It was a close shave for commuters travelling on the busy Jawaharlal
Nehru Road on Thursday when a huge scaffolding at the Vadapalani Metro
station site collapsed.
Concrete was being poured in to the metal shell to build a 10-ft-long arm of a tall pillar, when it came down. The 50 tonne structure gave in around 2.40 pm, creating panic among residents and commuters. The incident brought traffic to a standstill for about 15 minutes.
Site engineers told Express the mishap happened when concreting work was underway. “The incident happened due to welding failure, resulting in the bracket coming off. It happened in the barricaded area,” Chief General Manager of Metro Rail (constructions) V Somasundaram, who visited the site, said. Metro rail officials said the design is perfect and an enquiry has been ordered to find out whether it was the fault of workmanship.
Surprisingly, the site was not cordoned off even as the metal shell was hanging from the pillar. “The first rule of disaster is to contain the site. See, the piece of pier is still hanging like a thread. It can still fall on somebody,” a senior site official told the workers. The debris will be cleared only during the night, said a site engineer.
Joint Commissioner of Police Shanmuga Rajeshwaran visited the site to review the safety scenario along the busy stretch.
This is the third such incident in the last two years. On April 6, 2010, a major mishap was averted on the same stretch when a pile-boring machine tilted towards the road while being moved. On April 16, a 25-foot-long iron bar, fixed across the road to caution tall vehicles to avoid the stretch, fell down when the roof of a tall truck hit it.
Concrete was being poured in to the metal shell to build a 10-ft-long arm of a tall pillar, when it came down. The 50 tonne structure gave in around 2.40 pm, creating panic among residents and commuters. The incident brought traffic to a standstill for about 15 minutes.
Site engineers told Express the mishap happened when concreting work was underway. “The incident happened due to welding failure, resulting in the bracket coming off. It happened in the barricaded area,” Chief General Manager of Metro Rail (constructions) V Somasundaram, who visited the site, said. Metro rail officials said the design is perfect and an enquiry has been ordered to find out whether it was the fault of workmanship.
Surprisingly, the site was not cordoned off even as the metal shell was hanging from the pillar. “The first rule of disaster is to contain the site. See, the piece of pier is still hanging like a thread. It can still fall on somebody,” a senior site official told the workers. The debris will be cleared only during the night, said a site engineer.
Joint Commissioner of Police Shanmuga Rajeshwaran visited the site to review the safety scenario along the busy stretch.
This is the third such incident in the last two years. On April 6, 2010, a major mishap was averted on the same stretch when a pile-boring machine tilted towards the road while being moved. On April 16, a 25-foot-long iron bar, fixed across the road to caution tall vehicles to avoid the stretch, fell down when the roof of a tall truck hit it.
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