Development of CROSS in the United States

As outlined in our companion CROSS session, Glenn Bell discusses the 1978 through 1987 “Decade of Disaster” where the US experienced an unprecedented rash of catastrophic structural collapses, many resulting in loss of life. CROSS-US, following in the footsteps of CROSS-UK and utilizing its website, format, and structure, provides a forum for the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry in the US to confidentially report design and construction problems, failures, and near-misses to provide lessons learned to improve the structural safety. CROSS-US joins with CROSS-AUS (Australasia) as one of the international arms of CROSS. Furthermore, now in its third year of operation, CROSS-US has been established as an entity of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). It has published reports covering a wide range of topics including various roof collapses, seismic retrofit concerns, tower crane collapses during dismantling, ethical responsibility during delegated design, and a “Legacy Report” on the Hartford Coliseum roof collapse.