Experts looking into cause of building collapse

By KORNKAMON AKSORNDECH 
THE NATION

 

 

EXPERTS from the Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) yesterday inspected a building in Bangkok’s Soi Ramkhamhaeng 51/2 area, which had partially collapsed on Monday afternoon while being demolished, injuring two passers-by.

 

 

The engineers seek to discover the cause of the collapse, while police affirmed that no charges had yet been filed pending probe results.

The team, led by head of EIT civil engineering Asst Professor Anek Siripanichakorn and EIT adviser Siriwat Chaichana, visited the building whose demolition was now suspended indefinitely pending a safety investigation. 

 

Anek said the site was on the land owned by the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, which was appropriated in 2017 for construction of the Orange Line’s Ramkhamhaeng 12 Station. The building demolition in that area had been carried out since December 2018 by a contractor who had obtained the required demolition licence and had an engineer overseeing the works, he added. 

 

 

Anake said the building might have some flaws that were not obviously visible, resulting in a problem during demolition.

 

Siriwat said that prior to the collapse, a backhoe was brought in to tear down the remaining structure, during which the second floor concrete wall shook, collapsed and crashed onto the exterior awing, sending down debris to injure the two passers-by. 

 

Bank building closed

 

Siriwat said officials would inspect the stability of a nearby bank building – which was partially damaged and was now suspended from use – to see if its structure and stability were affected by this incident.

 

Council of Engineers secretary-general Amorn Pimanmas, who also joined the EIT experts’ inspection, said they would check if the demolition works had been done correctly and following the appropriate steps, and whether the supervising engineer had a proper licence or had made errors. 

 

 

Meanwhile, Hua Mark superintendent Pol Colonel Saksit Meesawat said police had interviewed three to four witnesses, including those at the scene along with the building supervisor. 

 

No charges had yet been filed against anyone, and police are awaiting results from the city’s Department of Public Works to determine who is to be charged.

 

The building was torn down earlier last year but the district office suspended the activity in October over public complaints of things falling down onto the heavily used footpath, said Bangkok City’s Department of Public Work’s Building Control Division director Noppadol Chaipanya. 

 

Noppadol said his office would probe the cause of this partial collapse and whether it was linked to the previous incident that caused the October suspension.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361877

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-09

 

This is a blame game surely to fall far far away from the top dogs and or freinds, like in the recent deaths in chang mai ,where poor maintainance of the guard rails was  clearly at fault, although officials quickly blamed the other woman driver .Resposibilty ,code, and  maintainance seldom exsist in LOS , but ,that is what many of us like about this country , its luck and timing..

Edited January 8, 20197 yr by mok199

Too much sand and not enough cement

Shoddy workmanship, corruption and sub-standard Chinese materials. Just a guess.????

Interesting, they are only capable to find experts in the aftermath of a disaster. The golf courses must be overcrowded by them.

I'm putting my money on gravity as the root cause

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Experts looking into cause of building collapse

Easy: Cheap plastic material made in China 

Normal building standard in Thailand and people buy skyscraber condos LOL

The cause of injury is easy to explain.  There is no way you can put steel that close and expect it to stop anything major falling against it.  In these cases they need to block off part of the streets so that there is in fact room for debris to fall.

 

Who is at fault easy Thailand and it's belief that you can do everything cheap.

 

SOLUTION IS SIMPLE 

 

Bring in a Big F'ng hoe. Block off all the streets and knock it down.  Take a couple of hours then bring in loaders and trucks and haul the debris away problem solved.

 

 

Edited January 9, 20197 yr by kingstonkid

Not sure why everyone is blaming the construction of the building? My reading was that the building was being demolished. Possibly a mistake made by the company demolishing the building?

     Surely, if you want to demolish a building, you start at the top and work down, and not knock the bottom out first ???????

2 hours ago, Emdog said:

I'm putting my money on gravity as the root cause

Good idea, let's blame a farang! It was Newton's fault!

17 minutes ago, grumpy 4680 said:

     Surely, if you want to demolish a building, you start at the top and work down, and not knock the bottom out first ???????

This is Thailand

Duct tape and silicone,Thais favourite building materials.oh and paper mache..

Maybe it was the weight of the sheer number of phone cables resting on the building ? 

they should have hired the demolition experts that did buildings 1,2 and 7 for a nice symmetrical collapse

Hard hats and high vis on for photo op lads this could cost us a 500 fine????

probably because it use to have a MADE IN THAILAND stamp on it...

 

A troll post and a reply has been removed.