A structural engineer, Mr Saheed Ariyori, on Wednesday in Lagos said that a defective foundation caused the collapse of a guest house within the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
Ariyori, a consultant to the Lagos State Material Testing Agency, said this while testifying before the coroner’s inquest investigating the cause of the collapse of the six-storey building.
NAN reports that the inquest was set up by the Lagos State Government to investigate the Sept.12, 2014 building collapse which killed 116 people, mainly South Africans.
Led in evidence by Mr Akingbolahan Adeniran, counsel to the Lagos State Government, the witness said he authored the Structural Integrity Test Report on the building.
Ayiroyi said the investigating team of both structural and geo-technical engineers visited the collapsed site and took measurement of the foundation bases and samples of elements used in its construction.
He said the team had to simulate the building because the church did not provide them with the structural and architectural designs.
“Based on all the tests and the calculations, we discovered that from inception, the building failed because the base that was suppose to take the load was grossly inadequate.
“The minimum base that will be required should have been 4.5 metres by 4.5 metres but what we had there was 2.2 metres by 2.2 metres.
“It was a wrong choice of foundation base. The foundation should have been continuous base and not a pad as was used in the construction,” the witness said.
When he was provided a copy of the structural design, which was unavailable to the team while compiling its report, Ayiroyi analysed before the court what went wrong with the building.
He argued that the building would have still collapsed even if the top four floors were unoccupied because its foundation was already compromised.
According to him, the load imposed on the foundation was far more than the foundation can bear, hence the collapse.
Responding to the claim, SCOAN’s counsel, Mr Olalekan Ojo, asked the court to adjourn his cross-examination of the witness to enable him consult with the church’s engineers.
Ojo noted there were some discrepancies in the building design which needed to be examined before the witness could be cross-examined.
He said the church’s consultant engineer, Mr Oladele Ogundeji, while testifying before the court had also disagreed with the agency’s recommendation that a raft foundation should have been erected for the structure.
NAN reports that the inquest was adjourned till March 5 for site visitation by parties while Ariyori’s cross-examination was fixed for March 6.
Today newspaper
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