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Collapsed of Building On Pile Foundations

An unfinished apartment building in Shanghai collapsed due to improper construction methods. Workers dug an underground garage on one side of the building while piling up excavated earth 10 meters high on the other side, creating uneven lateral pressures that weakened the pile foundations. Heavy rain further destabilized the soil, causing the building to topple over and killing one worker.

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156 views

Collapsed of Building On Pile Foundations

An unfinished apartment building in Shanghai collapsed due to improper construction methods. Workers dug an underground garage on one side of the building while piling up excavated earth 10 meters high on the other side, creating uneven lateral pressures that weakened the pile foundations. Heavy rain further destabilized the soil, causing the building to topple over and killing one worker.

Uploaded by

edward the iii
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Collapsed of building in Shanghai

resulting from failure of pile foundations


due to lateral soil movement
27 June 2009
Building Collapsed In Shanghai (06/27/2009) (Daqi)
At around 5:30am on June 27, an unoccupied building still under
construction at Lianhuanan Road in the Minhang district of Shanghai city
toppled over. One worker was killed. According to information, a 70
meter section of the flood prevention wall in nearby Dianpu River and that
may have something to do with this building collapse.
But the high-resolution photos are really amazing.
(China Daily)
Improper construction methods are believed to be the reason of last
Saturday's building collapse in Shanghai, according to a report from the
investigation team. The investigation team's report said that workers dug
an underground garage on one side of the building while on the other side
earth was heaped up to 10 meters high, which was apparently an error in
construction, according to a report on eastday.com, Shanghai's official
news website. "Any construction company with common sense would not
make such a mistake," said an expert from the investigation team.
Earlier this week, there were also reports saying that cracks on the
flood-prevention wall near the building, as well as the special geological
condition in the water bank area, may be part of the reason for the
collapse. "These factors are not the basic reason of this accident," said
the expert.
Nine people linked to the building collapse, including the real estate
developer, contractor and the supervisor for the project, have been put
"under appropriate control", said the official Xinhua News Agency
Sunday evening.
Firm's ignorance led to toppling of Shanghai building, report
says By Will Clem and Lillian Zhang. July 4, 2009.
An official investigation into the collapse of an unfinished building in
Shanghai has said that the accident was due to the construction
company's "ignorance", rather than flaws in the design or building
materials. However, the report stopped short of apportioning blame,
and has been criticised for failing to address key issues.
The report said the collapse was caused by earth, excavated to
make a 4.6-metre deep pit for an underground car park alongside the
building, being piled to depths of up to 10 metres on the other side of
the structure. The weight of the pile created a "pressure differential"
which led to a shift in the soil structure, eventually weakening the
foundations and causing them to fail. This situation "may" have been
aggravated by several days of heavy rain leading up to the collapse,
but investigators would not say whether this was a crucial factor. The
report said the construction company - Shanghai Zhongxin
Construction - "did not consider clearly" that the earth pile could have
such a devastating effect.
Investigators stopped short of saying whether the company's errors
were negligent or easily avoidable. However, they stressed that the
building's foundations and construction materials all complied with the
city's building regulations. Huang Rong , director of the Shanghai
Urban Construction and Communications Council, said inspections had
shown that none of the remaining 10 apartment blocks was in
immediate danger. "The surrounding buildings are now stable," he said.
"The safety inspection of these homes will be the second phase of our
professional team's work."
Jiang Huancheng , an architect and a lead investigator for the
report, said it had been an "enormous shock" to see the site for the first
time. "In my 46 years in the industry, I have never seen or heard of
this," he said. "To put it simply this was ignorance leading to rashness.
We need to take this accident as an important lesson ... and ensure
that it does not happen again."
Several days before the release of the report, Wu Hang , Mr Jiang's
assistant, accused the construction company of incompetence and
lacking "common sense". Mr Wu said the investigation had found there
had been no structures to support the walls of the car park pit, and this
had been a key factor contributing to the accident.
(1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than what the
pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction.
First, the apartment
building was constructed
Then the plan called for an underground garage to be dug out.
The excavated soil was piled up on the other side of the building.
Heavy rain resulted in water seeping into the ground.
The building began to shift and the concrete pilings were snapped
due to the uneven lateral pressures.
The building began to tilt.

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