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Engineers Checking Ceiling That Fell In Tampa Airport Garage

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

A ceiling on Level 1 of the long-term parking garage at Tampa International Airport collapsed Monday morning.

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2009

Updated: 01/26/2009 01:58 pm

TAMPA - Three Hertz rental cars were damaged after a concrete and steel ceiling collapsed inside the long-term parking garage at Tampa International Airport early this morning.

The collapse occurred about 2 a.m. on the first floor of the nine-story garage, in the area where rental cars are parked after they are serviced for use. The area is not one that is open to the traveling public.

A Hertz employee heard the crash and reported it. No one was injured, but one of the cars was crushed. About one-third of the ceiling fell -- a section that was about 50 feet wide and 150 feet long.

"The collapse did not affect the structural integrity of the garage," airport director Louis Miller said.

He said the ceiling was built as a canopy to cover the ground floor portion of an atrium-like section of the garage. It was connected with bolts to columns, but the ceiling was not designed to provide support to the garage.

The garage opened in 1991 and the ceiling was built as an addition in 2002 to provide cover for a handful of cars that had been in the open until the ceiling over the ground floor was built.

Visitors park vehicles on the top seven floors of the nine-story structure and the first two floors are used for rental car operations. Attendants wash, fuel and store rental cars on the ground floor.

"It is fortunate no one was injured and it is fortunate operations have not been affected," Miller said. "What is unfortunate is that (something happened) and we have to find out what went wrong."

Airport officials and engineers from companies that built the canopy were working to determine what might have caused the failure.

It could be a few days before rental car employees regain full use of the area where the damage occurred, but passengers using the airport would notice no changes in rental car operations, which are handled on the second floor.

The ceiling was built by Design Builder Creative Contractors, which sent representatives to check on the collapse this morning.

The engineer for the construction of the ceiling, Masters Engineering, was on site to check the loads and supports for column connectors, airport officials said.

Kimmins Contracting arranged for a shoring/bracing subcontractor to design and install shoring once Masters determined what support might be needed for the portion of the ceiling that had not fallen.

Reporter Russell Ray contributed to this report. Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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