This collapse is the second to happen in Charlotte in about six months.
CHARLOTTE -- Clean-up has begun as firefighters and engineers try to determine why a south Charlotte parking deck partially collapsed on Tuesday morning.
Some people trying to leave the deck after work in the afternoon found their vehicle unreachable, as the fallen chunks of deck damaged some of the 150 cars in the deck at the time. Roughly 50 cars are expected to remain in the deck overnight.
“I had just parked on the third floor, had just gotten there and left my car about … and I heard the crash,” said nearby employee Mike Ferguson. “It was scary. Good thing I wasn’t running five minutes late.”
No one from the businesses in the area of Barclay Downs Drive was evacuated when portions of the third and fourth floors of the deck fell, ending up on the second floor. Cars on all four floors saw some damage.
“I was looking up in my rear-view mirror as … the top level sort of collapsed into the third. It wasn’t a sudden collapse, it kind sort of rumbled down,” said nearby employee Ken Morgan, who continued “It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been involved in. It’s surreal to see something like that happen.”
News 14 Carolina's Johnell Johnson is at the scene, speaking with people impacted by the deck collapse.
News 14 Carolina's Aaron Mesmer has more as engineers begin looking into a possible cause.
Once the firefighters realized that no one was injured, the search to figure out a cause for the incident began. The road will remain closed as the owner of the deck has called in crews to help clean up and inspect the area. The deck will remain closed until further notice.
This collapse is the second to happen in Charlotte in about six months. In December, a woman died after having a heart attack and driving in to the side of a deck at SouthPark Mall, which caused that collapse. Experts say figuring out what caused Tuesday’s collapse is going to be tougher.
"We believe the failure commenced on an upper level, causing it to fall to the lower level, continuing down, fourth to third, laying now on the second," detailed Donnie Barrier, a structural specialist with the Charlotte Fire Department.
Added David Young, civil and environmental engineering professor at UNC Charlotte, “I don't know what happened to this one [Tuesday]. It doesn't seem to be an extreme load or an unusual circumstance, but I would still say that that's rare."
Young says these structures are built to last decades, making it difficult to know what went wrong. "Probably a flaw in the connections, because those components are constructed and fabricated elsewhere, they're shipped out to the site, and then they're assembled and connected together,” explained Young.
Mecklenburg County officials say the deck was built in 1987. It is a part of the SouthPark Towers office complex and is owned by CSHV SouthPark LLC out of Addison Texas. The county did the initial building inspection in 1987, but the county does not inspect again unless the owners see a problem and request another inspection.
"[These structures] all have their subtleties and their specific concerns regarding design,” said Young. “Every one's different. If all those concerns are addressed properly, then it's just as stable and just strong as any other type structure
Map of parking deck collapse:
Coverage of the last local parking deck collapse:
