Building collapse in Civic

What’s a PT deck?

By the sounds of things, Leighton should probably just stick to building roads!

2604 said :

I know that Walker Corp is the developer, but does anyone know who is the head contractor / PM for this project?

Leighton.

Leighton

I know that Walker Corp is the developer, but does anyone know who is the head contractor / PM for this project?

Yeah I was kidding too!!

Someone above is correct, its the formwork that has collapsed as the builders where commencing back propping the cement as they were pouring.

The guys knew it was going to collapsed and the site was under evacuation as it collapsed.

The deck below has failed, probaly because it has been stripped to early. Looks like a PT deck and the lower floor has not been stressed, but stripped.

I pity the poor person that has to clean up, yet think about the clown that has to explain it all.

ant said :

That was the Silverton Centre, Peterh. They built it during the 82 drought, and didn’t factor in the water table that had sunk, and which began to rise again when Bob Hawke got in and the drought broke. It housed DSS (now Centrelink).

Apparently the balloon went up when a bloke came back from long service leave and his Tarago hit the roof as he went down into the underground car park, although staff had been having issues with drawers in filing cabinets opening themselves and other tilting floor issues.

The story I was told about the Silverton was that the weight of the compactuses wasn’t taken into effect and when they loaded up the compactuses it caused cracks in the floor. Hence everyone was evacuated and not allowed back in.

This worries me about these new bldgs with only specific safe spots for heavy safes. People are told this on moving in, but who will remember in 20 years.

I’ve been told not to put pianos or waterbeds upstairs in two storey houses. But when I was a student I wouldn’t have known not to.

AG Canberra said :

Answer me this.

I am in a 18 month old building in the city. It was built the same way – big hole in the ground then one floor, then scaffolding on top to support the next floor up.

If the floor I am currently in can only have safes positioned next to support pillars (due to floor strength issues) how was the whole floor space supposed to support the next floor as it was being built?!?

I understand our computers and engineers know more stuff than ever – but isn’t it reasonable to suggest that today’s office builders will pour the least amount of concrete possible? (to satisfy engineers)

There have been examples of safes being placed in old buildings just off the girder, with terrible results. I have seen a very large safe, which we had to lug up a lot of stairs, exit the building much faster than when we got it in. very neat hole it left, too.

To be fair, more concrete does not, on its own, make a structure stronger.

AG That is easy… The floor you are on with the safes does not support the next floor above. The pillars do that by themselves. You’ll find the pillars are an astonishing amount stronger then any floor you are on.

You are right that the least amount of concrete/ steel is used to save money tho. Often things like heavy safes are not taken into account during the design process hence your problems i guess. Even some 2 story homes cannot take sizeable fish tanks on the top floor.

looks to me like the concrete floor underneath collapsed…though this might have been caused by the scaffolding collapse? would it?

An existing building will be ok, this is a formwork collapse by the look of it, formwork is a tempary structure designed to take the weight of a fresh pour of wet concrete, once the concrete is set the deck is self supporting and the formwork is taken out.

AG Canberra said :

Answer me this.

I am in a 18 month old building in the city. It was built the same way – big hole in the ground then one floor, then scaffolding on top to support the next floor up.

If the floor I am currently in can only have safes positioned next to support pillars (due to floor strength issues) how was the whole floor space supposed to support the next floor as it was being built?!?

I understand our computers and engineers know more stuff than ever – but isn’t it reasonable to suggest that today’s office builders will pour the least amount of concrete possible? (to satisfy engineers)

The same way that people are able to lie on beds of nails and birds with big feet can walk on lilly pads – they spread the weight out.

The safe is a huge weight at a single point (or it can be anyway) where as a whole floor of scaffolding spreads the weight over the entire floor.

Your point about using as little raw material as possible is still a valid one, however.

Answer me this.

I am in a 18 month old building in the city. It was built the same way – big hole in the ground then one floor, then scaffolding on top to support the next floor up.

If the floor I am currently in can only have safes positioned next to support pillars (due to floor strength issues) how was the whole floor space supposed to support the next floor as it was being built?!?

I understand our computers and engineers know more stuff than ever – but isn’t it reasonable to suggest that today’s office builders will pour the least amount of concrete possible? (to satisfy engineers)

I heard it was the same guy who done the hospital implosion. Him or immigant workers me thinks.

