china construction fail

Blake · 07-13-2009, 02:29 PM

Cheap apartments for sale in China, any interest?
Unbelievable!!!

Short and hollow piling on soft soil (clay) on a river bank, and building collapsed en-bloc.

Sub-standard fundamentals and poor foundation will lead to later catastrophe & disaster, same as in human.

jpsum · 07-13-2009, 03:07 PM

damn... my deck has piles deeper than that.

MCMLXXXIX · 07-13-2009, 03:24 PM

reduce. reuse. recycle

but seriously, wth are engineers for?

FStop7 · 07-13-2009, 03:28 PM

Holy shit

Was it occupied?

MisterSkiMask · 07-13-2009, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpsum

damn... my deck has piles deeper than that.

I put a better foundation under my hot tub

NYSPEM3 · 07-13-2009, 03:48 PM

The building design was fine. The excavator is the one who screwed up (stupid contractors... what a surprise).
There was supposed to be an underground parking facility next to the building. So what would an excavator do? Dig on one side of the building while piling up the excavated soil on another. Does it surprise anyone that the load from the overburden soil sheared off all the piles and pushing everything into the ditch? The piles failed by snapping, not because they were not deep enough. They could have been 500' deep and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.
Pile foundations are NEVER designed for this type of lateral loading. Take it from me. I have a PE license in NYS (and two Ivy League engineering degrees).
No engineer in this world would have foreseen this kind of stupidity in construction, just like no engineer in this world would have designed a building to withstand the impact of a 737. This screwup cannot even be chalked up to corruption or cutting corners. This is sheer stupidity, pure and simple.
Heck I have designed several 7-10 story buildings that sit on nothing but 25' long WOOD piles. They seem to be working just fine

dth656 · 07-13-2009, 04:05 PM

i'll second that.

(cali PE license, and 1 ivy league degree)

boymonkey · 07-13-2009, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYSPEM3

The building design was fine. The excavator is the one who screwed up (stupid contractors... what a surprise).
There was supposed to be an underground parking facility next to the building. So what would an excavator do? Dig on one side of the building while piling up the excavated soil on another. Does it surprise anyone that the load from the overburden soil sheared off all the piles and pushing everything into the ditch? The piles failed by snapping, not because they were not deep enough. They could have been 500' deep and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.
Pile foundations are NEVER designed for this type of lateral loading. Take it from me. I have a PE license in NYS (and two Ivy League engineering degrees).
No engineer in this world would have foreseen this kind of stupidity in construction, just like no engineer in this world would have designed a building to withstand the impact of a 737. This screwup cannot even be chalked up to corruption or cutting corners. This is sheer stupidity, pure and simple.
Heck I have designed several 7-10 story buildings that sit on nothing but 25' long WOOD piles. They seem to be working just fine

So the ground sort of went sliding? Yeah that'll do it.
And look at all the similar buildings next to it. Those aren't going to sell well.

E90SLAM · 07-13-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYSPEM3

The building design was fine. The excavator is the one who screwed up (stupid contractors... what a surprise).
There was supposed to be an underground parking facility next to the building. So what would an excavator do? Dig on one side of the building while piling up the excavated soil on another. Does it surprise anyone that the load from the overburden soil sheared off all the piles and pushing everything into the ditch? The piles failed by snapping, not because they were not deep enough. They could have been 500' deep and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.
Pile foundations are NEVER designed for this type of lateral loading. Take it from me. I have a PE license in NYS (and two Ivy League engineering degrees).
No engineer in this world would have foreseen this kind of stupidity in construction, just like no engineer in this world would have designed a building to withstand the impact of a 737. This screwup cannot even be chalked up to corruption or cutting corners. This is sheer stupidity, pure and simple.
Heck I have designed several 7-10 story buildings that sit on nothing but 25' long WOOD piles. They seem to be working just fine

No matter how well your design was....if the field execution failed....it doesn't matter....

