2 Workers Killed, Many Trapped In University Building Collapse In Chon Buri

[webfact]

TRAGEDY AT WORKSITE

2 workers killed in Burapa University building collapse

At least 10 were injured and an unknown number of workers remain trapped inside the under-construction structure.

At least two workers were killed and more than 10 injured when a building under construction inside the Burapa University campus in Chon Buri collapsed Sunday night. A still unknown number of workers were believed to still be trapped under the debris.

Reports of a third worker killed could still not be confirmed.

The building, part of a cluster of buildings in the campus, collapsed while fresh cement was being poured for the second or third floor, initial reports said.

As of 1.07am rescue workers were still trying to help those still trapped at the collapsed Burapha Uni site.

Up to 30 workers were working at the building when it caved in but it was not clear how many were trapped. Several workers were pulled out alive from the rubbles by rescue workers.

Water was sprayed on the rubbles to prevent stiffening of cement that could complicate rescue operations. Rescue workers used loud speakers to call out to possibly trapped victims, asking them to state their locations.

Kom Chad Luek quoted a survivor as saying that 500 tonnes of fresh cement was being poured on 2nd floor when the building caved in.

Senior university officials said no university personnel or students were at the construction site.

The collapsed building of Burapha University is for Faculty of Education with construction budget of Bt237 million. The construction work had gone on for more than 300 days.

On May 13 last year, a similar accident occurred at building site of the Esplanade Cineplex Rattanathibet, killing 3 workers.

-- The Nation 2010-08-16

[ding]

This is the reason the west uses extensive steel staging under a pour. It goes VERY fast but the forms and staging cost. Say what you want about lawyers but their lawsuits make saving lives cheaper than merely hiring a live one to replace the dead one.

[webfact]

UPDATE

1 Confirmed Death in Burapa Uni Accident

There has been one confirmed death in the construction accident at the Burapa University.

Two injuries have been confirmed, one Cambodian national and one Thai national. Two construction workers are still missing.

-- Tan Network 2010-08-16

[webfact]

Chonburi Governor Via FM101: 1 confirmed death in Burapa Uni construction accident /via @TAN_Network

[trogers]

This is the reason the west uses extensive steel staging under a pour. It goes VERY fast but the forms and staging cost. Say what you want about lawyers but their lawsuits make saving lives cheaper than merely hiring a live one to replace the dead one.

Be careful when using extensive steel staging too. Correct support design is to distribute the load of a new floor equally to two constructed floors below.

[Thai at Heart]

If as we in our company are finding (and others in our industry are reporting), the weight of brown envelopes has increased dramatically under this new government, we can expect a few more accidents like this.

[webfact]

Rescuers search for 2 workers missing in Burapha University construction collapse

CHONBURI: -- Rescue workers continue searching for two workers in the aftermath of the collapse of a building under construction at Burapha University Sunday night in the eastern province of Chonburi in which one worker was killed and four injured.

The new building under construction for the Faculty of Education collapsed at 9pm after cement was poured to cast the floor of the third tier of the eight story building.

The search effort was difficult because of a tangle of scrap metal and cement, and the point where the victims disappeared was in the middle of the site where heavy equipment could not reach.

Local authorities said the military with heavier, more specialised equipment would be drawn in to help rescue workers.

Deputy Minister of Education Chaiyot Jiramethakorn inspected the scene telling reporters that the construction foreman said there were seven workers caught in the collapsed area while some 30 workers escaped safely.

The dead man was identified as Rung Phare-sa while the four injured workers were two Thai nationals and two Cambodians.One Thai was released from hospital. (MCOT online)

-- TNA 2010-08-16

[cmsally]

If as we in our company are finding (and others in our industry are reporting), the weight of brown envelopes has increased dramatically under this new government, we can expect a few more accidents like this.

Envelopes? I thought those were out of fashion and there had been a switch to shopping bags.

