building failure case study in malaysia

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A CASE STUDY OF ENGINEERING ETHICS: LESSON LEARNED FROM BUILDING COLLAPSE DISASTER TOWARD MALAYSIAN ENGINEERS

This paper presents the case study on the Hotel New World tragedy. The building collapsed on 15th March 1986 and an investigation was conducted to determine the main cause of this tragedy. There were several speculations made on the cause of the collapse such as internal explosion, bad concrete mixture and swampy land affecting the building's foundations. However, after thorough investigations, these speculations were proved to be inappropriate and the main cause was found to be due to the engineer's miscalculation during the designing stage which leads to this catastrophic failure of the building. Rescue operation was initiated immediately after the collapse to rescue the victims and the aftermath of this tragedy had led to multiple reclamations. These reclamations include the endorsement of Building Control Act 1989 along Building Control (Accredited Checkers) Regulations 1989 as a stricter quality control measure. The analysis shows that this case may be due to unwanted mistakes or negligence of the engineers in carrying out their duties. Several actions were taken according to the ethical theories and codes of ethics. However after the analysis and evaluation were done, duty ethics and right ethics were more relevant to the collapse of Hotel New World case as compared to the other ethical theories and thus reclamations were done based on duty ethics and right ethics.

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Challenges in Construction Over Soft Soil - Case Studies in Malaysia

N O Mohamad 1 , C E Razali 1 , A A A Hadi 1 , P P Som 1 , B C Eng 1 , M B Rusli 1 and F R Mohamad 1

Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering , Volume 136 , Soft Soil Engineering International Conference 2015 (SEIC2015) 27–29 October 2015, Langkawi, Malaysia Citation N O Mohamad et al 2016 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 136 012002 DOI 10.1088/1757-899X/136/1/012002

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1 Geotechnical Engineering Branch, Public Work Department of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Construction on soft ground area is a great challenge in the field of geotechnical engineering. Many engineering problems in the form of slope instability, bearing capacity failure or excessive settlement could occur either during or after the construction phase due to low shear strength and high compressibility of this soil. As main technical agencies responsible for implementation of development projects for Government of Malaysia, Public Works Department has vast experience in dealing with this problematic soil over the years. This paper discussed and elaborate on the engineering problems encountered in construction projects that have been carried out by PWD, namely Core Facilities Building of Polytechnic Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Integration Quarters in Klang, Selangor. Instability of the ground during construction works had caused delay and cost overrun in completion of the project in Selangor, whereas occurrence of continuous post construction settlement had affected the integrity and serviceability of the building in Sabah. The causes of failure and proposed rehabilitation work for both projects also will be discussed in brief.

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Landslide of Highland Towers 1993: a case study of Malaysia

• Published: 12 June 2017
• Volume 2 , article number  21 , ( 2017 )

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• Danish Kazmi 1 ,
• Sadaf Qasim 1 ,
• I. S. H. Harahap 2 &
• Syed Baharom 2  

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Slope engineering is primarily focused on landslides nowadays due to increasing number of its episodes. Most of the landslides occur on manmade slopes and it is actually the consequence of the uncertainties carried by different contributing factors. This study explores the causes of Highland Towers 1993 landslide based on reliability analysis technique and taking into account the role of human errors in the contribution of landslide. It is an established fact that the probability of failure derived from structural reliability analysis is conditional which does not incorporate human factors. The analysis considered in this study is based on Monte Carlo simulation by using the commercial slope/w software to evaluate the stability of the slope. The reason for selecting this software is that it combines both deterministic and probabilistic modules which provides more reliable results. These investigations are followed by fault tree analysis (FTA) to quantify the human error causes of failure by determining the chances of landslide governing with different events. The results of FTA show that the potential causes of this landslide are inadequate drainage, failure of rubble wall, and rail pile foundation which confirms that human errors have played a significant role in triggering the landslide. Therefore, this study suggests the use of human reliability analysis technique along with structural analysis to address the risks associated with the slopes.

