‘We Are Not In The Business Of Gambling’: St Julian’s Construction Engineers Explains Actions To Ensure Safety Precautions Were Taken On Site
Footage of a digger working on a St Julian’s construction which sparked worry on social media is, in fact, engaging in one of many precautionary safety measures taken by the site’s engineers to ensure that nearby residents are safe and secure in their home.
A Facebook video of the digger working yesterday aroused angry responses from the online community who believed it to be a dangerous practice that could lead to another collapse…
Janet Walker, a woman whose apartment block in Gwardamanġa collapsed due to an adjacent construction site last year, also spoke up in anger claiming this site to be “a photocopy” of what happened her.
However, one of the site’s structural engineers reached out to Lovin Malta to clarify that what the digger was doing was part of a precautionary measure involving replacing the foundations with a reinforced concrete wall.
“We saw that the underlying rock was weak and the foundations full with soil so we removed them one meter at a time and replaced them with a reinforced concrete wall,” he told Lovin Malta.
Trial holes were carried out on site to assess the quality of the surface rock
“We used a technique called ‘underpinning’ where we gradually consolidated the underlying rock and foundations of the buildings in order to resume with works.”
Before pneumatic hammer excavators started, engineers performed saw-cuts at a distance of 2 ½ feet to assess the quality of rock
The excavation work on the site had only been carried out following an agreement with the neighbours and signing of notarised agreements, no illegal excavation has been carried out.
In fact, the site is more than safe with the engineer reassuring us that these works would normally take three to four weeks to complete but, to emphasise safety, they’ve been going at it for four months, painstakingly concreting and patching the rock to achieve the required levels.
“We hold regular meetings and changes are discussed to make sure things are done professionally and with no risk.”
“We are not in the business of gambling. We are engineers and we take our work very seriously because people’s lives are at stake as we all were so crudely reminded.”
Only 12 days ago, Miriam Pace died when her home collapsed on her in Ħamrun, a result of nearby construction work that shook the foundations of her home and brought it down on her.
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