[Thai at Heart]

If as we in our company are finding (and others in our industry are reporting), the weight of brown envelopes has increased dramatically under this new government, we can expect a few more accidents like this.

Envelopes? I thought those were out of fashion and there had been a switch to shopping bags.

Bin liners might be a more appropriate analogy. It really is a case of the noses back in the trough in a big way. As an example, I know of one company that had made investments into the 100's of millions of baht to upgrade their equipment to satisfy the legal requirements to properly win various contracts in the last few years.

This has all been undone with a connected Thai company returning to the market with equipment that is completely uncertified, does not meet the specs, and is 20 years out of date. I have heard at least a dozen contractors in various businesses raise this issue in conversation in the last 2 months.

It appears that the old connections are being dusted off and people are paying their way back to the trough. The figures being mentioned are 50% of tenders being the expected take which is apparently a massive increase on only a few years ago. I am not saying anything about the previous bunch being whiter than white, just that the take is way up from what it was before.

Seems the previous bunch got paid in other ways, but it is not proving popular in at least the business circles that I know.

[webfact]

UPDATE

Five summoned by police related to building collapse

Police Monday summoned five people for questioning related to the collapse of a building of Burapa University, which was under construction.

Pol Maj Gen Suwira Songmetta, deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Bureau 2, said the five could face a charge of being reckless causing deaths and injuries.

He identified as the five as Krissada Patiyatyothin, the engineer in charge of the construction, Thaweechai Samranwanit, the foreman in charge of the construction, Wallop Rungruang, the design engineer, Surapol Ngarmlert, the construction director of Billion Engineering Co Ltd and Prathuan Ritdamrong, the manager of the Billion Engineering.

Suwira said the five would be asked about possible causes of the accident.

At least two workers were killed and more than 10 injured when a building under construction inside the Burapa University campus in Chon Buri collapsed Sunday night.

-- The Nation 2010-08-16

[Basil B]

Sad,

The thing that gets me is I recall there was a similar accident a few years ago in Pattaya while constructing a hotel, I do not fully blame the construction companies because it is clear that there is no government inspection to ensure safety.

[ljerams]

It was most likely caused by inadequate design of the temporary staging and/or the workers not following the instructions correctly! Or perhaps even failure to give them essential instructions?

Nothing to do with brown envelopes.

From my experience,Thai Structural Engineers are inclined to over design the permanent structure so it's unlikely to be the reason for the collapse.

Edited August 16, 2010 by ljerams

[webfact]

UPDATE

Investigation underway to find those accountable for building collapse

BANGKOK (NNT) -- In the wake of the collapse of a building at Burapha University on Sunday night, the Ministry of Education has said that the authorities are in the process of looking into the cause of the tragic incident.

Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said the ministry has assigned the deputy education minister to proceed with the investigations to find out the cause of the accident, in order find out who was responsible for the collapse. Construction workers and other witnesses will be questioned how the accident took place, and whether the construction had been carried out in accordance with the plan and in compliance with the law.

The collapse, which occurred at 20.50 hrs last night, killed one worker and injured more than 10 others. An emergency rescue team has been working throughout the night searching for about twenty more workers believed to have been trapped inside.

-- NNT 2010-08-16

[crazyswede]

R.I.P as they use to say .. im sure those guys had some mouths to feed!

Always thought those bamboo sticks looked fragile!!

[Spalpeen]

Sad,

The thing that gets me is I recall there was a similar accident a few years ago in Pattaya while constructing a hotel, I do not fully blame the construction companies because it is clear that there is no government inspection to ensure safety.

I disagree. While government oversight and standards are desirable, the responsibility for this kind of collapse lies 100% with the professional staff on site. The construction manager, the site engineer, the foreman are the people with full and unavoidable responsibility for the safety of the less skilled workers they oversee. If you work in site management then you know that when it goes wrong it's you and the people working for you that are going to get hurt. No one else.