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Kazmi, D., Qasim, S., Harahap, I.S.H. et al. Landslide of Highland Towers 1993: a case study of Malaysia. Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. 2 , 21 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-017-0069-4

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6 most EPIC FAIL (and deadly) Malaysian constructions

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Malaysia is an up-and-coming country, with skyscrapers, malls, and roads flung across the entire cityscape. However, some say this first-world infrastructure means nothing in the face of third world mentality .

We at CILISOS  would like to remain optimistic about Malaysians. We might be kiasu a bit when it comes to lining up for toys la, but we’re good in the overall sense. What’s not good however, is that some buildings we’ve built are crumbling, despite the fact that they should last longer than us.

But before we start on the list, we just want you to know that any humour in this article is just for the sake of prose, okay? There’s nothing funny about tragedies and death. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, come, let us take you on a journey through our darker histories, from just relatively expensive, to unfortunately, most fatal .

6. Terengganu stadium collapses, June 2009 (and AGAIN, in February 2013)

Stadium got slipped a roofie. Photo credit: alamakademik.wordpress.com

The first thing people think about when looking at a stadium is the marvel of spectator sports and the frenzy of the crowd. Have you ever watched a match where the cheers were so loud that they threatened to bring the roof down? Well thank God there wasn’t a crowd when the  Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium’s roof collapsed , literally.

In June 2009, the stadium’s east wing took a dive (oh wow soccer puns), and fortunately, no one was present. After what has got to be the longest clean-up ,  the roof collapsed again . A beam fell during repairs and removal, and this time, the workers kena. Boh song lor, to say the least.

Sekali kena gigit, dua kali malu… not. Photo credit: merdekaonline.com

Misfortune: 5 locals injured (whew), no fatalities.

Resolution: Wan Manan Wan Ali was charged in 2011, but acquitted in 2014

Cost Tally: RM 292 million stadium costs, approximately RM25 million damages

5. Penang second bridge collapse, June 2013

Is it even safe for the rescue team to be up there? Photo credit: straitstimes.com

So your friend on Facebook shows of their latest Penang trip, and what updates do you see? That’s right. Food, glorious food . In fact, so many people go there to makan CKT that they  need another road to the island to alleviate the traffic .

And in June 2013 (why are all these things happening in June?), a part of that second bridge fell . The Kelisa and its driver parked beneath didn’t stand a chance 🙁 Again, it was caused by negligence during construction . As an expert put it:

“The scaffolding must be able to withstand the superstructure and horizontal loads as well as the additional hydraulic pressure of fresh cement. It takes five hours for the concrete to harden before it can carry its own weight. Before that, it relies on the scaffolding to hold it in place.” –  Dr Mahyuddin Ramli, The Star

With our limited construction knowledge, we still find constructions like these over a road that’s open to public quite the dodgy, as depicted in the photo below.

The aforementioned dodgy-ness. Photo credit: starproperty.my

Misfortune: 1 killed ( A Malay ex-policeman ), 3 injured

Resolution: Chan Kah Heen from Cergas Murni Sdn Bhd got a RM50,000 fine, while Abdul Raub Razalim from Giga Engineering and Construction Sdn Bhd received a RM35,000 fine.

Tally:  Bridge estimated at RM 152 million

4. Jaya shopping mall collapse, May 2009

Yes, it was that old. Photo credit: skyscrapercity.com

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but if you have memories of shopping in Jaya Supermarket ,  you’re most probably old. Perhaps it was the lack of shopping malls, or maybe its location was just that  ong , but Jaya was the top choice of mall-dwellers besides Atria and The Mall .

This time, the problem wasn’t construction, but from demolition works .  Specific reasons of the failure were unreleased to the public , and despite the contractors submitting their reports for investigation, the public was left in the dark regarding further development.

There was also the hoo-haa about the contractors not getting approval from the Department of Safety and Health (DOSH), while holding the green light from MPPJ . And then there were accusations of contractors using explosives, which they denied and countered balik   that the demolitions code in Malaysia was self-regulated. Very messy la, in essence.

