The reality that more structures fail during construction than after completion spurred forensic engineer Robert Ratay, who died Jan. 3 in Manhattan, to champion the first load design standard for temporary and partially completed structures. For his work on the 2002 standard, ENR editors named Ratay a 2003 Top 25 Newsmaker.
Ratay, who succumbed to a long illness at age 83, argued that disasters often result from the failure of temporary structures, including but not limited to scaffolds and sidewalk sheds, because their design loads, inspection and maintenance are not considered as important as permanent structures.“One very serious problem is the definition of the roles and responsibilities and the checking and enforcement of those responsibilities,” Ratay said in 1987.