Bar deck collapse blamed on beam failure

New London - While reviewing the cause of a Bank Street bar's deck that partially collapsed, building and design officials said Monday they have a better idea of what happened.

A woman suffered minor injuries after the Exchange Bar & Grill deck collapsed just before midnight Saturday, fire officials said.

A support beam appeared to come out of its metal hanger, dragging another beam with it, said Elisha Gallup, president of The Winthrop Group in Gales Ferry, which designed the restaurant's deck.

"Ninety percent of structure is intact and fine," he said. "We'll redesign the connection that the beams went into so that it will never happen again."

However, Gallup said it was too early to say for sure what exactly caused the support beam to fail.

Gallup said most of the deck is structurally independent from the building at 74 Bank St. It was designed to support 100 pounds per square foot, said Jack Cipriano, the city's building official.

Cipriano said regulations require decks to support at least 50 pounds per square foot.

Officials said they were informed by restaurant employees that about 20 people were on the deck at the time it collapsed. Cipriano said there is no limit on the number of people that could be on a deck, but that it had to be designed and built to support the minimum weight requirement.

The deck was last inspected soon after the restaurant opened in July, Cipriano said.

Kip Bochain, the restaurant's owner, said that the Exchange would likely be closed through the rest of the workweek while the deck is examined and fixed.

"The engineers have been in there and it seems to be under control," Bochain said. "All I can tell you is that it should be back in service very quickly."

The deck was one of many that face South Water Street and overlook the Thames River. But despite Saturday's collapse, Cipriano said inspectors are not concerned with the other structures.

"This is the first time a deck of that magnitude, in the 14 years I've been here, ever collapsed," he said.