The unfortunate aftermath. Photo credit: salazs.blogspot.com

Misfortune : 7 dead Indonesian workers , unconfirmed injuries.

Resolution : Yap Choon Wai from CW Yap Sdn Bhd, and Jason Hee Kok Hing from Lian Hup Earth Work and Construction Sdn Bhd were charged with failing to meet safety standards. No updates since.

Tally: Unconfirmed, though technically the building was slated for demolitions.

3. Train shenanigans, March & May 2013, August & December 2014

Artist’s impression, though we doubt it’ll be this unpopulated. Photo credit: propertyhub.com.my

Now this is the  kecoh  one. It’s the one that caused much furore, and it was also the inspiration for this article. The reason why it irked Malaysians was the fact that it happened on the roads that people take to work everyday . The other reason was that there were multiple cases linked to the MRT/LRT saga.

Surely, you’d expect the authorities to be extra-kao-tambah-extra  careful, what with the construction zones stretching all along the busiest roads in the Klang Valley, right? Or do we need to be careful ourselves as well?

… and not worry their socks off about something falling on them.

First case, March 2013,  equipment in transit fell and crushed two cars  in Subang Jaya . This brought to light how the average cari makan  commute was going to change. Barely given enough time to recover, Malaysians were subject to yet   another scare, when initial news reports believed that the tragedy involving a falling beam—which crushed a restaurant worker and his employer—“was for use in the MRT project.”

After that came the Kota Damansara incident , where a 300 tonne beam crushed three people .This was the straw that broke the camel’s back where MRT was concerned ,causing MRT CEO Datuk Wira Azhar to resign .  MRT rejected his resignation however, as he actually did oversee progress throughout the construction.

The 300-tonne beam in the Kota Damansara case. We know it’s a bit untasteful, but i you look closely, you’ll see its horrified face. Can. Not. Unsee. Photo credit: thestar.com.my

Misfortune : 7 total deaths (5 Bangladeshi, two locals), unconfirmed injures.

Resolution : Besides Datuk Wira Azhar’s resignation, the only other action was our  Prime Minster’s call for a probe.

Tally :  Total damages for both lines unknown.

2. Penang Jetty tragedy, July 1988

No suitable captions here. It was just tragic. Photo credit: tankiasu.wordpress.com

The Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal tragedy is lesser-known among the young ‘uns, despite it being the talk of the town for weeks on end after its happening. Don’t believe us about it being a well-known incident? Ask the older generation about the 1988 disaster and they’ll tell you all about it, despite not having the social media grapevine of today.

Where construction was concerned, it was not a planning fail la per se. It was more of a ‘ perfect storm ‘ situation. Not a real storm, but the combination of circumstances that aggravated a situation drastically.

First of all, there was a freak crowd of 10,000 people  due to the clash between two celebrations: the St Anne’s Feast in Bukit Mertajam and a rare Kwan Yin Goddess festival in George Town. All the passengers were on the pier’s second storey—the one below was meant for cars. The pier, not built to withstand such a weight, crumbled under the stress.

Passengers that survived the fall had to avoid being crushed by the debris, and find a way out of that death trap. Surprisingly, grandfather stories provide more information than the internet  (results barely made half of the first page) regarding this issue, but that doesn’t make it any less tragic.

The day’s events shown on a television documentary. Photo credit: tankiasu.wordpress.com

Misfortune : 32 killed, 1,634 injured

Resolution : None, crowd’s impatience highlighted

Tally : Unmentioned

1. Highland Towers collapse, December 1993

The collapsed Tower One. Photo credit: hulukelang.com

Aaand this is the big one , and we bet ugaiz saw it coming. December 11, 1993, a date etched into many Malaysians’ minds, mainly because it was one of the most horrific collapses the country—actually, you could even make that the world—has ever seen.

