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Cost saving action may have caused building collapse

By Hou Lei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-01 15:18

A practice aimed at cutting costs may be an important factor behind the collapse of a Shanghai apartment building, according to the project supervisor Tuesday.

The nearly-finished 13-story apartment building in the Lotus Riverside complex in Shanghai collapsed Saturday, killing one worker. The complex was once praised by Shanghai's construction quality supervision authorities in 2007 for its good quality, China Youth Daily reported.

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A report from the investigation team showed that workers dug an underground garage on one side of the building while a mound of soil heaped up to 10 meters high was located on the other side, apparently an error in construction.

The chief director of Shanghai Guangqi Construction Supervision Co Ltd, the supervisor for the project, claimed that it’s common practice for developers not to remove the soil mound since the cost for transportation is up to 6-7 million yuan (US$0.88-1.02 million), China Youth Daily reported.

According to the project plan as well local authorities demands, soil that was dug out was to be used for tree and grass planting in the same compound, meaning even if developers removed the mound of soil from the construction site, they would have to transport it back after the building work was finished.

"Removing the soil from the construction site is not a compulsory practice according to law," said the head supervisor. "We reminded the developer many times the danger of that heap of soil but they did not remove it."

However, the soil mound is not the sole reason for the accident. Many other factors such as the distance between the building and the riverbank and problems with a flood-prevention wall nearby may also be part of the accident's cause, according to the head supervisor.