Charlotte small business owner blames light-rail construction for building collapse

The owner of a small graphics company on North College Street in uptown said light-rail construction caused his 1,500-square-foot warehouse to collapse, and he said the city is dragging its feet in compensating him for what he has lost.

Richa Graphics is adjacent to the Lynx Blue Line extension, which is being built from uptown to UNC Charlotte.

Sam Vyas, the owner, believes the contractor removed too much dirt to clear a path for the tracks. He said his building began showing structural problems soon after construction began in 2014, and that last fall’s rains ultimately led to the Christmas Eve collapse.

No one was hurt.

“The city still hasn’t given any word, or any sympathy,” Vyas said.

The Fire Department has condemned the warehouse.

Vyas said he lost about $80,000 of equipment when the building collapsed. He estimates it will cost him more than $200,000 to rebuild the warehouse, and he said he spent $150,000 on engineers and repairs to stabilize the building before it crumbled.

“The smaller you are, the bigger the forces (of the city) come down on your head,” he said.

The Charlotte Area Transit System said it’s investigating the collapse.

“We don’t have a schedule (for finishing the investigation),” said Jill Brim, a senior engineer with CATS. “What we are focusing on is getting everything secure and safe.”

She said she didn’t know if the construction caused the collapse.

“It would be so speculative to comment,” she said. “I don’t know what the possibilities are.”

The City Attorney’s Office said it was too early to say whether the city was to blame.

“This is a complex issue, and it’s under investigation,” said Assistant City Attorney Bradley Thomas. “There is a lot more to it. We’re working on it.”

Vyas said his buildings were inspected in February 2014, shortly before his insurance was renewed. He said there were no structural problems at that time.

In the months that followed, he said, construction crews began moving dirt that was below his warehouse. The dirt was moved to clear space for the rail bed.

He said a city inspector told him in July 2014 that his warehouse had structural problems. The city was apparently inspecting buildings along the light-rail line’s path.

“We were told we had cracks in the building,” he said.

Vyas said he hired an engineering firm, Structural Strategies Inc., in the fall of 2014. The firm said in December 2014 that it “suspects that altering the slope of the east bank contributed to, and may be the primary cause of, the building’s wall and floor slab cracks and displacements.”

A year later, the building collapsed.

CATS broke ground for the $1.1 billion extension in July 2013. The transit system is planning to open the line by August 2017.

This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Charlotte small business owner blames light-rail construction for building collapse."