When someone has died it's no use saying "It's not entirely my fault, the government should have made me do a better job".

[bbradsby]

Old school wood post & beam or aluminum shoring systems all have the capability of being properly engineered & constructed to carry the temporary weight til the concrete sets up sufficiently to transfer its load to the permanent structure along beams & columns to the foundation system. The main advantages of aluminum & steel adjustable shoring systems is speed, tolerance precision in levelness of floors, higher uniformity of engineering behavior of metals versus a natural wood product (as long as the systems aren't pot metal Chinese knock-offs) and environmental sustainability as they're re-usable & fully recyclable - not "down-cyclable" as in going from wood to paper pulp.

Either the crew didn't follow the engineered shoring design, or it wasn't engineered correctly, or they removed some/all of the shoring too early for the concrete's particular design mix. It is not the public agency's responsibility, primarily, as the responsibility path begins with the concrete subcontractor and then goes to the general contractor, if different. Public agency inspectors can't be everywhere, all the time, to ensure quality control of the entirety of the work even in a developed country. Only the contractors can do that. At day's end, only they are responsible for their own work of building the structure.

I've personally seen lunch trash dropped into high-rise building column rebar cages (in the USA) and cooking oil tins purposely placed inside formwork to save on concrete (in China) - which only daylighted after a massive earthquake collapsed the entire building, and a high-rise apartment building in Kuala Lumpur literally fell over, fully occupied in '97... real horrowshow. Best safety programme is many sets of educated & non-corrupt eyes on the work.

For this level of a safety failure and the resulting tragedy to happen at a large institution's project is an eye opener and people should be locked up for life over it.

-bruce bradsby

bangna

[robint]

A typical building contract in a populous african country went like this

1) All potential bidders are called in for pre-bid clarifications and are discretely told who will win the job and what price to put in (the emphasis being that on the next round of bids the next in line will get the job - very fair and you dont wast a lot of time and money putting a real bid together.

2) Tenders are submitted and the pre-selected bidder gets the job for the price which is about 3 times what the real construction cost is.

3) The successful contractor is called in for the kick off meeting but is given a verbal list of names, offshore bank a/c and amount and told to bring the cheques in separate unmarked brown envelopes. This amounts to about 1/3rd of the tender price and goes to pay off the top dogs who promptly vanish and play no further part in facilitating the project.

4) Construction starts and proceeds to around 50% completion where various scams have occured which have taken another 1/3rd in bribes and rip offs. So this left 1/3rd which was barely enough to cover the real cost so corners are cut (eg elevators are downsized or ommitted, escalators not installed, toilet facilities removed and so on - does it ring a bell)

5) at the same time building materials and plant are stolen and the remaining funds are exhausted and the job grinds to a halt a half completed skeleton

[sirchai]

It was most likely caused by inadequate design of the temporary staging and/or the workers not following the instructions correctly! Or perhaps even failure to give them essential instructions?

Nothing to do with brown envelopes.

From my experience,Thai Structural Engineers are inclined to over design the permanent structure so it's unlikely to be the reason for the collapse.

Perhaps they were using white envelopes?

[Thai at Heart]

It was most likely caused by inadequate design of the temporary staging and/or the workers not following the instructions correctly! Or perhaps even failure to give them essential instructions?

Nothing to do with brown envelopes.

From my experience,Thai Structural Engineers are inclined to over design the permanent structure so it's unlikely to be the reason for the collapse.

Design specs have nothing to do with what is delivered if you can get enough eyes to turn blind.

[webfact]

Chonburi Building Collapse Search Called Off

Rescue workers have called off the search for survivors of the collapsed building under construction at Burapha University in Chonburi province.

Meanwhile, the chief engineer responsible for the project has been criminally charged with negligence.

Last night at around 9 P.M., a building at the construction site at the Education Faculty of Burapha University in Chonburi collapsed and so far has resulted in one death and many injuries.

