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Barclays Center Has Weak Bolts, But It Probably Won't Fall On You
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 2, 2013
Modified Jan 2, 2013
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Tien Mao / Gothamist
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jan 2, 2013
Modified Jan 2, 2013
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In rushing to get the Barclays Center up and running in time for Nets games and Jay-Z concerts it seems that Forest City Ratner ended up using some weak bolts to hold up its fancy arena's steel shell—and it has since had to replace eight percent of them. But don't you worry your pretty little head about it, okay?
According to The New York Times, the weaker-than-ordred bolts were only discovered a month before the arena opened (part of the problem was the manufacturer of the arena's distinct steel shell went out of business mid-build). Since then Forest City Ratner says it has been working hard to change them out. And they are almost done: "In the end, engineers determined that only 1,768 of the 23,351 bolts — about 8 percent — would need to be cut out and replaced. Workers in December were replacing the final batch, all in the canopy that extends over the entryway."
Feel better? No? Well, just think: if things were really going to go bad, it probably would have happened during Hurricane Sandy.
Meanwhile, This isn't the first time a high-profile building here has had to do some structural retrofitting. And it isn't even close to being the most serious. That award still goes to the Citigroup building on 53rd Street which famously stands on 114' columns and at one point ran the risk of toppling right over. In 1978, a year after the building was completed, a recalculation of wind loads led designers to realize the building was actually in critical danger if hit by strong enough gusts from the right angles. Engineers raced to secretly refit the building with welded two-inch-thick steel plates. Because the work was completed before anything bad happened (a hurricane thankfully avoided the city while they were working), the general public didn't find out about the crisis for nearly 20 years!
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