Religious

Anchorage, AK

The Project

A prolonged period of heavy snow and drifting winds in 2016 resulted in a portion of a prominent South Anchorage church’s auditorium roof collapsing.

The Challenge

While it was obvious that the collapse of the roof was triggered by the snow, there was a question as to why the newest portion of the building collapsed instead of the older areas.

Significant issues resulted from the church being comprised of several existing structures built between 1959 to 1982. These issues included strengthening of other areas of the building based on code mandated requirements.  To add to the challenges, the church decided not to rebuild the building to pre-loss condition. While this may have seemed confusing to many, it made sense for the church and its community to start anew; MKA respected their choice and worked accordingly.

The Solution

MKA’s team of Engineers analyzed the structure and determined that the supporting wall and not the roof had failed.  MKA’s Engineering team worked with the Insured’s engineer and the Local Building Authority to develop the remediation plan.

The Result

MKA was able to develop a scope of repair that addressed the repair of the damage to its pre-loss configuration in a compliant manner with the Local Building Authority’s requirements to ensure the condition that caused it would not be repeated. This allowed to us to establish a credible cost evaluation that was reflective of what was needed to restore the damaged portions.