It was so devastating that it made this person’s list of the world’s top 10 building collapses . It also prompted aid from Singapore, France, Japan, UK, and US.

The abandoned remains. Photo credit: thestar.com.my

Another ‘perfect storm’ incident , factors like the installation of pipes under the building’s grounds (which would burst), the clearing of trees nearby, and a crazy 10-day downpour of rain all congealed into one big landslide, causing one of three towers to crash.

Eerily, rescue teams reported knocks and cries for help even seven days into recovery efforts. Now, the remaining towers stand as a stark reminder of our history, with people reportedly going to the grounds to look for  hantus .

MPAJ had full immunity on claims. Photo credit: mavrkyprojectphoto.blogspot.com/

Misfortune : 48 deaths

Resolution : Dropped civil charges against  10 parties, including the Selangor government and the Ampang Jaya Municipal council

Tally : RM 52 million out of court settlement

We can do better than this.

Perfect photo for the next paragraph. Photo credit: hugolim.com

Yes. Nobody wants tragedies to happen, but even in the face of disaster it’s always important to remember what we have. We have our KL Tower  and the Petronas Twin Towers as the country’s architectural landmarks. Also, we’re willing to bet that more foreigners have been up the towers than ugaiz  right? Don’t lie.

And we also have the SMART tunnel , which is one of its kind in the world. We even have a documentary episode dedicated to this feat of engineering alone.

Traffic alleviator by day, flood alleviator by rainfall. Photo credit: cdn.visualnews.com

Also, don’t think countries with huge advancements in infrastructure don’t go through the same thing. South Korea, a country with streaming videos in buses instead of the pre-loaded ads in our Rapid KL counterparts, have had   a couple  great disasters as well (to be fair, the first was caused by snow). Even countries like Canada have had their share of casualties when a shopping mall’s roof collapsed .

So despite the best technologies and methodologies, misfortunes can still occur. However, what worries us is a lack of consequence to those in charge. Aside from Azhar, who resigned for the LRT misfortunes, many of the other cases remained unsettled. Given the mount of deaths resulting (particularly for the poor migrant workers), it indicates that people can, in fact, get away with murder.

For us here at CILISOS, we believe that’s the real tragedy in all this. Yes buildings will fall, and yes, people will get injured, but the percentage of migrants that make up the headcount is unsettling at best. This is why we wrote an article last year highlighting the three Bangladeshi men who were crushed in the MRT accident . Cos it’s easy sometimes to see them as workers, and not men.

Where buildings are concerned, it’s probably safe to say that we shouldn’t cut corners, because buildings man, they bide their time. You might get away with shoddy work for a few years, but they will definitely come back to haunt you.

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The Constructor

3 important cases of building collapse due to poor construction management.

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Construction is perhaps the most critical stage in the life cycle of structures, mainly because of the danger of failure and the high chances of underestimating construction loads.

A report developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers, based on their study of around 600 failed structures, found that around 40% of the structures failed during the construction stage, 36% of the structures failed during the pre-construction stage due to flawed designs, and 24% failed during their operational stage.

The failure of a structure is described as the propagation of local collapse from one segment to another segment, eventually resulting in the failure of an entire building or its lopsided part. It could be a product of natural disasters, for example, seismic tremors, floods, or coincidental acts such as an explosion in the service system or terrorist bombings.

Analyzing the reasons for explicit structural failures and proposing measures to relieve their effects is a successful measure to lessen risks and improve the safety of structures. Therefore, this article discusses the failure of some major structures, their root causes, and the lessons learned. 

1. The Skyline Plaza Apartment Building, Virginia, US

The design plan of the Skyline Plaza complex included six office buildings, eight apartment buildings, shops, and one hotel. The project was a $200 million residential-commercial complex and was situated in Fairfax County, Virginia. During the construction of the skyline plaza complex, one of the apartment buildings under construction collapsed. A total of 15 labors were killed, and 40 were injured.

