MBOMBELA – An engineer’s report following the cave in of Tarentaal SPAR’s roof on December 23 suggests that the structure should be demolished. The collapse of the grocery store’s roof was followed by that of TOPS at SPAR in the same centre on January 10.
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Tarentaal SPAR’s roof falls in
TOPS at SPAR Tarentaal’s roof falls in
No report has been made available on the second incident. Nobody was injured during the first incident, but four slight injuries were reported after the second. TOPS at SPAR has since reopened. It is not known when Tarentaal SPAR will resume trading.
The incidents raised many questions, with locals speculating whether they had the same cause. Lowvelder paid a follow-up visit to the premises and spoke to two eyewitnesses who saw the second collapse. They said the building was renovated in 2015 and January 2016. Three to four tons of building rubble was allegedly dumped on the building’s roof by construction workers.
“We advised them to throw the bricks and cement on the ground and dispose of them, but they didn’t. The material ended up falling through the liquor store’s roof,” one of the men said.
Mr Matthew Osterloh, CEO of CentroProp, which manages the Tarentaal centre, said, “It is believed that the roof collapse at TOPS at SPAR was human error on the contractor’s part.” Lowvelder presented this version and a list of questions to Shoiab Construction, but received no reply.
Last week the paper was presented with ConSolv Consulting Engineers’ report on the incident of December 23. According to the report, only one portion of the Tarentaal Shopping Centre (that of SPAR) was affected by the failure of the steel roof. A second engineer’s report by Endecon Ubuntu Engineering Consultants’ Mr Henri Labeeuw shed more light on the incident.
The report explained that the building’s trusses had given in. This caused its outer perimeter walls to be pushed outwards and the walls partially collapsed. Labeeuw’s report explained that two chillers, weighing about two tons each, had been installed in the back of Tarentaal SPAR two years ago. They were suspended from purlins between the third and fourth trusses from the back of the building.
There were no columns or tangential internal walls that could provide the lateral stability needed to support the building’s walls to carry the additional weight. According to the report, on December 23, the trusses at the middle of the building collapsed. The report explained that, when the truss units moved outwards, the walls would have provided some restraint to this movement. However, this was lost at the instant of the collapse. The resulting increase in tension caused the trusses to fall down.
The report suggested that the building’s roof be removed and its walls demolished. Labeeuw said that a new roof structure had to be built, with trusses designed in accordance with the applicable architectural codes of practice. He also suggested that columns made of reinforced concrete or steel should support the trusses to provide lateral stability to the outer walls. He added that the new walls would have to be strengthened.
