Layton Construction folks occasionally take people around the under-construction Oquirrh Park Oval, with its unique suspension cable roof-support system, and one of the first questions on everyone's mind is: What if a cable snaps?
"I had some Scouts here the other day, and they all wanted to know what would happen if someone cut through one of the cables," said Layton vice president Al Peterson.Sited at 5624 S. 4800 West in Kearns, the immense free-standing roof of the speed-skating oval -- the area of four football fields -- will be largely supported through a cable suspension system similar to a suspension bridge. Four cables are already in place; when the building is completed next fall there will be 12, each spaced 50 feet apart.
Each main suspension cable will span the 310-foot-wide roof between two 108-foot-high masts, from there to booms spacing it away from the side of the building and thence to the ground where it will be attached to pilings buried 80 feet in the ground.
Secondary cables will attach the primary cables to the roof.
Getting back to the question, allow us to offer a couple of observations to any potential vandals out there. First, those cables are constructed of hardened steel and are a whopping 35/8 inches thick where they attach to the pilings.
That's as thick as your fist. You might want to set aside a week or two to cut through one of those babies.
"You would go through more than one hacksaw blade," was Peterson's dry observation.
The second caution begins with some good news: You would not be prosecuted. That's because you would be, uh, dead.
When the $27 million building is fully constructed, the cables will be under tension approaching a whopping 650,000 pounds. That's 325 tons. A cable under that kind of tension would do more than snap back when severed.
"They would basically explode," said architect Rob Cottle.
To make matters worse, even if you somehow escaped joining the choir invisible, you would be disappointed in the result of your labors. The roof would remain as it was -- that is, standing. Several and perhaps all 12 cables would have to be severed to cause the roof to collapse, and maybe not even then.
The suspension system allows the ceiling girders to be thinner, saving 18 to 25 feet in roof depth and a commensurate amount in construction costs, but even if the cables were severed or removed, the arched girders, pressing in against themselves, could very well support the roof temporarily all by themselves. The huge Olympic logo and stylized speed skater represented on the roof in colored PVC membrane and visible only to airplane passengers would remain intact.
Sorry to disappoint you vandals out there. Maybe there's a leftover jack-o'-lantern somewhere you could smash.