China’s growing obsession with glass bridges may be coming to an abrupt end, after a series of accidents led one province to close down all its glass-bottomed attractions.

Hebei, a scenic mountainous province in northern China, has quietly closed all 32 of its glass bridges, walkways and mountain viewing platforms over the past year for safety reasons [...]. — The Guardian

The cracks discovered beneath the rooftop park were classic brittle fractures. The tapered 4-inch-thick steel beams—2.5 feet wide and 60 feet long, with a horizontal flange on the bottom—undergirded the 5.4-acre park on the building’s fourth level, and buttressed the roof of the bus deck on the second level. By themselves, the cracks formed a point of weakness with potentially hazardous consequences. But they also suggested the possibility of a larger crisis. — Popular Mechanics

Researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland have introduced a multimedia app for architects and designers that identifies construction hazards related to building design elements using video and images. — Construction Dive

In 2017, the last year for which data are available, 183 people died in Texas in occupations relating to construction, installation, repair, maintenance and extraction, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s one every two days.

This rate may underestimate the scale of the problem, as the deaths of workers without papers may not be reported to authorities. — Global Construction Review

A growing number of building facade inspectors, increasingly women, are rappelling into New York City’s glass and terra-cotta canyons. — The New York Times

Researchers found the sedimentary basin under [Seattle] can amplify the type of ground motion that’s hardest on high-rises by a factor of two to five — much more than previous estimates.

In response, Seattle and Bellevue are boosting seismic standards for new buildings 240 feet or taller [...] But the prospect of stronger shaking also raises concerns about older high-rises — Seattle Times

All sides in the Millennium Tower debacle appear to be nearing an agreement on a $100 million-plus fix to stop the 58-story high-rise from sinking further [...]

The latest plan calls for drilling piles into bedrock from the sidewalk on the building’s southwest corner. The proposal would be less extensive and intrusive than the plan floated in April, which called for drilling as many as 300 micro-piles to bedrock through the building’s concrete foundation. — San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority voted unanimously Tuesday to freeze $9.7 million in sales tax funding for the next phase of the Transbay Transit Center, as members called for an evaluation of the beleaguered project and the agency that runs it.

The news came as Transbay officials again pushed back the date to complete testing of steel from two cracked beams that led to shutting down the building in September. — San Francisco Chronicle

A man has died after reportedly being hit by a windowpane that fell around 250ft from the top of a block of flats in central London. [...]

An image taken from The Corniche on the south bank of the River Thames by a resident showed a large window unit, complete with metal frame containing glass, on top of a male figure. [...]

An image showed a window missing from near the top of the 27-storey tower. — The Independent

San Francisco’s new Transbay Transit Center will remain closed at least through the end of next week, officials said Wednesday, after yet another cracked beam was discovered during an overnight safety inspection.

The $2.2 billion hub for buses and eventually trains, which opened just last month as the flashy centerpiece of city infrastructure, was closed abruptly Tuesday afternoon after a fissure was spotted in a beam that helps hold up the sprawling complex. — San Francisco Chronicle

The contractors who designed and built the disastrous Florida International University bridge have been cited by federal authorities for several “serious” worker-safety violations and face tens of thousands of dollars in fines. [...]

The FIU pedestrian bridge collapsed March 15 while it was still under construction over Southwest Eighth Street, killing five motorists below and a worker, Navaro Brown, who had been standing atop the span. — Miami Herald

Several factors play into the lax code enforcements issue. Mexico City is going through a construction boom, and some local officials have been hesitant to put the brakes on such a profitable sector. Corruption is rampant [...] “There is a whole system that’s been designed to benefit everyone involved: public officials, DROs, developers,” said Gómez Durán. “They all protect each other. The citizens are left unprotected.” — CityLab

The department also took Millennium’s managers to task for not being more communicative about the crack and their efforts to find the cause. The department said it “continues to be frustrated with the communication” with the tower’s managers over a variety of issues.

“We often do not find out information about the building until we first receive calls about an issue from the media or read them in a news report,” the department said in its letter Wednesday. — San Francisco Chronicle