Crews are preparing to perform maintenance on the roof of a covered walkway. The maintenance contractor wants to stack supplies on the outer edges of the roof, but the owner is concerned about...

Crews are preparing to perform maintenance on the roof of a covered walkway. The maintenance contractor wants to stack supplies on the outer edges of the roof, but the owner is concerned about overloading the structure. Our team leader would like us to explore two options for stacking the supplies. The contractor would like to stack the supplies on the outer edges of the roof because it is easier to put them there; this option would result in a distributed load of 350 plf from the supports to the outer edges. The other option is to distribute the same total weight of supplies between the supports of the beam; this option would result in a distributed load of 150 plf between the supports. Influence lines will help us in the evaluation. To promote drainage, the roof drops 1 foot over its entire length. Because the live load does not act normal to the support beam, it will be easier to construct the influence lines using the Table-of-Points Method.