It was to be a landmark project made of wood in the wake of an industry regaining the standing it once had in Oregon. Yet on March 14, these hopes suffered a severe setback when a 1,000-pound CLT-section of the third floor of Peavy Hall at Oregon State University buckled and crashed onto the floor below. As oregonlive.com reports, an internal audit revealed that temperature variations had caused premature curing of the adhesive in the panel, resulting in poor bonding and delamination. Also several other CLT-components were found to be faulty and need to be replaced. Payments were stopped, and the university’s ambitious symbol of new good times in the timber industry could well end up in a protracted legal fight.
The university now hopes Peavy Hall will be complete and ready for occupancy by September 2019, a full year behind the original schedule. But it will not move off its requirement that any questionable panel be replaced, a university speakers has emphasized.
