Bangkok Tower Collapse: Watchdog Warned of Sub-Standard Steel

[sandyf]

19 hours ago, jojothai said:

There was a third party paid to supervise the work. But when there are extremely long delays in construction here (as there was) they rarely get paid any extra for the extension and cut the supervision work to the bare minimum. So this could possibly be part of any problem found in the supervision work.
If there are problems found with construction / materials, on the other hand hazard a guess that its possibly down to brown envelopes rather than anything to do with loss of face.

Of course the fall back on this forum is always the "brown envelopes", it has to be taken that high rise construction elsewhere is impeccable.

Grenfell Tower fire inquiry blames deaths on incompetence and greed

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/grenfell-tower-report-detail-what-led-deadly-2017-london-blaze-2024-09-03/

 

It may come as a surprise to some but corruption is not unique to Thailand, the more advanced economies have got better at hiding it.

[steven.g]

You don't need an earthquake for buildings to fall down in Bangkok. Chinese engineering?- look to the façade in Serbia, mine collapses in Columbia, bridge collapses in China itself.

[Harsh Jones]

10 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

And now it is confirmed.

 

Both samples originated from the same company, which had previously been ordered to cease production by the Thai Industrial Standards Institute in December.

 

 

Two substandard steel samples linked to collapsed Bangkok building

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40048162

 

However, she noted that these samples are not sufficient to conclude that they were responsible for the building collapse. The Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI) will collect more samples and inspect the factory to determine whether it has illegally produced or transported steel.

 

Nothing is confirmed. Half of Bangkok is probably built with this rebar and those buildings are still standing. 

 

This reeks of a pseudo investigation for normie public consumption.  Bad rebar ! 3 days after the earthquake and the investigation is done. Bad rebar made the building collapse. What a joke. 

 

It takes 28 days for concrete to cure. When was the last pour?  Is it normal for buildings to be earthquake proof while they are under construction? Google says no. No, half-built buildings are not inherently earthquake-proof; their seismic resistance depends on the design, materials, and construction methods used, which are typically not fully implemented during the early stages of construction

 

Nobody knows why this building collapsed. There hasn't been an investigation. Has the engineered design of the building been checked ? 3 days in ? There could be something wrong with the engineering of the building. But we don't know yet. My guess is the partial state of construction of the building and the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that it was in the middle of played a part. 

[Harsh Jones]

16 hours ago, TheFishman1 said:

I once bought some Chinese tires and they were very inexpensive less than a month I had to replace all four of them with Michelin go figure quality of Chinese some products are not that well TIT

Boomer take

[Harsh Jones]

17 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

 

Is this supposed to be some gotcha video ? It was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

 

That is classic pancaking. One floor buckles and lands on the lower floor. Then one floor is holding 2 floors so it fails and so on.

 

 

[Yagoda]

Chinese construction and engineering is crap. Everyone knows it.

[jojothai]

2 hours ago, sandyf said:

Of course the fall back on this forum is always the "brown envelopes", it has to be taken that high rise construction elsewhere is impeccable.

Grenfell Tower fire inquiry blames deaths on incompetence and greed

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/grenfell-tower-report-detail-what-led-deadly-2017-london-blaze-2024-09-03/

 

It may come as a surprise to some but corruption is not unique to Thailand, the more advanced economies have got better at hiding it.

Corruption everywhere is well known.  
The comment was not aimed to "fall back" on the brown envelopes, it was made to counter the "loss of face" which IMHO is not a main reason for the issue.

[jojothai]

1 hour ago, Harsh Jones said:

 

Is this supposed to be some gotcha video ? It was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

 

That is classic pancaking. One floor buckles and lands on the lower floor. Then one floor is holding 2 floors so it fails and so on.

The 7.7 magnitude was in Myanmar, a very long way away. It would have been much less in Bangkok.
But nobody seems to be saying what the magnitude was in bangkok. I seached and cannot find it readily.
If it was 7.7 in Bangkok, there would have surely been serious devastation, not just one tower collapsing.
Some of the upper floor(s) collapsing is not what caused some of the bottom or lower columns to shear and fail at the beginning. That is on some of the videos.
Whilst the pancaking may be impressive and will cause other floors to fail from the impacts,
It is not the cause of the failure in the first place. And that is what needs to be identified.

