SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/eng-hyatt-walkway-load-path

In the built Hyatt Regency walkway system, what supported the second-floor walkway?

It hung from the fourth-floor walkway.

Start playing free

  1. Only the atrium floor
  2. The fourth-floor walkway ✔
  3. The third-floor walkway

Why: The changed hanger arrangement made the fourth-floor connection carry load from both stacked walkways. The case teaches that a shop-detail change can alter the load path and demands full engineering review.

Huh, didn't know that: The National Bureau of Standards investigation combined site inspection, laboratory testing, and structural analysis.

The dad joke
Structural drawings need support from careful review.
Like this card?
Play the game

References

Answer: The fourth-floor walkway. The changed hanger arrangement made the fourth-floor connection carry load from both stacked walkways. The case teaches that a shop-detail change can alter the load path and demands full engineering review.

  1. NIST FireDOC, Investigation of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse firedoc.nist.gov/article/t3cyXYQBWEcjUZEYe498
    The second floor walkway was suspended from the forth floor walkway which was directly above it.
    Checked 2026-10-10.

Think this answer is wrong? Tap "Challenge this answer" on the card in the game and tell us why.

Test yourself in the game

EngineeringHow many base units does the International System of Units (SI) have?EngineeringSince the SI redefinition voted in 2018, what defines the kilogram?EngineeringIn today's SI, how precisely is the value of the Planck constant known?

That's stuff everyone should know.