E90SLAM · 07-13-2009, 04:28 PM

Imagine if you living in the next building and waking up seeing that...

drift90 · 07-13-2009, 05:24 PM

hahhaha
Chuck norris sneezed!

Kiemyster · 07-13-2009, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYSPEM3

The building design was fine. The excavator is the one who screwed up (stupid contractors... what a surprise).
There was supposed to be an underground parking facility next to the building. So what would an excavator do? Dig on one side of the building while piling up the excavated soil on another. Does it surprise anyone that the load from the overburden soil sheared off all the piles and pushing everything into the ditch? The piles failed by snapping, not because they were not deep enough. They could have been 500' deep and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.
Pile foundations are NEVER designed for this type of lateral loading. Take it from me. I have a PE license in NYS (and two Ivy League engineering degrees).
No engineer in this world would have foreseen this kind of stupidity in construction, just like no engineer in this world would have designed a building to withstand the impact of a 737. This screwup cannot even be chalked up to corruption or cutting corners. This is sheer stupidity, pure and simple.
Heck I have designed several 7-10 story buildings that sit on nothing but 25' long WOOD piles. They seem to be working just fine

way to toot your own horn fellas

Quote:

Originally Posted by dth656

i'll second that.

(cali PE license, and 1 ivy league degree)

you dont have to prove your qualifications

E90SLAM · 07-13-2009, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drift90

hahhaha
Chuck norris sneezed!

no...Chuck Norris just looked over towards China from Texas and that happened...

NYSPEM3 · 07-13-2009, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

No matter how well your design was....if the field execution failed....it doesn't matter....

Exactly. In this case, the contractors of the building may have absolutely nothing to do with the excavator... now they are being dragged through mud because the excavator had an IQ of 5.

I would not be surprised if heads would roll (literally) after the investigation. Having dealt with my fair share of incompetent contractors, I do not necessarily disagree with the Chinese approach.

ianbiz · 07-13-2009, 06:45 PM

lol Chinese build quality?

888 · 07-13-2009, 06:48 PM

wtf

E90SLAM · 07-13-2009, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYSPEM3

Exactly. In this case, the contractors of the building may have absolutely nothing to do with the excavator... now they are being dragged through mud because the excavator had an IQ of 5.

I would not be surprised if heads would roll (literally) after the investigation. Having dealt with my fair share of incompetent contractors, I do not necessarily disagree with the Chinese approach.

Or...the design in paper have adequate foundation build up and support...but field contractor took some cost cutting and use less materials as planned....with failure of QA/QC inspector (probably bribed?).....can cause such thing to happen....

drift90 · 07-13-2009, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

no...Chuck Norris just looked over towards China from Texas and that happened...

LOLOLOL!

Tondtar · 07-13-2009, 08:14 PM

Firm's ignorance led to toppling of Shanghai building, report says By Will Clem and Lillian Zhang. July 4, 2009.

An official investigation into the collapse of an unfinished building in Shanghai has said that the accident was due to the construction company's "ignorance", rather than flaws in the design or building materials. However, the report stopped short of apportioning blame, and has been criticized for failing to address key issues.

The report said the collapse was caused by earth, excavated to make a 4.6-meter deep pit for an underground car park alongside the building, being piled to depths of up to 10 meters on the other side of the structure. The weight of the pile created a "pressure differential" which led to a shift in the soil structure, eventually weakening the foundations and causing them to fail. This situation "may" have been aggravated by several days of heavy rain leading up to the collapse, but investigators would not say whether this was a crucial factor. The report said the construction company - Shanghai Zhongxin Construction - "did not consider clearly" that the earth pile could have such a devastating effect.
Investigators stopped short of saying whether the company's errors were negligent or easily avoidable. However, they stressed that the building's foundations and construction materials all complied with the city's building regulations.