[jojothai]

1 hour ago, Harsh Jones said:

It takes 28 days for concrete to cure. When was the last pour?  Is it normal for buildings to be earthquake proof while they are under construction? Google says no. No, half-built buildings are not inherently earthquake-proof; their seismic resistance depends on the design, materials, and construction methods used, which are typically not fully implemented during the early stages of construction

 

Nobody knows why this building collapsed. There hasn't been an investigation. Has the engineered design of the building been checked ? 3 days in ? There could be something wrong with the engineering of the building. But we don't know yet. My guess is the partial state of construction of the building and the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that it was in the middle of played a part. 

It is reported that the structure of the building was complete, although from the pictures i think some of the top floor structure may still have only just been completed.  To move the formwork and falsework up a floor will take a lot of time and concrete below will have gained most of its strength by then, its normal in this kind of construction to make the mix gain strength more quickly and 28 day strength will be higher than design.
Concrete strengths are required to be checked for the safety of construction of the next floor.
So any problem with concrete strength should only be on the last floor cast. 
Concrete does not take 28 days to cure. Its far less.
The 28 day criteria is a Design strength, but this is also with a statistical allowance to ensure only a small percentage can fall below it. So most of the actual strengths achieved are higher.
All the people thinking that this was a 7.7 in bangkok need to reboot. It was 7.7 in Myanmar 1000km away.
If it was 7.7 in bangkok it would almost certainly have caused serious devastation.

[NoDisplayName]

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

Nothing is confirmed.

 

They confirmed during an initial test that "some" steel was "substandard."  That is all.  No information on how it was substandard or whether it would affect the structural integrity.  When the findings of these tests are released, it's possible that the problem with these particular bits of steel may be mostly cosmetic. 

 

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

3 days after the earthquake and the investigation is done.

 

It's only just started.  This is just the first testing result.  They have to test more steel, test the concrete, go over all the inspection reports submitted throughout the building process, review the blueprints to confirm the building would meet the earthquake code, review the geological survey to confirm the site was suitable for high-rise construction, and and and...............

 

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

It takes 28 days for concrete to cure. When was the last pour?  Is it normal for buildings to be earthquake proof while they are under construction?

 

They were doing interior and facade work.  Read elsewhere that the building structure was completed almost a year ago.

 

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

Nobody knows why this building collapsed. There hasn't been an investigation.

 

I believe the finance minister running the investigation called for it to be completed within seven days.  That's ridiculous.  They'll barely have time to schedule committee meetings to conduct studies to select participants to form a group to select representatives to coordinate planning a subcommittee to organize a fact-finding visit to the site by then.  I expect this will be a year-long process.

 

2 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

My guess is the partial state of construction of the building and the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that it was in the middle of played a part. 

 

Probably maybe.  The collapse appeared to start from the top.  Could that have anything to do with a large crane with counterweights mounted on the top level?

[Rampant Rabbit]

4 hours ago, jojothai said:

The 7.7 magnitude was in Myanmar, a very long way away. It would have been much less in Bangkok.
But nobody seems to be saying what the magnitude was in bangkok. I seached and cannot find it readily.
If it was 7.7 in Bangkok, there would have surely been serious devastation, not just one tower collapsing.
Some of the upper floor(s) collapsing is not what caused some of the bottom or lower columns to shear and fail at the beginning. That is on some of the videos.
Whilst the pancaking may be impressive and will cause other floors to fail from the impacts,
It is not the cause of the failure in the first place. And that is what needs to be identified.

here zoom in on BKK mostly 4.7  4.9   

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000pn9s/map?shakemap-code=us7000pn9s&shakemap-source=us&shakemap-intensity=true&shakemap-mmi-contours=false&shakemap-stations=true

 

[safarimike11]

On 4/1/2025 at 8:27 AM, Tropicalevo said:

No mention of the four Chinese guys who were seen removing documents from the offices at the site.

I read that the documents were confiscated and are with the police, so it must have been mentioned.

[radiochaser]

On 4/1/2025 at 2:54 AM, Russell17au said:

Check the strength of the concrete. The workers are Thai's and not Chinese and the Thai's are notorious for adding too much water to the concrete so that it will level itself without them putting much work into it thus weakening the concrete

There were luxury 3 floor homes being built on land next to where our condo is in Nonthaburi.  It was stopped late last year due to suspicions about where Chinese backers (or Chinese owners) money came from.  

 

They had floor slabs poured and I could see one that broke diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner.   Looking at them with binoculars and judging based on the size of recognizable objects near the main crack, it appeared to be between 4 to 6 inches wide (could have been wider or less than 4 inches).   That was last year in July.   

 

I returned in February after the construction was stopped by the Thai government and saw they had built part of a home on that slab that was broken.   I don't know what they did to fix it, if it was fixed.