SOCIETY BUSINESS PARK SAFE - ENGINEER
SOCIETY Business Park is safe to trade in as the strength of the columns which were affected is being doubled and works are now at 74 percent completion, independent engineer, Henry Musonda who was contracted to investigate the cracks that developed on the newly constructed building, has said.
Mr Musonda of Killian Musonda and Associates said only 160 columns of the 774 column building need strengthening and that the extent of the damage was nothing unusual.
This follows claims by the Engineering Institute of Zambia (EIZ) when they paid a courtesy call on President Edgar Lungu yesterday that 1,200 columns of the Business Park had developed cracks.
The claims prompted the Head of State to declare the building ‘a death trap’. Mr Musonda however said in an interview that contrary to the claims by EIZ, the entire building of Society Business Park only had 774 columns and not the 1200 alluded to by EIZ.
“It’s not true that 1200 columns had cracks because the entire building only has 774 columns and only 1 column had cracks out of the 160 columns that needed strengthening,” he said.
Mr Musonda explained that the weak columns might have been as a result of an oversight by the consultants or because the concrete material which was supplied was not strengthened to the requested level.
He said the damage to the building was not unusual in construction, assuring that Society Business Park was safe to trade in.
And the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA), the owners of the building said EIZ had given President Lungu a wrong picture of what was obtaining on the ground.
NAPSA director general, Yollard Kachinda, who confirmed that the building did not have 1600 columns said the latest engineering report issued in September indicated that remedial works were on course.
Mr Kachinda said that EIZ had been invited to oversee the works but had declined citing oversight role.
He said all the reports from the independent engineer had been made available to EIZ.
NAPSA director of engineering, Phillip Muyumbana also dispelled claims that 1,200 columns were affected, saying the building only had 774 columns. During the courtesy call, EIZ president Abel Ng’andu told President Lungu that about 1,200 of the 1,600 columns had failed the strength test.
Eng Ng’andu said that the technical audit that was carried out by EIZ revealed the claimed outcome.
He said EIZ was proactive and that the institution would take action against the consultants and contractors involved. Eng Ng’andu also recommended that the office block of the building be closed because the building still had cracks.
In response, President Lungu said that engineers should be held accountable for their wrong actions.
He said it was sad that some buildings have become death traps due to poor engineering works.
Last year it was reported that one of the columns, identified as column no 5 had failed and that the mode of failure was crushing near the joint between the column and roof slab.
In 2011, Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) and NAPSA entered into a 20-year concession agreement using a public-private partnership procurement model for the $100-million redevelopment.