New London restaurant remains closed following collapse of deck

New London - Nearly two weeks after a woman was injured when the deck of the Exchange Bar & Grill partially collapsed, the restaurant is still dark.

The city's building official condemned the entire building at 74 Bank St., which includes the newly opened restaurant and some upstairs apartments, after a Nov. 2 inspection.

No records in the restaurant's file at the city building department indicate that anyone spotted carpentry problems that may have contributed to the failure of the deck's support beam.

The records show that building officials' concerns in the months before the opening were focused on how the deck was connected to the building, but it was a different part of the structure that failed Oct. 31.

The support beam that failed should have been secured to a metal hanger attaching it to another beam that was anchored to the building. When the support beam failed, it caused a portion of the deck to collapse while people were standing on it.

"Due to structural failure of the rear deck and stairway, entire building is condemned. Plans must be submitted and reviewed before any permits are issued," Jack Cipriano, the city's building official, wrote in a Nov. 9 letter to Hennegan Properties.

Charlotte Hennegan, who owns the building, referred questions to Kip Bochain, owner of the restaurant. Messages left for Bochain were not returned. Cipriano, who is on vacation, could not be reached to comment.

The failure was likely the result of "carpentry-related" omissions, said Elisha Gallup, president of The Winthrop Group in Gales Ferry, which designed the restaurant's deck. Gallup said the company did not hire a contractor or company to do the construction.

He said nails were missing from joist hangers and beams were missing shims and did not fit properly in their saddles, or metal connections, which contributed to the failure.

"You can't just attribute it to one thing," Gallup said. "Every one of those things contributed to the overall demise. We know things weren't done the way they should be."

Several weeks before the collapse, on Sept. 9, Gallup sent Cipriano an explanation and a drawing of how the deck is attached to the building. Then, in a letter to the city's public works director dated Nov. 2, Gallup said building officials contacted him "several days ago" - before the collapse - with concerns about the attachment of the deck to the building.

But Gallup said this week the attachment did not contribute to the support-beam failure.

"Initial inspection indicates failure occurred when one of the carrier beams was incorrectly installed into a hanger. These areas could not be visually inspected by the Building Inspector due to follow-on construction that covered this installation," Gallup wrote two days after the collapse, according to building records.

Gallup's company last week submitted plans to repair the deck, but it was unclear this week whether the city's building department had approved them. The plans call for temporary bracing, replacing missing shims and possibly reinforcing steel beams, according to building records.

The repairs cannot begin until the new plans are approved.

Yellow caution tape surrounds the rear deck of the restaurant, which overlooks the Thames River. The restaurant opened in July with tables, umbrellas and chairs on the deck for al fresco dining.

On the night it collapsed, people were standing on the deck.

"This was Halloween night and the bar at the Exchange was heavily occupied; although, I have no idea how many people were on the porch," wrote Keith Nichols, a fire department battalion chief, in an e-mail to building officials and the fire marshal's office.

Gallup and building officials said the structure was built to support 100 pounds per square foot, which is double the required minimum for a deck.

Just before the restaurant's opening, Gallup wrote a letter to Calvin Darrow, the city's fire marshal, and informed him that he conducted a final inspection and that stairway handrails, the exit door and headroom were up to code.

The letter made no mention of the structure of the deck.

There is no record of a final inspection notice in the restaurant's file at the building department. However, staff in the building department said Tuesday that inspectors sometimes keep them in their own files.

m.naughton@theday.com