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State of construction

 
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skjain.iitk
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Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 104

PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 4:47 am    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Dear Colleagues:

It was shocking to hear on TV last night that part of a building of
Times of India under construction in Ahmedabad collapsed, possibly
killing many workers. It is not only tragic for the families of the dead
and injured but is also a sober reminder to all of us that all is not
well with our construction industry.

Only last year, a part of another commercial building under construction
in a prominent area of Ahmedabad had collapsed.

Both the above buildings must have been designed by "structural
engineers", constructed by "contractors" and supervised by the
"construction engineers". Hence, the responsibility lies with the
professionals associated with the construction industry.

Incidents like these should make us resolve to work harder for the
upliftment of our profession and following action points come to mind:

a) We resolve to do the best professional job regardless of how much is
the fees. There are no excuses allowed to a surgeon for doing an unsafe
surgery just because he agreed to a lower fees from a patient.

b) We stop complaining about other stackholders to express our
disappointments and frustrations. We must focus on what WE can do rather
than what others should do.

c) We refuse to undertake assignments for which we are not competent.

d) We help other professional colleauges and youngsters including
students in learning to be good professionals.

e) We assign a fraction of our time and income for our own professional
growth and the improvement of the profession generally.

This is my emotional outburst and is not meant to be a sermon to
colleagues on SEFI, since I feel rather disturbed with the incident. I
know that most of us must feel  quite agitated with such incidents.

Best regards,

Sudhir Jain
IIT Kanpur

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:12 am    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Dear Sir -and Colleagues,

It is really shocking that this has happened-and that too in
Ahmedabad. I wanted to read more about this incident and did a Google
news search for 'building collapse'-which was even more 'shaking'..in
the last twelve days we seem to have had collapses in Gwalior,Jodhpur
and Bangalore..What lessons have we learnt from Jan 26, 2001?

Hari

People feared trapped under collapsed Gujarat building
Tuesday November 9 2004 00:00 IST
IANS
AHMEDABAD: Several people were feared trapped inside a press building
which collapsed here on Monday night, police said.

No loss of life was immediately reported in the collapse that occurred
around 9:50 p.m. in Satellite City area. The building was undergoing
repairs.

Police said they rescued some 30-40 workers and admitted them to hospital.

"We rescued some 30-40 workers and rushed them to hospital. There must
be some more people trapped under the collapsed building," police
said.

Other sources, however, said there were some 100 workers inside the
building when the tragedy occurred.

Gwalior building collapse claims one life, injured 12:
[India News]: Gwalior, Oct. 25 : At least one labourer was killed and
dozens more are feared buried alive as an under construction college
building collpased in Bhopal today Panic spread through Gwalior city's
main science college as its new three-storey lab wing, which was
nearing completion, crumbled. Window panes of several nearby buildings
were also damaged.

Rescue workers and locals worked at frenzied pace to dig out any
survivors and rushed the injured to hospitals.

"At least 40-45 labourers were working in the building when this
mishap took place. This was an under construction portion. Some
labourers are trapped inside. According to our reports, one person has
died and four are injured," city superintendent of police Jagdish
Prasad said.

"I was upstairs when all of a sudden something broke and I fell
straight down. We were 40 labourers working and I believe more than 20
have been injured," added Damu, an injured.

Preliminary reports say the contractor could have been using
substandard building material and police have launched a manhunt for
him.

An enquiry has been ordered into the collapse.(ANI)

Five die in building collapse  (07 Nov 2004-Deccan Herald)

The BMP has suspended the jurisdictional AEE and Works Engineer for
their failure to check violation of the plan sanction by the building
owners.

BANGALORE, DHNS:

Five labourers were killed and 15 injured when the centring of a
commercial complex under construction collapsed at Vasanthappa Block
5th Main Road in R T Nagar police limits on Saturday morning.
Violation of the plan sanction and lack of safety measures at the
construction site are cited as reasons for the mishap. The deceased
have been identified as Perumal (35), a mason from Dharmapuri, Raja
(36), Vadivelu (30), Mohammed Shaffi (2Cool of Kumaraswamy Layout, and
Dharma (40), a bar bender.

Another labourer, 25-year-old Dharma, was severely injured and has
been admitted to M S Ramaiah Hospital, while the others injured,
Dharmaswamy, Saravana, Krishna, Satyavelu, Periswamy, Ramu, Selvam,
Swamy and Adilakshmi are being treated at a private hospital.

According to eye-witnesses and police, the building's centring came
crashing down around 10:30 am and 15 labourers were trapped in the
rubble.

A few others who were working at the site ran out and escaped with
minor injuries. The concrete pouring work was in process for the first
floor of the complex when the mishap occurred.

Hearing screams, people rushed to the rescue of the victims. They
pulled out eight to 10 people from the heap of concrete and debris.
Fire force personnel rescued the remaining people and removed the
bodies.

