Building under construction collapses in George

[r00igev@@r]

This CCTV shows the start on the road side at about 4 seconds and the whole building moves in that direction. That is also the place where those dodgy columns are located.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1787489158098784716

 

[marco79]

Anyone know the date they started on construction?

 

[Supervan II]

That's nice you had a good inspector, my personal experience was different which is why I was looking for what is driven by law rather than subjective the experiences.

Well it was the SOP at our municipality for many decades.

When I had my house built (in 1985) the municipal building inspector was on site at every stage - as well as the Transnet building inspector (yes, I was a Transnet employee at the time - he even measured the roof trusses upon delivery to the site before the contractor was allowed to proceed with the project!).

The garage addition was done in 1995 (I had since left Transnet), and further additions to my home were done in 2006 with the same inspection intervals - done by different municipal officials.

So this was in effect for more than 20 years - that I can vouch for from my own experience. And this was valid for every single building within the Metro.

 

[The_Mowgs]

I thought taxis were not allowed in George?

Yes, it ties into the Go George bus initiative and the taxi route permits in and around Thembalethu, Pacaltsdorp etc. It has been in the news a couple of times.

 

[Temujin]

 

[G'Wobblez]

This is so bad. yes it important to find out what happened to try it from happening again. This is so sad.

 

[access]

Private developments yes. I'm referencing government.

alright then??

well in that case, china has buildings falling apart all over their country..

 

[JuliusSeizure]

Telling the public who is the contractor is not really accusing anyone of anything though, unless you are saying they are not sure of the facts precisely on who is the contractor?

The ANC rightfully got flak after the Marikana disaster. For some reason, some are very protective over mentioning political parties here.

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

The ANC rightfully got flak after the Marikana disaster. For some reason, some are very protective over mentioning political parties here.

are they? multiple ANC people have already called out the DA on this one

apparently the irony is lost on them that not long ago 70+ died in an abandoned building fire on their watch, they never took responsibility for it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-66667954

 

[buka001]

1st line of fire should be the structural designers, then the structural site supervision engineer.

I am an engineering technologist working on roads and structural projects and we have many hold points on any structural elements being it stormwater inlet structures to each element of bridge construction.

Hold points would include foundation dimensions, correct reinforcing & spacing in the foundation (including starter bars for columns, large concrete pours to check the concrete compaction (or vibration), 28 day concrete strength (this could be bypassed if the 7 day strengths are good enough only to start the reinforcing and formwork of the next element, but no further pours until full strengths are met).

Then this continue for each element going up (ie, columns, decks, etc).

A new regulation is that props, staging and scafolding needs to be designed by a structural engineer, inspected and signed off and deemed safe daily by a competent employee from the contractor.

Which is how it should be.

I think these residential developments can dodge a lot of those requirements.

 

[TheChamp]

The ANC rightfully got flak after the Marikana disaster. For some reason, some are very protective over mentioning political parties here.

There was a failed attempt to blame it on BEE and national government laws.

 

[Spizz]

There's a lot of mixing up on here between houses built by your local NHBRC registered bakkie bouer and these type of developments regarding inspections and municipality involvement.

 

[ShaunSA]

There's a lot of mixing up on here between houses built by your local NHBRC registered bakkie bouer and these type of developments regarding inspections and municipality involvement.

The municipality involvement would be even more demanding for large developments. And not only the Planning and Technical Departments. There's also the Fire Brigade, Traffic etc that all have to have their input from the Planning stage.

There's certainly questions going to asked of the BI at any rate

 

[ghaye]

The ANC rightfully got flak after the Marikana disaster. For some reason, some are very protective over mentioning political parties here.

Are you saying that the ANC somehow sabotaged this construction site? To what end?

 

[rh1]

There's a lot of mixing up on here between houses built by your local NHBRC registered bakkie bouer and these type of developments regarding inspections and municipality involvement.

That's because the only time ordinary SAns get involve with the building industry, is when we do some renovations.

 

[Spizz]

The municipality involvement would be even more demanding for large developments. And not only the Planning and Technical Departments. There's also the Fire Brigade, Traffic etc that all have to have their input from the Planning stage.

There's certainly questions going to asked of the BI at any rate

Yeah sure, but the actual inspections of the construction being done would not involve them.

 

[ShaunSA]

Yeah sure, but the actual inspections of the construction being done would not involve them.

That would be the BI's job. Which is why he/she will be expecting the Eye of Sauron soon enough and must be shitting bricks

 

[Spizz]

That would be the BI's job. Which is why he/she will be expecting the Eye of Sauron soon enough and must be shitting bricks

Not in this type of construction. I outlined it in earlier post 43...

Should be. "Normal" procedure is that the contractor's civil/site engineer will monitor while construction is ongoing, inspect initially himself/herself/theyself, then again with architect/designer who will approve it's done correctly according to design, then before casting a slab, invite customers engineer/resident engineer to inspection and both will sign off a check sheet with specs and tasks listed and approved.

Plans and all the things you mention have to be approved in advance of course, but during the construction not so. Or at least in any development I've built anyway, including blocks of apartments.

If the collapse was as I thought, then the neck on the block will be one or all of the above because any concrete pour would need approval from them and from what I see, the design and basic construction methods were not followed.

 

[leon.davibe]

There's a lot of mixing up on here between houses built by your local NHBRC registered bakkie bouer and these type of developments regarding inspections and municipality involvement.

building inspectors has to inspect everything
pretty sure you would get more checking by inspector on a expansion or small building projects

as that is where it would be less likely to have engineering sign-offs
in this type of project the responsibility will be shifted to a competent person

my first home was a timber home
in george itself there is only a few timber homes

so the building inspectors at the time wan't very clued up on regulations of those
so they insisted on engineer sign-off

luckily i got directed to somebody that was actually on the panel that wrote the manual on timber construction for the NHBRC (or so i wa stold)

he picked up on a error the rafter manufacturer made so they had to supply timber so i could fix their mistake
and pointed one a mistake i made repeatedly in a few spots

a few pieces of timber and bolts later i had a sign-off

so just about the only thing muni inspectors did was check the waste line

so i expect on these type of projects they stand back and let the more competent (engineer) take the lead same as on mine

,meanin if an engineer is a rubber stamper big **** can happen
though majority probably isn't, things can slip through the cracks

ie if the foreman doesn't climb up the oversee the poking or cavity washing checking how the steel is binded and placed etc
most likely it can happen hap hazardly , physical labour is seriously under valued so if you pay these guys peanuts how can you expect them to go the extra mile or even give a ****

now yes this type of thing changes that for a few years

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah sure, but the actual inspections of the construction being done would not involve them.

They would have some input, but yeah for a large scale construction project like this, it would be the QS and Structural Engineer more than anything else who's arses should be on the line.