The Swanston Street: Wall Collapse - Essay Example

HЕ SWАNSTОN STREET WАLL СОLLАРSЕ Name Institution Instructor Date Introduction The site of Swanston Street has been for a long time accompanied by a series of misfortunes. It happens to be a representation of some of the Melbourne’s in appropriately planned and developed streets. The death of the three people who were very innocent individuals at this particular site was yet another sad occurrence. The tragedy at the site of Swanston Street occurred as a result of some contributing factors. These factors include structural flaws that are experienced in some of buildings and structures as well as substandard layouts and designs. A combination of these is believed to have greatly contributed to the occurrence of the tragic incidence. The other factor that must have also contributed to the collapse of the wall is the fact that required building and construction standards were not adhered to during its erection. It is reported that the masonry wall structure which standing along the street of Swanston was constructed to a height of 3m which is about 600mm higher thee maximum allowed height according to the building and construction site hoarding guidelines as outlined for the Melbourne City. It is observed from the previous southern edge view of the wall that it lacked proper support and anchorage. The vertical bracing as well as return in this site was missing. This is the point that could have most probably lead to the structural failure due to its weakness. The other factor with a higher likelihood of having contributed to the collapse of the wall is the effect of the wind forces. It is reported that at the time collapse the wind speeds in the WSW direction at a speed of 76km/Hour was prevalent at that particular site. Contributing factors Factors that could have contributed to the tragic collapse included problematic and faulty issues such as inappropriate design, poor site layout, height above the acceptable standards, physical obstructions as well as poor construction of the structure. A certain locality having a container whose height was equivalent to that of a three story building situated directly opposite the site would have played a great role in deflecting the effects of the forces of the winds. However, this was not the case since this container was somehow overwhelmed. Another possibility that would have assisted in deviation of the force that led to the collapse would be the presence of a separation joint in the middle of the brick wall southern edge and the left hand side but that was not in place. Increased pressure build up at the structurally weak points along the wall is believed to have immensely contributed to the vibration of the wall before its eventual collapse. A combination of all these factors is what led to the coming down of the Swanston street wall in a tragic occurrence. The happenings and the outcomes The site of the collapse was previously not experiencing a lot of businesses and activities. Apart from the site preparation that was happening earnestly at the site, there were no construction or building activities taking place at the time the incidence took place. However immediately after the collapse it started experiencing a lot of activities especially on the side behind it. About two months before the scrapping up of the overburdening topsoil and asphalt was done on the wall and about one month later a big mound was seen at the back side of the wall which was believed to have been the one harboring the scrapped up topsoil and asphalt. Later after the collapse the mound was seen to have disappeared and the ground on which a stack of containers was sitting on the northern part of the collapsed wall was seen to be flooded. The rescue officers who rushed to the place following the incident confirmed the death of two individuals at while another one had been rushed to the hospital. All the casualties were pedestrians. Dozens of people then rushed to the site of the incident after they heard a noise that sounded like ‘thunder’. The people who reached at the site tried in desperation to remove the debris from tee location where the casualties were trapped. The bystanders as well as those who rushed to the site were however successful in rescuing other three people who had been trapped under the rubbles. The Swanston Street as well as other streets close to it was immediately closed to traffic and remained closed for not less than two hours. The outcomes of the tragic incidents that involved the collapse of the Swanston street was were that it brought about the loss of life for three people who succumbed to fatal injuries. There was also considerable loss and damage of properties which obviously interfered with operations and activities at the Swanston Street. The site of the tragic collapse, what could be seen was the remains of what was still standing which was about just a third of the entire structure. The falling of the collapsed wall occurred for the portion of the wall that extended for at least 15m in length. The anchorage of the wall was done in the northern direction of the section that fell through the use of a wide flange channel that lay parallel to the wall. This parallel flange channel was situated at the flank and served as the point of access by the vehicles into the place that was surrounded by the hoarding. Nothing else was present to offer support to the whole place on the southern end side. The wall did not have lateral support at some points on the direction towards the malt store. The wall may have been laterally supported at some stage if it was part of a larger structure continuing on towards the Malt Store. Investigation status The status of investigation into the incident currently still remains under the responsibility of the Victoria work safe and the police who have since maintained that the presence of the wind gust must have largely contributed to the tragic collapse. However they have further state the investigations are underway to get to the bottom of the matter in establishing the exact cause of the incident. The investigation into this tragic incident is also expected to bring about reasonable and intelligent enhancements with the aim of avoiding the occurrence of similar tragedies in future. Analysis of the accident and attempted identification of the responsible parties The analysis of the accident from a legal perspective raises a lot of questions with regard to the parties who are supposed to take responsibilities following the tragic and terrible incident. A legal analysis concerning the responsibility for the incident exhaustively examines the condition and situations prior to the occurrence of the incidence. This is because it looks into issues that deal with financial damages as well the associated criminal penalties. In this particular case of the Swanston street wall collapse the people that are to be legally held responsible are the ones