Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 14, 2014 News
…plan for smaller structure was submitted
The owners of the leaning building in Hill Street, Lodge, will have to remove a section of the structure or dismantle it completely, if present efforts to stop it from tilting fail.
This is the word from officials from the Mayor and City Council’s City Engineering Department, who said that the contractor had submitted a plan to erect a smaller structure but was now erecting a larger one.
A City Hall official said that workers have been doing ‘underpinning’ (driving piles around the structure) to stop the building from tilting.
The source explained that the building is tilting because the soil beneath the structure is shifting.
“If nothing is done there is danger of it collapsing,” the official said. “Underpinning can stop the movement of the building, but if that does not work, then you have to take it (the building) down, or reduce the weight of the building.”
The official said that the City Engineering Department is to meet with the owner, Terrence Campbell, who is at present overseas. The businessman reportedly contacted City Hall officials yesterday after Kaieteur News published a story about the leaning structure.
In a letter sent to Kaieteur News yesterday, Campbell said that the building had ceased tilting in 2013 and denied that a Hymac was used at one time to prop up his property. According to Campbell, at present, the structure “poses no threat to life or property.”
“First, at no point was a Hymac (or dragline) used to prop up this building. Second, there has been no movement (tilting) with this building for all of 2014,” the businessman said.
“Finally, works, costing almost $30M, to underpin this building are almost complete. The building doesn’t currently pose a threat to life or property. The additional foundation works will ensure that it never does.”
According to Campbell, he found it “surprising that this matter is still attracting the attention of the Council.”
“Mr Boyce, the Vice-Chair of the committee, visited the site and was briefed by me on the works to underpin the building. I have also offered to have the Structural Engineer, hired to design and supervise corrective works, make a presentation to the Public Works committee. The committee is yet to accept this offer two months later,” he said.
“There are other tilting structures (New Market Street, North Road, etc) which may pose a danger to life and property. These structures are complete and in use. Their locations would prevent any works to underpin them at this point. Why aren’t these buildings an issue? The answer is that their construction predates the Sooba administration, for whom I hold no brief, and no political mileage can be gained in addressing them.”
However, Kaieteur News was told that City Hall had granted permission for the construction of a smaller building in Hill Street, but the contractors subsequently erected a larger structure. The still incomplete building is at least four stories high.
City Hall sources opined that the added weight caused the edifice to tilt.
Most of the work was completed last year and it was around that time that City Hall engineers learnt of the problem, the official said.
The official questioned whether the contractors had done a soil test to ascertain if there was need to drive piles to strengthen the foundation prior to construction.
He indicated the City by-laws provide for action to be taken against the contractor.
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Apr 19, 2024
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