Design drawings of the collapsed building included the construction of 26 stories, a penthouse, and a four-story storm basement for parking. The building design was of a reinforced concrete flat plate with a 200 mm thick concrete slab. The height between each story was 2.7 m. 

1.1 Investigation Findings 

On 2 nd March 1973, some portion of the apartment building collapsed during construction. The collapse began on the 23 rd floor when the slab of the 24 th floor was being cast. On the 23 rd floor, the slab started showing cracks and the failure of the building occurred vertically along the full height of the building, including the basement levels. Also, the adjacent post-tensioned reinforced concrete car parking structure collapsed. 

Specialists concurred that the concrete had not acquired sufficient strength to carry the construction loads applied during the construction process. Investigators confirmed that the original design plan had no deficiencies. The most probable reason for the collapse of the building was the punching shear failure on the 23 rd floor of the building.  

After the collapse, a team from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) came to the site and started an investigation. Further, a detailed investigation was conducted by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). 

NBS and OSHA mentioned in their reports that the collapse of the building was directly related to poorly managed construction processes. The court found that the contractor and the site engineer were guilty of negligence as the contractor didn't follow the building code requirement and the site engineer didn't inspect the work properly. 

1.2 Lessons Learned

After the collapse of the Skyline Plaza apartment building, a series of changes were made in the building code related to the progressive collapse failure. Special inspection procedures were added in the inspection section of the building codes. Design criteria were also changed for effective planning to reduce the possibility of failure due to progressive collapse. The following points describe the violations of specified construction requirements and standard practices: 

• Violation of prerequisites to completely shore the two stories underneath the floor being cast. 
• Failure to permit legitimate curing time before removing shoring. 
• Failure to conduct curing test on the concrete specimen in the field. 
• Use of out-of-plumb shoring. 
• Improper inspection during casting and formwork removal to check the strength of concrete.  
• Improper installation of the climbing crane. 

2. Ronan Point Tower, Canning Town ,   London

The need to give substitution lodging to homes destroyed in World War-II encouraged European engineers to develop innovative pre-assembled construction strategies. One such plan included the construction of high-rise buildings using pre-stressed concrete components made in factories.

The structural framework included the construction of load-bearing walls and each floor was directly stacked onto the walls. Grouted bearing surfaces were used to construct the joint between the wall and the floor. This process of construction was termed as system building. A skyscraper at Ronan Point, Canning Town, UK, was built using this system building technique. 

On 16 th May 1968, a blast occurred due to gas leakage in the kitchen of a house on the 18 th floor. Just after the blast, the kitchen walls collapsed, and in-turn, the walls above the 18 th floor caved in. This impacted the floors beneath and obliterated the entire corner of the structure. A total of 14 people were injured and three were killed. 

2.1 Investigation Findings 

The investigation team revealed that the building collapsed due to the non-availability of an alternative load path when one portion of the external wall collapsed. After the demolition of the building, it was also revealed that the quality of the grouted bearing surface for the joints between floors and the walls was poor.

Because of the unprecedented collapse, the government examined the safety of other buildings constructed using the same concept as the Ronan Point Tower. Many buildings were demolished well ahead of their life span. 

The concept of progressive collapse of structures was not much known to the engineers before the failure of the Ronan Point Tower. In such collapses, a local failure is followed by widespread collapse through a chain reaction. What was irregular on account of the failure of the Ronan Point Tower was that a minor gas blast set off the collapse of a huge portion of a finished structure.

2.2 Lessons Learned

The experience due to the failure of Ronan Point Tower re-emphasized the following points: 

• Progressive failure can also occur in fully constructed structures.
• A structure should have redundancies to reduce the possibility of progressive failure. 
• Quality control should strictly be followed in the construction processes. 

3. 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, US

On 25 th January 1971, a two-third portion of a 16-story residential building known as 2000-Commonwealth Avenue in Boston collapsed during construction, leading to the death of four workers. The building was under construction for more than six years. The collapse of the building generated approximately 8000 tons of debris. Luckily, the failure of the building was gradual, giving the workers some time to escape from the building site. 

