ramp, East Chicago, Indiana (NBSIR 82-2583), NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NBS.IR.82-2593 (Accessed October 14, 2025)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact [email protected].

Created October 29, 1982, Updated November 10, 2018
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