The construction was under the supervision of Billion Engineering company with Kritsada Patiyatyothin as chief engineer.

Dean of the Education Faculty of Burapha University, Montri Yaemkasikorn, said the accident took place at the construction site of a 238 million-baht eight-floor building.

According to some construction workers, the collapse was triggered by the falling scaffolding on the second floor due to the excessive weight of the building equipment. Montri also said that the builder must take responsibility for the accident.

Deputy Education Minister Chaiyos Chirametakorn, Chonburi Governor Seni Jitkasem, and commander of the Chonburi Provincial Police Bureau, Police Major General Thanet Pinmuang-ngarm have inspected the scene of accident along with more than 100 rescue workers.

Seni announced that the provincial social security office will provide up to 45,000 baht in financial assistance in case of death. The family of the injured will be compensated 100 times of the wage.

Officials were also ordered to inspect the construction plan and equipment to ensure that they meet the required standards. If any irregularity is found, the builder will be charged immediately.

According to the survivors, there were only five construction workers present during the time of the accident in which one was killed, three were injured and one escaped unscathed.

Since all workers have been accounted for, the rescue teams have called off the search.

Also, the chief engineer for the construction was initially charged with negligence.

-- Tan Network 2010-08-16

[Thai at Heart]

Seni announced that the provincial social security office will provide up to 45,000 baht in financial assistance in case of death. The family of the injured will be compensated 100 times of the wage.

What it is to work in a country without ambulance chasers. I wonder if they mean 100 times daily wage or 100 times monthly salary?

[Rimmer]

UPDATE

At Least 2 dead following partial collapse at construction site within the Burapa University campus

CHONBURI: -- Disaster struck a construction site at the Burapa University here in Chonburi Province on Sunday Night. At the time of compiling this report it is thought at least 2 people have been killed with up to 4 construction workers sustaining serious injury. The incident occurred at the site of a new 237 Million Baht Faculty of Education building which is due to provide conference facilities and study rooms for students. It was confirmed that no students or teachers were present at the site during the partial collapse of the new building which occurred as cement was being poured on the 2nd floor of the building. A total of 30 workers were on-site when the collapse occurred.

Full story HERE

-- Pattaya One 2010-08-16

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[chrisyork]

If the photo is anything to go by the upper floors have fallen past intact pillars. That is usually a sign that the floors have not been adeqautely tied to the pillars - a defect in construction of the rebar as the floor is laid. Once that's happened then the shuttering for the next floor up is stood on the floor below as it is poured, so depends totally on the floor to pillar integrity.

Chris

[asiawatcher]

As a certified (not certifiable!) Project Manager I can say having been involved in more than 300 properties in many countries, this is nothing new. Thailand has stupid (ridiculous) systems of safety, systems and engineering checks let alone adherence to Building Codes (if any). Columns slammed into 'fill' without proper footings can at least be properly attached to floating slabs! But I have yet to see a decent structural steel tied off correctly to any of the upright supports unless major sites with "I" beams, joists and bearers, thus are all prone to collapse. Filling gaps between walls without proper tie-offs and settling slabs etc, all a recipe for disaster, and it WILL continue to happen. Local Building Inspectors are mostly all on the take, to look sideways, and even the sand content of some of the constructions I have seen are sea sand, guaranteed to rust out the 'reo' over time even in the absence of new air.

It still remains the site project managers responsibility to report to the engineer. Cost savings to create greater margins seems to always be the problem here in Thailand and many of the buildings sold (even my own) have stress and settlement cracks within a few years. It is like the corruption - endemic and totally unnecessary.

Sad that people on less than 8,000 Baht a month have to pay with their lives and the family expect little or no compensation. If I were the courts I would confiscate the property of those responsible and hand it to the surviving families to sell off or keep as they see fit and give those responsible a lengthy jail term to set an example. But I doubt that will ever happen. Same as the fire in the disco in Ekkamai - nothing is ever done and more payoffs make the problem 'go away'.