The building was designed as a reinforced concrete structure and flat slabs were used for the roofing system with an elevator shaft provided in the center. This type of structural design is mainly famous for multi-story construction as it reduces the thickness of the slab and overall height between the floors. The thickness of flat slabs was between 160-190 mm for all the building areas except near the elevator core where it was 230 mm thick. The arrangement of the structural component constituted a height of 2.7 m for all the floors.    

The building, situated at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue, was intended to be 16 stories high with a mechanical room of height 1.5 m for the working of the lift at the rooftop. The plan area of the structure was 56 x 21 m 2 . The building additionally had underground parking of two levels. A pool, auxiliary spaces, and one flat were situated on the first floor, and a total of 132 flats were on the second through sixteen floors. At first, these flats were to be leased. However, the proprietors later chose to advertise them as apartment suites. 

At the hour of the collapse of the building, construction work was almost completed. The brickwork was finished up to the sixteenth floor, and the structure was generally encased from the second to the fifteenth floor. Heating, plumbing, and ventilation frameworks were introduced all through different floors of the structure. The interior work had also started on the lower floors. A temporary lift was constructed to help in moving equipment to various floors. It was assessed that 100 individuals were working in or around the structure at the hour of the collapse. 

The collapse of the building occurred in three stages. These stages were, failure due to punching shear in the rooftop at section E5, the failure of the slab, and in the end, the progressive failure of the structure. 

3.1 Investigation Findings 

The civic chairman of Boston appointed a commission to inquire about the collapse of the building. The commission discovered the following critical observations: 

• There was no signature of an architect or engineer found on a single drawing of the building. 
• The design engineer didn't give the computations supporting his structural drawings to the commission. No head or representative of the team of contractors held a building construction license of Boston city. 
• Ownership of the venture changed a few times, with changes in planners and architects. This scenario added to the general disarray and contributed to the abnormalities referred above. 
• The general contractual worker just had a solitary representative on location. Most subcontracts were given directly by the owner to the subcontractors and bypassed the general contractor. A total of seven subcontractors were involved in the construction. 
• The subcontractor, who was assigned to conduct the cold weather protection work on the structural concrete didn't carry out the assigned work. However, the structural engineer had indicated these measures. 
• There was no proof of any inspection of the work by a specialist despite the fact that the project particulars needed this. 
• The quality of construction material and quality inspections were poor. 
• The collapse of the building occurred due to the development of punching shear mechanism around column E5. Punching shear developed the flexural cracks around the roof slab located near the elevator core. Thus, the slab collapsed due to flexural yielding. 
• The design manual indicated a 28-day strength of 25 MPa. However, at the failure time, 47 days after casting work, the concrete couldn't seem to attain the necessary 28-day strength. 
• The most critical inadequacies were an absence of shoring under the slab at the roof and the quality of the concrete.

3.2 Lessons Learned

The following key factors describe the collapse of the multi-story building situated at 2000 Commonwealth Avenue: 

• Authorized design engineers should be chosen for the development of working drawings for construction. 
• Engineers and architects should be responsible for all the design-related calculations and their design work must be examined by the experts in that field from a government organization. 
• Ownership of a project should not change multiple times to reduce the confusion between the previous engineer and the newly appointed engineer. 
• Inspection at the construction site should be conducted regularly by government organizations, especially for cold weather work.  
• The quality of concrete work should be monitored throughout the project. 
• The construction work should conform to design documents and construction procedures.

The collapse of a building is characterized as the propagation of an initial local collapse from component to component, ultimately resulting in the collapse of a whole structure or a disproportionately large portion of it.

Construction is one of the most critical phases in the life cycle of buildings due to the risk of failure and the possibility of underestimating construction loads.

The structural framework included the construction of load-bearing walls and each floor was directly stacked on the walls. Grouted bearing surfaces were used to construct the joint between the wall and the floor. This process of construction was termed system building.

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