NEW ORLEANS — This week, a structural engineer who helped demolish New Orleans' partially collapsed Hard Rock Hotel in 2020 provided officials with updated information on the cause of the building's collapse, according to WWL-TV.

The news outlet says Walter Zehner was hired by the owner of the Hard Rock project, 1031 Canal Development, to serve as a technical spokesman.

This week, Zehner pointed to video of the deadly disaster as the source of his new information.

He said footage revealed that the building’s steel failed at the 16th floor of the 18-story structure, a fact that may play a key role in holding someone accountable for the collapse.

“You can see where the two upper floors are moving kind of together rather than individually,” Walter Zehner said of the video. “And that indicates that the 16th floor failed and the other floors just came down with it.”

His explanation of the collapse is in harmony with an unreleased report by an engineer with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration who reportedly discovered that 81 beams supporting the 16th floor were not up to code and dozens of them were “grossly undersized.”

Zehner's analysis also aligned with the other engineer's report of connections of beams to columns that were “grossly undersized.” 

WWL-TV quotes Zehner as saying, “And I calculated them to be almost 300% overstressed. So, that means the connection is 300% overstressed. And I was up in the building in a basket looking at where the collapse occurred, and you could see where the connection plate to the column had just sheared off.”

The steel-framed structure was designed and approved by project engineer Heaslip Engineering.

But James Heaslip, the engineer of record who stamped the structural plans, insists his company is not at fault.

Heaslip issued a statement in this regard, saying, “We have denied and are contesting all allegations of fault and negligence asserted in the legal proceedings related to the Hard Rock Hotel collapse, and we stand behind our company’s track record of designing projects that meet applicable engineering standards.” 

However, Zehner said the video proves the smaller beams and columns under the 17th and 18th floors were not the culprits in the collapse. He reasoned that the beams under the 16th floor were always too small to support all three top floors, and pointed to Heaslip Engineering as ultimately responsible.

This week, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams confirmed that he is convening a grand jury to consider felony charges against anyone whose negligence might have caused the disaster.

According to NOLA.com, Williams said, "People were killed in the city of New Orleans, many more were hurt. This happened on a Saturday morning. Had it been any regular day of the week, there would have been more workers inside and there would have been more citizens driving that intersection. So, we have to push and press this case in terms of looking for criminal culpability.”

Williams says the decision of who was at fault in the case of the Hard Rock Hotel collapse will be made by the Grand Jury.