Independent inspection of collapsed car park exonerates demolition contract.
Back in February, we exclusively brought you the news and photos of a car park collapse in Southend on Sea. At the time, we applauded the transparency of the contractor involved – Elvanite – which openly commented on the collapse and its likely causes.
In keeping with that approach, the company has now provided us with the findings of an independent inspection carried out by IDE presdient John Woodward of C&D Consultancy. Those findings are shown in their entirety below:
“…In my opinion the collapse of the rear section of the car park was caused by the failure of the construction day joints where they had been incorrectly constructed with no reinforcement passing through the joints leaving an unscabbled, unconnected joint interface. This poor standard of construction meant that the joints could have failed at any time during the life of the car park and it is apparent that the work of demolition has imposed vibration and forces into those joints that has caused the failure to occur. Close inspection of the failed area show that the joints had no through reinforcement or dowel connections and the concrete in some areas was either smooth, preventing any connection with the adjacent section of slab, or was of poor quality with an extremely sandy consistency throughout which would have led to a lower strength and easier failure of the joints. I consider that the contractor, from the information provided at tender stage, would not have been able to ascertain that there was a possible risk of joint failure…”