Huang Rong , director of the Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Council, said inspections had shown that none of the remaining 10 apartment blocks was in immediate danger. "The surrounding buildings are now stable," he said. "The safety inspection of these homes will be the second phase of our professional team's work."
Jiang Huancheng , an architect and a lead investigator for the report, said it had been an "enormous shock" to see the site for the first time. "In my 46 years in the industry, I have never seen or heard of this," he said. "To put it simply this was ignorance leading to rashness. We need to take this accident as an important lesson ... and ensure that it does not happen again."
Several days before the release of the report, Wu Hang , Mr Jiang's assistant, accused the construction company of incompetence and lacking "common sense". Mr Wu said the investigation had found there had been no structures to support the walls of the car park pit, and this had been a key factor contributing to the accident.

(1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than why the pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction.

First, the apartment building was constructed

Then the plan called for an underground garage to be dug out.
The excavated soil was piled up on the other side of the building.

Heavy rains resulted in water seeping into the ground.

The building began to shift and the concrete pilings were snapped
due to the uneven lateral pressures.

The building began to tilt.

And thus came the eighth wonder of the world.

choicez · 07-13-2009, 08:21 PM

Nice explanation! Who needs CNN?!?!

darkphantom · 07-13-2009, 08:30 PM

wow.

Scorpion · 07-13-2009, 08:32 PM

Crazy how it fell over instead of collapsing.