Around 35 labourers, from around Papparpatti in Dharmapuri district in
Tamil Nadu, were working at the site where businessman Sai Jaganmohan
Reddy is constructing a commercial complex. They have been working at
the site for some one-and-a-half months.

The R T Nagar police have registered a case against the owner and the
contractor.

'Owners responsible'

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has blamed the owners, Mr Sai
Jaganmohan Reddy and Ms Tara Reddy, for the collapse.

During a spot inspection, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner
Jyothiramalingam, Special Commissioner Subhash Chandra and Chief
Engineer Rame Gowda found that the owners were violating the plan
sanction in the construction of the building.

"The centring has collapsed as the owners have not taken any safety
measures. There is no relation between the building collapse and the
plan sanction," an official press release said.

"The deaths of labourers are due to the negligence of the building owners.
"Hence the plan sanction accorded to them has been withdrawn," the
press release added.

Mayor P R Ramesh also visited the spot.

Officials suspended

For failing to check the owners from flouting rules, the Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike has suspended the Hebbal Sub-division Assistant
Executive Engineer and Works Inspector with immediate effect.

The Assistant Engineer, who was on deputation, has been sent back to
his parent department.

The architect's licence has also been cancelled.

Nine labourers hurt in building collapse at Jodhpur:
[India News]: Jaipur, Oct 29 : Nine labourers were today injured when
the second floor of a building on which they were working collapsed at
Boranada in Jodhpur rural, a senior police official said.

The injured were admitted to the Mahatma Gandhi hospital, the
Superintendent of Police (rural) Vishal Bausal told PTI on telephone.

Some other labourers received minor bruises but they did not turn up
for treatement, Bausal said.

A case has been registered against the owner of the building and the

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James_Cohen
SEFI Regulars
SEFI Regulars


Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 32

PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:42 pm    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Dear Colleagues:

As an engineer, the bulk of my work is related to building failures. By
"failures" are included loss of function, not just collapses. I have worked
on behalf of contractors, designers, owners, developers and government
agencies. Collapses in the United States are, unfortunately, not an
infrequent occurrence.

Possible contributing issues include design flaws (rare), construction
errors or material supply faults. However, this does not necessarily
indicate the root cause of the problem, which may lie with the inspecting
agencies, testing agencies, certifying agencies, weather anomalies, contract
problems (such as delegation of authority,
owner/designer/contractor/subcontractor interfaces), government requirements
or, in the case of new construction, owner instructions. Until all the facts
are gathered and analyzed, it is premature to conclude a fault with any
particular group. This can often take years due to the volumes of documents
which may have been accumulated on a large project which need to be
reviewed. At the end, not only the cause, but the actual fault, may remain
unclear.

I have also found that news reports are not the best indicator of the cause
of a collapse. This has been more evident with the scale of the failure. It
is my experience that the larger the failure the greater the tendency for
the news to "fill in the gaps."

James Cohen, PE
James Cohen Consulting, PC
http://expertpages.com/jccpc

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anandrshah9
SEFI Member
SEFI Member


Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 2:47 am    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Respected jain sir,

As u have mentioned about both the buildings must have designed by
" structural engineer " & constructed by " contractor ".
But in our profession,
any one can become contractor without having degree or proper techincal
knowledge of civil engineering in depth. There are many private & goverment
contractor are there doing such.
And still after 2001 eathquake and so many workshops in some of the major
buildings consulting practise standard is the same. Where u can find, 6 dia
- stirrups
at 200 / 225 c/c in main columns through out( where spans are 20 ft to 30
ft) and same 6 dia
mild steel in slab too. It is there because of so called " expereince of
designing of
such things of 100 times of more". I think the line " the buidling is
designed for latest earthquake
code " is there in brochure of organizer just as a selling point nothing
else, not as really done in
some of the cases.

Regards,

Anand


Quote:
Message From  skjain@iitk.ac.in
Reply-To: general@sefindia.org
To: anandrshah9@hotmail.com
Subject: State of construction
Date: Tue Nov  9 10:17:13 2004

Dear Colleagues:

It was shocking to hear on TV last night that part of a building of
Times of India under construction in Ahmedabad collapsed, possibly
killing many workers. It is not only tragic for the families of the dead
and injured but is also a sober reminder to all of us that all is not
well with our construction industry.

Only last year, a part of another commercial building under construction
in a prominent area of Ahmedabad had collapsed.

Both the above buildings must have been designed by "structural
engineers", constructed by "contractors" and supervised by the
"construction engineers". Hence, the responsibility lies with the
professionals associated with the construction industry.

