Deep construction to ease congestion
TO have an environmentally tidy city free from undesired congestion, you have to go for multistoreys and thus deep construction. Multistoreys would provide areas to breathe while accommodating a multitude and their deep construction with tiers of basement hold most of the cars, freeing the roadside. However, we have to be quite cautious to avoid any mishap while constructing.
Deep construction having multiple basements is not exactly a new concept in our country. Back in late seventies, Jiban Bima Tower at Motijheel, Dhaka was constructed by Concord with three basements. But it is also true that in those days such constructions were but a few isolated ones and even though some site collapses have been experienced in different projects, it did not cause much alarm because density of buildings were much lower and apart from the individual loss of the builder, any third party was not effected to any significant extent.
The scenario has changed since then. Deep construction with multiple basements has become a necessity, primarily for car parking and accommodating many in the multistory above. Our major cities, with present huge population which is increasing at a geometrical pace, cannot afford the luxury of surface parking which is severely clogging Dhaka streets now. We have to go for high-rises automatically causing a need for deeper constructions as more and more people can now afford cars that need to be parked and necessary space has to be provided.
However, we have to be cautious in avoiding any site collapse or mishap. The best way towards this is to learn from our mistakes that perhaps can be attributed to the following, among others:
-The protection works not adequately designed.
-Dissimilarity of soil pattern from that on which the protection works are designed.
-The protection works designed without thoroughly taking into account the nature of adjacent structures, surface and underground drains etc.
-Lack of awareness or negligence of the site supervisors in reporting to the Design Team every time they notice any deviation in the field from the information on which the protective works are supposed to have been designed or any other unusual aspect that they should have noticed.
-Any act of commission, out of ignorance that is detrimental to the safety of construction.
Further, it is also necessary to establish a procedure that in the event of having a similar situation in spite of all precautions, the consequential loss can be compensated fast, without accusing and counter accusing anybody.
We have seen just in very recent past, two such incidents which possibly could have been avoided if proper approach would have been undertaken at appropriate time.
It is high time that we take it to be a national issue, where all relevant parties concerned should come forward, develop a system so that such a situation never happens again.
What I like to put now are some suggestions that I personally feel out of my long experience in the field of construction and my desire to be in the cause of development of construction techniques that will ensure more safety during construction. These are summarised below:
-The government should take initiative in the matter.
-Involvement of our engineering universities, the Institute of Engineers, the Association of Construction Industries to independently conduct serious studies of any collapse that has already happened and make their recommendation as to how such a situation could have been avoided.
-Formation of a high powered committee to summaries compare and analyse the report and recommend as mentioned in item 2 above and compile a manual that every builder must follow as a mandatory rule.
-Promulgate a law that all builders must take total insurance (contractor's all risks) coverage including workmen's compensation coverage for their constructions until those are finished and handed over. Surely this will increase their cost of construction but by an insignificant extent. Since the number of such untoward occurrence is only one in thousands, the insurance companies are expected to be more than rewarded and will readily agree to provide the insurance cover.
Dhaka city has already become too congested to live in, both construction and traffic wise. We have to come out of it creating a livable environment. One step toward that end certainly is deep construction and multistorey.
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