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| ▲ An official from the probe committee on the Gwangju apartment building collapse gives a media briefing at the Sejong government complex on the outcome of the probe into the accident that killed six workers and injured another, on March 14, 2022. (Yonhap) |
building collapse-finding
Arbitrary changes in floor construction, faulty concrete blamed for apartment collapse
SEOUL, March 14 (Yonhap) -- Arbitrary changes in floor construction and use of faulty concrete were mainly to blame for the deadly partial collapse of an apartment building at a construction site in South Korea's southwestern area, a government-led probe committee said Monday.
The exterior walls of the 39-story apartment building under construction in the southwestern city Gwangju crumbled on Jan 11, which left six workers dead.
The committee under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport concluded that the accident was a "man-made disaster" caused by poor management and lax supervision.
The committee found that the 39th floor had been built with an unauthorized method that was different from the original design.
No support posts were installed in the lower floors to shore up the 39th floor during the pouring of concrete, but they had only set up fake concrete walls, which would have increased the load of the floor, eventually causing it to collapse.
Most of the concrete used in the construction had the texture quality far below 85 percent, a minimum threshold for strength, another factor that has led to poor safety, the probe found.
The probe also found that HDC Hyundai Development Co., in charge of the apartment project, failed to consult an expert when it modified the structural design and the supervision team did not fully conduct the inspection of the overall construction process, the committee said.
The probe committee called for efforts to improve the procedure to check compliance with relevant laws and regulations and strengthen the independent status of construction supervision to ensure a similar accident does not recur.
The committee plans to submit the final report to the land ministry in about three weeks.
In January, Chung Mong-gyu, chairman of HDC Hyundai Development Co., stepped down to take responsibility for the accident, though he said he will continue to "fulfill his duty" as the company's major shareholder. Chung owns a 33.68 percent stake in HDC Holdings Co., which controls HDC Hyundai Development Co. and other chemical and retail affiliates under its wing.
In June last year, Hyundai Development came under fire over a building collapse during demolition in a housing redevelopment project in the same provincial city. The accident killed nine bus passengers and injured eight others.
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