Incidents like these should make us resolve to work harder for the
upliftment of our profession and following action points come to mind:

a) We resolve to do the best professional job regardless of how much is
the fees. There are no excuses allowed to a surgeon for doing an unsafe
surgery just because he agreed to a lower fees from a patient.

b) We stop complaining about other stackholders to express our
disappointments and frustrations. We must focus on what WE can do rather
than what others should do.

c) We refuse to undertake assignments for which we are not competent.

d) We help other professional colleauges and youngsters including
students in learning to be good professionals.

e) We assign a fraction of our time and income for our own professional
growth and the improvement of the profession generally.

This is my emotional outburst and is not meant to be a sermon to
colleagues on SEFI, since I feel rather disturbed with the incident. I
know that most of us must feel  quite agitated with such incidents.

Best regards,

Sudhir Jain
IIT Kanpur










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kalyan
SEFI Member
SEFI Member


Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 3:58 am    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Dear Dr. Sudhir:

I share your agony about failures of CE professionals to perform as
professionals. The only way all this is going to change is when the
professionally licensed engineers are allowed to carry out all the
professional activities.

Only a week ago the CEI conducted a one day workshop to discuss
Professional Licensing of engineer’s bill. Although this discussion has
gone on for decades I see that all the professional societies of the
country are coming together to lobby for it and it is expected that the
bill may be passed before the next winter session. This however is only
the first step. Particularly in the early stages many who are not
professionally capable, who have been responsible for such collapses may
also get the professional license on the basis of the grand father
clause. One need not despair. In case of unprofessional work such
engineers can be delicensed. Further, the PE will require continuing
education to get a renewal and hence we can expect all those who have
not upgraded their knowledge beyond M=w*l*l/8 will all have to update
their knowledge. This will require a vast expansion of continuing
education programmes to be conducted by professional societies and
accreditation of these programmes. This is where we have a great role to
play.

Recently we had a seminar on structural failures with our students and
research scholars. The amount of enthusiasm shown was very high. We need
to train fresh graduates in the professional side of engineering also in
the educational institutions, until the professional socieites and
experienced engineers can speed up their activities to take up this
role. I find that very many consulting organisations do not have middle
level and senior engineers who are willing to spend guiding young
engineers, since they are busy with business end, getting works. There
are a whole lot of young engineers who think that once they can model a
structure using computer software, the result they get is all right and
sacrosanct. There is a whole lot that the young engineers need to learn
beyond their BE/ME degree to become PE, which experienced and
knowledgeable engineers and professional associations have train them
in. I hope that with PE license become mandatory we can look forward to
a more professional approach to engineering. Let us all work together to
achieve it.

V. Kalanaraman

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mc.upadhyay1
...
...


Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 134

PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 5:35 am    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Hello
Prof. Kalyanraman is right.
Licensing of Structural Engineer will definitely improve the situation.
When the  Unethical Engineers have to sign their drawings.
It will prevent  them to take work on terms such as 1.5 kg/sft; thin
columns & so on.

Mukesh Upadhyay

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Rabinder Shekher
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Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 266
Location: Katra Vaishno Devi J&K

PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 1:20 pm    Post subject: State of construction Reply with quote

Dear Sudhir,
I am shocked at this news but you are right that we are least concerned about the safty measures, If the accident is due to faulty design or workmanship, that is the responsibility of the designer or contractor but we engineers are always responsible for the safe construction. We must get complete planning before we actually start the construction. I find that most of the times we donot devote much time to study the drawings and possible areas of danger and rather start the work in hurry.
Shekher 


On Tue, 09 Nov 2004 skjain@iitk.ac.in wrote :
Quote:
Dear Colleagues:

It was shocking to hear on TV last night that part of a building of
Times of India under construction in Ahmedabad collapsed, possibly
killing many workers. It is not only tragic for the families of the dead
and injured but is also a sober reminder to all of us that all is not
well with our construction industry.

Only last year, a part of another commercial building under construction
in a prominent area of Ahmedabad had collapsed.

Both the above buildings must have been designed by "structural
engineers", constructed by "contractors" and supervised by the
"construction engineers". Hence, the responsibility lies with the
professionals associated with the construction industry.

Incidents like these should make us resolve to work harder for the
upliftment of our profession and following action points come to mind:

a) We resolve to do the best professional job regardless of how much is
the fees. There are no excuses allowed to a surgeon for doing an unsafe
surgery just because he agreed to a lower fees from a patient.

b) We stop complaining about other stackholders to express our
disappointments and frustrations. We must focus on what WE can do rather
than what others should do.

c) We refuse to undertake assignments for which we are not competent.

d) We help other professional colleauges and youngsters including
students in learning to be good professionals.

e) We assign a fraction of our time and income for our own professional
growth and the improvement of the profession generally.

This is my emotional outburst and is not meant to be a sermon to
colleagues on SEFI, since I feel rather disturbed with the incident. I
know that most of us must feel  quite agitated with such incidents.

Best regards,

Sudhir Jain
IIT Kanpur







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