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Block shear is a limit state that should be accounted for during the design of the steel tension members. This failure mechanism combines a tension failure on one plane and a shear plane on a perpendicular plane. Although current design specifications present equations to predict block shear load capacities of the connections, they fail in predicting the failure modes. Block shear failure of a structural connection along a staggered path may be the governing failure mode. Code treatments for stagger in a block shear path are not exactly defined. A parametric study has been conducted and over a thousand finite element analyses were performed to identify the parameters affecting the block shear failure in connections with multiple bolt lines and staggered holes. The quality of the specification equations were assessed by comparing the code predictions with finite element results. In addition, based on the analytical findings new equations were developed and are presented herein.