JEDDAH, 7 January — An engineering consultant has said improper construction methods are to blame for the collapse of a building during a firefighting operation in Riyadh last week causing the deaths of two civil defense personnel.
Lutfi Gota, a construction engineer, says that many developers do not strictly comply by the specifications laid down by the concerned authorities and often unqualified people undertake and supervise construction work. Some contractors use poor quality building materials such as iron rods, Al-Jazirah Arabic newspaper quoted Gota as saying.
He said house owners tend to depend on their personal judgments in supervising constructions. The owner will also depend on the contractor for supervising the work instead of entrusting the task to a qualified consultant.
He said another blameworthy practice by unqualified builders was the uneven distribution of iron rods while concreting roofs.
Abdullah Al-Mobraz, another engineering expert agreed. He said buildings collapsed because of the corroded iron rods inside the concrete. Another reason may be that the ground below a building's foundation may be water-logged due to leakage from sewage network or other sources of underground water, he said.
The life of a building depends on the type of iron rods, quality of the concrete and chemical additives used in the construction, the engineers said.
They said lack of direct and constant supervision at various stages of construction may result in unexpected defects and eventual collapse of a building.
A two-story building in downtown Riyadh collapsed on Tuesday morning following a massive fire, killing civil defense officers Asm Al-Subaie and Hamad Al-Sahley and injuring three others seriously. No civilian casualties have been reported as the market was free of shoppers when it caught fire.
