Seattle high-rise declared unsafe

[diyfrank]

SEATTLE - A nine-year-old high-rise near downtown Seattle with hundreds of residents and dozens of retailers will soon be nothing but a hole in the city's skyline.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/90554479.html

[ScottA]

I'll be real curious to see what it gets replaced with. And I bet that hole in the skyline won't last long.

[glenn kangiser]

Yes - sounds fishy.... but then as I recall, Seattle smells fishy.....

[diyfrank]

I would like to know more but not much is mentioned about the cause of the failure. 
This is big. A 9 year old high rise is condemned.
You can be sure the law suits will be going in many directions here.

[rwanders]

Sounds like pre or post tensioned cables used in the structural concrete are corroding----may be due to bad steel or a problem with the concrete----if the sand was salt contaminated it could have results like that. There were examples of that on the Oregon coast several years ago when a contractor thought beach sand would be real handy to make his mix. Some highway bridges they built had a similar short life span.