[sidewndr46]

So a 250 x 250 column became 450 x 450? That's a 3.24 times increase in cross sectional area. This would imply something like a safety factor of 12 if the standard safety factor of 4 was used in the original engineering.

I guess concrete must be really cheap whereever you are? I don't know many subcontractors excited about using 3 times the concrete for something.