charged with financial responsibilities and management of the construction as well as the maintenance of the wall all the way from the time of feasibility study, designing, financial appropriation and budgeting, construction as well as maintenance at the time of usage the other responsibility in this case is supposed to be taken by the legal authorization body that is supposed carry out proper evaluation before issuing any certification (Howard, 2010). However, from an ethical point of view, and especially with consideration of the ethics in engineering it is important to approach this incident with the idea of the breach of the ethical guidelines that are provided to ensure prevention and protection against such tragedies and incidences. In this case the engineers, designers and the architectures involved are to take the responsibility. The question of that arise with regard to legal and ethical responsibility is the question of trying to ensure that prevention measure are put in place in trying to avoid a repetition on the tragedy in future rather than just punishing those responsible (Yeomans, 2009). From the reports that are gathered in connection to the tragic incident it is almost clear to everybody that the occurrence of this particular incident at the Swanston Street was both foreseeable and preventable. This is because the regulation and guidelines that are put in place to govern the building and construction of structure. Strict adherence to these guidelines is just enough to foresee such incidences and therefore prevent them. An explanation to the fact that the tragedy was foreseeable and therefore preventable is that even if the construction and structural requirement standards escaped the attention of the designers the construction engineers would have been able to notice it and if it there was laxity on the part of both the designers and the construction engineers or any one of them the authorities that are concerned with the evaluation and certification of the completed structures before use and even during their use were still in a better position to identify the faults and impound further usage of the structure or ordering its demolition. This would have gone a long way in preventing the occurrence of the tragedy as this was not just a spontaneous occurrence; there are factors that contributed to it. The investigation that was immediately launched is very relevant in confirming and demonstrating that this particular tragedy at the Swanston Street would have indeed been foreseen and consequently prevented (Feld and carper, 2007). Whenever a fault is detected that could be as a result of a breach of the building and construction regulations or even as a result of the natural calamities it is usually upon those in charge of evaluation and accreditation to facilitate the formulation and effecting more appropriate rules and regulations. This is where the OSHA regulations assist by playing mayor roles in ensuring safety in general. Considering the Swanston Street tragic incident and the factors that may have contributed to its occurrence and the analysis of the condition of the wall before the collapse, it is clear that there was a breach of the standardization requirements as stipulated in the OSHA rules and regulations. According to the OSHA regulations, it is a requirement that walls that are constructed to heights that exceed a story building must be offered support through bracing. Prosecutions with regard to the Victorian OHS Act 2004 The investigations that are currently underway by the police as well as the Work Safe Victoria are surely going to establish the points at which negligence offences were committed and be able to identify the individuals responsible. It much clear from the Victorian OHS Act 2004 that the individuals as the well as the institutions that are responsible will brought to book and persecuted. This is because several regulations were overlooked and not strictly adhered during the design, construction and even the maintenance as well as usage of the Swanston wall structure thereby endangering the lives of Swanston Street users. Had regulations are clearly provided in the Victorian OHS Act 2004, that tragedy would have long been avoided and even if there were faults the consequences would not have been as adversely as was the case following the tragedy (Ramachandran, 2005). Conclusion and some of the “lessons learned” The incident may have been tragic and terrible as it was but it would also be a tragedy to fail to ‘learn lessons’ from it. From the Swanston street tragic incident it would be proper to conclude that several ‘lessons were learnt’ which include the fact that the design and construction of any structure must strictly adhere to the existing rules, regulations as well as the standardization requirements failure to which the progress in the construction of such a structure should be halted with immediate effect (Howard, 2010). The other ‘lesson learnt’ is that the individuals as well as the organizations that are charged with the responsibilities of ensuring that that the completed structures and building and appropriately evaluated and inspected before they are certified for operations and usage are actually doing exactly that without failure and in the event that a fault is detected in the course of the usage of a structure that had earlier satisfied the certification requirements then it is upon the authorities concerned to put an immediate stoppage to its usage failure to which they should be subjected to stiff penalties. The ethical as well as legal roles that pertain to the construction of any structure should be taken extremely seriously it has been clear from the Swanston Street incident that any slight lack of seriousness could be fatal and enormously destructive. Accidents similar to the one at the Swanston street in Australia and several others that result from structural failures have been commonly witnessed in Australia just like in other parts of the world for the last decade and this continues even until recently. I don’t think that the prevention of the occurrence of similar accidents in future would be achieved through imposing changes to professional practices as well as other legislations that are concerned with building and construction of structures. This is because as it is the regulations, legislations as well as the engineering professional practices are appropriate and clear. References FELD, J., & CARPER, K. L. (2007). Construction failure. New York, NY [u.a.], Wiley. HOWARD, T. (2010). The tragedy of failure: evaluating state failure and its impact on the spread of refugees, terrorism, and war. Santa Barbara, Calif, Praeger. RAMACHANDRAN, V. (2005). Failure analysis of engineering structures methodology and case histories. Materials Park, OH, ASM International. YEOMANS, D. T. (2009). How structures work: design and behaviour from bridges to buildings. Chichester, U.K., Wiley-Blackwell. Read More