[RigPig]

Sad,

The thing that gets me is I recall there was a similar accident a few years ago in Pattaya while constructing a hotel, I do not fully blame the construction companies because it is clear that there is no government inspection to ensure safety.

I disagree. While government oversight and standards are desirable, the responsibility for this kind of collapse lies 100% with the professional staff on site. The construction manager, the site engineer, the foreman are the people with full and unavoidable responsibility for the safety of the less skilled workers they oversee. If you work in site management then you know that when it goes wrong it's you and the people working for you that are going to get hurt. No one else.

When someone has died it's no use saying "It's not entirely my fault, the government should have made me do a better job".

Easily said but there is pressure on people and their own livelihoods are at risk if they don't "Play the Game" and there is always an emphasis to do it down to a price and not up to a standard. Regulatory authorities are there to make sure the standards are adhered to the contractors "mission" is to perform to the standards for the lowest price and maximize profits IMHO

[geriatrickid]

This is a major loss of face for the University. At a reputable university, senior administration would be held accountable. It's too easy to blame the contractors and consultants. Why? Because this university has an engineering program and is supposed to be a leader in setting standards of quality. http://www.buu.ac.th/webeng/engineer.html Where was the faculty group that would oversee the construction?

Sorry, but there isn't a construction project at a major university in Korea, Singapore, USA, EU etc that isn't held to rigorous standards. The reason is obvious. A university is supposed to be a leader. Faculty members would be consulted and would visit the construction site. The question that must be asked is if the Dean of Engineering, and the University President were aware. Prof.Dr.Suchart Upatham, President is a reputable biologist, not an engineer and was probably relying on the advice of fellow administrative board members. Someone let him down. Now let's watch everyone scramble for cover and blame someone else. Would anyone want to have an engineering diploma from this school now?

[surangw]

same construction standards ( or lack of) as the hotel in Korat that fell down some months back ?

[Thai at Heart]

In the "other paper", they are investigating corruption and reported 'substandard' construction. Hmmmmm.....

[hammered]

This is a major loss of face for the University. At a reputable university, senior administration would be held accountable. It's too easy to blame the contractors and consultants. Why? Because this university has an engineering program and is supposed to be a leader in setting standards of quality. http://www.buu.ac.th/webeng/engineer.html Where was the faculty group that would oversee the construction?

Sorry, but there isn't a construction project at a major university in Korea, Singapore, USA, EU etc that isn't held to rigorous standards. The reason is obvious. A university is supposed to be a leader. Faculty members would be consulted and would visit the construction site. The question that must be asked is if the Dean of Engineering, and the University President were aware. Prof.Dr.Suchart Upatham, President is a reputable biologist, not an engineer and was probably relying on the advice of fellow administrative board members. Someone let him down. Now let's watch everyone scramble for cover and blame someone else. Would anyone want to have an engineering diploma from this school now?

Of course it is a loss of face for the university. However, it was building for the Education faculty and not the Engineering faculty and so the Engineering faculty would have nothing to do with the project which private sector companies were employed to design and build. The engineering faculty would no doubt have an interest in its own buildings but certainly not beyond that as faculties are independent of each other in action and budget. Blame should be apportioned to where it is deserved, and after prper investigation and not just made inaccurately in wild rants. Luckily a local MP is demanding that this is not just disappeared in the next few weeks and with an election coming and people in Chonburi who send a lot of their kids to this university concerned at what has been going on there is a chance this one will be hunted down. That will also be helped by the fact that the local Tessabahn apparently were not asked to help in this construction.

People living in Chonburi have their own ideas of the causes of this tragedy, having seen vast amounts of building in Burapha over the last few years, but they dont match with your inaccurate assumptions although certain statements from the university administration are quite interesting.

[hammered]

In the "other paper", they are investigating corruption and reported 'substandard' construction. Hmmmmm.....

That sounds about par for the course