slab collapse in South Africa

[JacksPanic]

Construction workers share details of deadly collapse in Tongaat, Durban, South Africa

ALL that mall construction worker Skhumbuzo Ngcobo saw was dust when a concrete slab collapsed in Tongaat, north of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, on Tuesday, killing a woman and injuring him and at least 28 of his co-workers.

 

[a2mfk]

What bothers my soul every time there is a collapse like this is that the people who are responsible are safe and sound, and some low wage construction worker trying to feed his family gets his leg broke or gets killed....

It puts all of our frustration with building codes and the like into perspective, because you can see what it is like when someone (government) isn't around to act as a policeman (and I am borderline libertarian!).

 

[Archie264]

For the libertarians amongst us the solution might not be government oversight so much as the threat of being sued out of business by the impending torts. In that environment the insurance companies will be on the construction companies -- and design firms too, for that matter -- like white on rice, forcing companies to comply with safety measure and standards or lose their coverage. Of course, that all presumes there is a government backing it all, enforcing rule of law through their courts.

Perhaps that delves into the political realm and I don't mean to, I'm just agreeing with you but saying that more government provisions might not be the best way to go. The gov't. can't be everywhere all the time, nor would we want that, whereas the beady eyes of the insurance adjuster can get people's attention very quickly. Reasonable people can disagree, of course, and certainly all will agree that the event was a tragedy.

 

[BAretired]

According to this article, construction was supposed to have been stopped by the authorities who were not aware that construction was underway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25009107

BA

 

[TDIengineer]

I saw some pictures, and that was some heavy looking structures. All masonry and concrete. You really have to know what you're doing with cast in place concrete. Apparently someone didn't and didn't respect the weight of wet concrete, or pulled forms down too fast.. I guess I should do some research to see what the cause is. But my guess is inadequate support of the formwork. And possibly overloading of some slab recently placed. Anyone know?

 

[JStephen]

Meanwhile, I see a roof collapse in Latvia, looks like building a garden on an existing roof did it in.

 

[HermanLJ]

I'm from South Africa and as a structural engineer I tried to do as much research as possible into the collapse. My conclusions are:

1. They stacked brick pallets on a freshly cast slab.
2. They decided to strip both formwork and propping 2 days after casting.

To be honest I think that's what caused the collapse. 2 days after casting you are looking at 30-40% 28 day cube strength and that won't be enough to carry self-weight, nevermind brick pallets. Concrete quality is very high in South Africa and it looks to be a suspended slab on beams design so it won't be punching failure. (You don't see the characteristic column standing with a punched out piece of slab.)

So the contractor is at 100% at fault, pushing forward even when told to stop and even the not following basic SABS code regarding stripping times.