Authorities in Thailand are investigating the construction of a Bangkok skyscraper that collapsed during last week’s earthquake, killing at least 13 people.
The 30-floor structure in Chatuchak district, which was being built for Thailand’s State Audit Office by a Chinese company and a Thai construction firm, collapsed into a heap of concrete when the 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit on Friday, trapping – and possibly entombing – around 90 construction workers.
Efforts to locate the around 75 people feared still trapped under the rubble of the unfinished tower continue, despite the expiry of the 72-hour period that is viewed as critical for survival. Many of the workers are reportedly migrant workers from Myanmar, where the earthquake has caused widespread devastation, and where the death toll has now topped 2,000. At least one of the workers who died was from Cambodia.
The State Audit Office building was a joint venture between Italian-Thai Development Plc and a subsidiary of China Railway No.10 Engineering Group, which operates under the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation.
The fact that the building was the only major structure to collapse in Bangkok, which lies more than 1,000 kilometers from the epicenter of the quake, has prompted immediate government attention. On Saturday, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra ordered government agencies to investigate the root cause of the building’s collapse and present their findings within a week. Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul subsequently announced the formation of a committee to carry out the investigation, which will examine the construction plan, the standard of the material used, and any possible unsafe actions that were taken during the construction of the building.
“This building was newly constructed. So, it should have endured an earthquake,” he said, as per the Bangkok Post.
Much public and media attention has focused on the steel bars used in the building’s construction, which some reports claimed were of substandard quality. On Sunday, Industry Minister Akanat Promphan told Reuters that his ministry has shut down seven factories for producing substandard steel in the past six months, and expressed concerns that steel from these or similar suppliers may have been used. “Many of these factories used an old production process and equipment relocated from China,” Akanat said.
According to some reports, the steel used in the construction of the building in Chatuchak came from Xin Ke Yuan Steel, a company that was charged in January for producing substandard steel, although the link has not been confirmed by the Ministry of Industry.
Yesterday, the Thai Industrial Standards Institute announced it had tested 28 steel samples from the collapsed building and that two failed to meet government standards. Nonthichai Likitaporn, the head of the institute’s Standards Division 1, said that further samples would be tested in order to determine if this played any role in the building’s collapse.
There were concerns about the State Audit Office building even prior to the March 28 earthquake, which also caused widespread devastation next door in Myanmar. Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand (ACOT), which reviews government projects, told Reuters on Sunday that it had informed the State Audit Office about concerns regarding the project prior to Friday’s earthquake.
Mana said that visits to the project during construction by ACOT had raised concerns about delays, worker shortages, and possible “corner-cutting.” “Sometimes, the number of workers on site were much fewer than there should be, causing delays,” he told Reuters. “Potentially, there was a rush to complete the project towards the end, which could cause a drop in the standard of work.” The government had threatened to cancel the project in January due to delays, he added.
Also on Sunday, police announced that they had questioned four Chinese workers for removing 32 files from containers behind the collapsed building. The files contained various documents, including information about contractors and sub-contractors, Police Maj. Gen. Noppasin Poonsawat, the deputy Bangkok police chief, told reporters. The men, who were employees of one company that was part of the consortium constructing the building, told police that they gathered the documents to prepare insurance compensation claims.
According to the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, 14,430 cases of building damage from Friday’s earthquake were recorded, and inspections of damaged buildings across the Thai capital continue. Today, Chadchart Sittipunt, the governor of Bangkok, rescinded the declaration of the city as a “Disaster Zone.”