Sheepgroper might be on to something. Maybe Snow lent them the builders adn designers who presided over the building of that hanger at Fairbairn some years back, which collapsed sending a shower of blokes to the ground.

I was briefly on site earlier today and I can confirm that no one was seriously injured …

Very good!

If it’s a random quirk (best laid plans and what-not), let’s hope they can learn from it for the future. If it’s a genuine muck-up with OH&S issues, let’s hope for some serious fines.

Snow might have sabotaged the building to prevent DEEWR leaving Snowtown on schedule in a couple of years : – ) If the delay is long enough the department will have to negotiate an extension of the leases on its buildings out here.

At least I’ll have longer to admire the widened roads around the airport before my lot gets shipped back to Civic.

That was the Silverton Centre, Peterh. They built it during the 82 drought, and didn’t factor in the water table that had sunk, and which began to rise again when Bob Hawke got in and the drought broke. It housed DSS (now Centrelink).

Apparently the balloon went up when a bloke came back from long service leave and his Tarago hit the roof as he went down into the underground car park, although staff had been having issues with drawers in filing cabinets opening themselves and other tilting floor issues.

I think gooterz was making a little joke.

I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with the building that had to be demolished on the corner across the road from the Fujitsu building – that one had to be knocked down after an underground stream was found and the foundations shifted. by memory, the stream was supposed to run right under the old QEII?? building as well?

Really glad that this was a slow collapse, the injuries could have been horrific.

gooterz said :

How does someone have photos of it happening? staged or what?

I have photos AFTER the event….
So you see people there at all? NO!

I was briefly on site earlier today and I can confirm that no one was seriously injured, there were 20 people working on the top deck when it collaspse and 40 working in the surrounding areas. As you can see from the photos a significant section of the formwork has collapsed with some of the previously laid concrete collapsing as well.

The place looks even worse than in that photo, there is lots of really heavy materials and equiptment that have fallen 1-2 stories.

The first photo shows the crack between the “stable” formwork and the stuff collapsing to the right. There is already an emergency services guy in the first photo (full yellow suit right up the back – single figure?), and the concrete pipe has been abandoned with noone nearby in the process of running away. I would expect that the collapse has taken place over the space of a few tens of minutes from the time the first “crack” was detected.

I doubt that someone standing off the work area and waiting for the accident to finish would just be sitting around for those 15 min without thinking about taking a photo or two 😉

Very noisy and they had their phone out at the time! Maybe lots of yells from the fluro vest wearers (singing out for people to get their phones going).

gooterz said :

How does someone have photos of it happening? staged or what?

or slow… very slow… =P

How does someone have photos of it happening? staged or what?

Very glad no one was hurt! Does make me wonder though, if this failure didn’t happen now, I wonder what could have happened structurally after a year or 2 if the concreting was faulty or not well enough supported? Sure these things should not happen in this day and age!?

Contractors/trades working on this site are compelled to be DEEWR certified as even better than the ordinary building tradesmen. ie, OH&S compliant to within perfection.

Pity it occurred, but shows that all the (OTT) compliance/paperwork in the world cannot prevent mishaps.

Well that explains a lot. I walked past the site just as the first fire engine was turning up, saw a whole lot of guys standing around outside, when I walked past about half an hour later more things (eg ambos police etc…) where turning up.

sezzle said :

I heard that there were 4 men trapped under the formwork?

Not what people were saying on site an hour ago, but it’s possible new information has emerged.

I heard that there were 4 men trapped under the formwork?

AG Canberra said :

anything to do with the strong winds we are experiencing?

I’d be very surprised if that was a factor, it’s rather well sheltered.

But time will tell.

anything to do with the strong winds we are experiencing?

I’m glad no-one’s hurt.

Designed for a 5* Green Rating, 5* ABGR rating and a living wall.

Is it a sign from God to the Greens?

Well at the simplest level the scaffolding has failed to support the concrete being poured.

Why that would happen is going to take some finding out.

Bit of a worry. And a headache for a lot of people I am sure. Will be interesting to find out what went wrong, after all, people have been building things for a while now, you think they would have solved the obvious technical problems with the designs so that they don’t fall down.

Whoah, lucky that no one was hurt.