07-13-2009, 02:29 PM	#1
Blake Banned 757 Rep 4,649 Posts Drives: Chevy Aveo Join Date: May 2008 Location: Parent's Basement iTrader: (7)	china construction fail Cheap apartments for sale in China, any interest? Unbelievable!!! Short and hollow piling on soft soil (clay) on a river bank, and building collapsed en-bloc. Sub-standard fundamentals and poor foundation will lead to later catastrophe & disaster, same as in human. Attached Images
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07-13-2009, 03:07 PM	#2
jpsum Major 274 Rep 1,088 Posts Drives: 2010 TSX Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: New Haven area iTrader: (4)	damn... my deck has piles deeper than that.
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07-13-2009, 03:24 PM	#3
MCMLXXXIX wat 238 Rep 3,406 Posts Drives: a gr3at whit3 5hark Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Oct 2008 iTrader: (0)	reduce. reuse. recycle but seriously, wth are engineers for? __________________ 2012 Toyota Highlander SE - PAST - 2008 e92 335i, 2006 e90 325i
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07-13-2009, 03:28 PM	#4
FStop7 I like cars 329 Rep 5,052 Posts Drives: M6 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Newbury Park, CA iTrader: (3)	Holy shit Was it occupied? __________________ My photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/racelap/
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07-13-2009, 03:48 PM	#6
NYSPEM3 Second Lieutenant 10 Rep 221 Posts Drives: E90 M3 DCT Join Date: May 2008 Location: NYC iTrader: (0)	The building design was fine. The excavator is the one who screwed up (stupid contractors... what a surprise). There was supposed to be an underground parking facility next to the building. So what would an excavator do? Dig on one side of the building while piling up the excavated soil on another. Does it surprise anyone that the load from the overburden soil sheared off all the piles and pushing everything into the ditch? The piles failed by snapping, not because they were not deep enough. They could have been 500' deep and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference. Pile foundations are NEVER designed for this type of lateral loading. Take it from me. I have a PE license in NYS (and two Ivy League engineering degrees). No engineer in this world would have foreseen this kind of stupidity in construction, just like no engineer in this world would have designed a building to withstand the impact of a 737. This screwup cannot even be chalked up to corruption or cutting corners. This is sheer stupidity, pure and simple. Heck I have designed several 7-10 story buildings that sit on nothing but 25' long WOOD piles. They seem to be working just fine __________________ -------------------------------------------------- E90 M3 DCT Interlagos Blue/Silver Interior, Tech Pkg, Prem Pkg, Folddown Seats, 19"... that's it Certified V1 Zombie
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07-13-2009, 04:05 PM	#7
dth656 First Lieutenant 36 Rep 394 Posts Drives: e90 330i Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: ASCII iTrader: (0)	i'll second that. (cali PE license, and 1 ivy league degree) __________________ go bears
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07-13-2009, 04:28 PM	#10
E90SLAM Supreme Allied Commander 1963 Rep 61,781 Posts Drives: A BBS WHORE Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: . iTrader: (6) Garage List 2022 BMW X3 sDrive30i [0.00]	Imagine if you living in the next building and waking up seeing that... __________________
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07-13-2009, 05:24 PM	#11
drift90 1st gear newbie 31 Rep 130 Posts Drives: Its rather sexy Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Brampton iTrader: (0)	hahhaha Chuck norris sneezed!
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07-13-2009, 06:45 PM	#15
ianbiz Back in a BMW 205 Rep 5,208 Posts Drives: 2015 335i Msport Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Dallas, TX iTrader: (8)	lol Chinese build quality? __________________ Ian
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07-13-2009, 06:48 PM	#16
888 I'm takin' the day off. 111 Rep 339 Posts Drives: M Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: USA iTrader: (0)	wtf __________________ If I were to agree with you we would both be wrong.
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07-13-2009, 08:14 PM	#19
Tondtar 12 yr old Juvie 1078 Rep 881 Posts Drives: His Mom Crazy Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: El Lay iTrader: (2) Garage List 2008 (RIP in 2011) ... [0.00]	Firm's ignorance led to toppling of Shanghai building, report says By Will Clem and Lillian Zhang. July 4, 2009. An official investigation into the collapse of an unfinished building in Shanghai has said that the accident was due to the construction company's "ignorance", rather than flaws in the design or building materials. However, the report stopped short of apportioning blame, and has been criticized for failing to address key issues. The report said the collapse was caused by earth, excavated to make a 4.6-meter deep pit for an underground car park alongside the building, being piled to depths of up to 10 meters on the other side of the structure. The weight of the pile created a "pressure differential" which led to a shift in the soil structure, eventually weakening the foundations and causing them to fail. This situation "may" have been aggravated by several days of heavy rain leading up to the collapse, but investigators would not say whether this was a crucial factor. The report said the construction company - Shanghai Zhongxin Construction - "did not consider clearly" that the earth pile could have such a devastating effect. Investigators stopped short of saying whether the company's errors were negligent or easily avoidable. However, they stressed that the building's foundations and construction materials all complied with the city's building regulations. Huang Rong , director of the Shanghai Urban Construction and Communications Council, said inspections had shown that none of the remaining 10 apartment blocks was in immediate danger. "The surrounding buildings are now stable," he said. "The safety inspection of these homes will be the second phase of our professional team's work." Jiang Huancheng , an architect and a lead investigator for the report, said it had been an "enormous shock" to see the site for the first time. "In my 46 years in the industry, I have never seen or heard of this," he said. "To put it simply this was ignorance leading to rashness. We need to take this accident as an important lesson ... and ensure that it does not happen again." Several days before the release of the report, Wu Hang , Mr Jiang's assistant, accused the construction company of incompetence and lacking "common sense". Mr Wu said the investigation had found there had been no structures to support the walls of the car park pit, and this had been a key factor contributing to the accident. (1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters (2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters (3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north (4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than why the pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction. First, the apartment building was constructed Then the plan called for an underground garage to be dug out. The excavated soil was piled up on the other side of the building. Heavy rains resulted in water seeping into the ground. The building began to shift and the concrete pilings were snapped due to the uneven lateral pressures. The building began to tilt. And thus came the eighth wonder of the world.
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07-13-2009, 08:21 PM	#20
choicez Major 264 Rep 1,124 Posts Drives: you mad Join Date: May 2009 Location: LA iTrader: (15)	Nice explanation! Who needs CNN?!?!
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07-13-2009, 08:30 PM	#21
darkphantom Banned 595 Rep 5,946 Posts Drives: E93 335i Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: The place for Bimmers iTrader: (4)	wow.
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07-13-2009, 08:32 PM	#22
Scorpion Major 162 Rep 1,210 Posts Drives: Nothing Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Nowhere iTrader: (0)	Crazy how it fell over instead of collapsing.
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