An “urgent and thorough enquiry” into last week’s discovery that a multi-storey structure under construction in the capital could provide important insights into irregularities in the procedures associated with the erection of buildings in the capital, a city councillor has said.
“It would be reckless to proceed without an enquiry into how the situation with the North Road and Oronoque Street structure occurred. It may well be that important procedures associated with construction regulations were ignored. It surprises me that there have not been more calls for an enquiry from professionals in the sector,” Vice Chairman of the council’s Works Committee Anthony ‘Trini’ Boyce told Stabroek Business on Tuesday.
The Stabroek News, in its last Wednesday’s edition, published a caption story in which it reported that the North Road and Oronoque Street building was sinking and had to be torn down since it had been discovered that no piles were driven prior to the erection of the structure.
‘Trini’ Boyce
“Actually, you really do not have to be an expert to determine that this is a serious matter. Several questions arise here. Two of them have to do with whether there is an existing plan approved by the City Engineer’s office for the erection of the structure and whether the City Engineer’s Office was given the mandatory seven days’ notice of the commencement of construction,” Boyce said.
With regard to the notice which the City Engineer’s Department should have been given, Boyce said assuming that procedure was adhered to, inspectors from the City Engineer’s Department ought to have been on hand to witness the commencement of the construction and would therefore have been able to determine whether or not piles were being driven.
On the matter of an approved plan, Boyce said it would be “interesting” to determine whether or not there was indeed an approved plan and “what was actually approved.”
Asked whether he was implying that construction work on the North Road and Oronoque Street structure may have commenced without due regard to proper procedures, Boyce said while he was not in a position to make such an assertion, he believed it was not uncommon for work on structures in the city to go ahead without approved plans. “That is why I am calling for an investigation in this case. Let us see why what happened, happened,” he said.
“If we were to go around the city trying to match ongoing and in many cases completed structures to plans approved by the City Engineer’s Department at City Hall I think we will be quite surprised at what we will discover,” he added.
Asked whether the commencement of buildings prior to the receipt of approved plans was not a serious transgression, Boyce said the real question had to do with “the manner in which the City Engineer’s Department is run”. He said that while more than $500 million had been allocated for the running of the City Engineer’s Department this year and amounts totalling around $15 million were being spent on salaries monthly, he did not believe the department was currently providing value for money.
Ron Eastman, an engineer attached to the City Engineer’s Department declined to comment on the particular case of the North Road and Oronoque Street structure but denied Boyce’s assertion that structures were being erected in the capital without prior approval. “The prior approval of the Mayor and City Council is necessary before any structure can be erected in the city,” Eastman told Stabroek Business. He confirmed what Boyce said with regard to notice of the commencement of construction. However, Eastman did not comment specifically on what occurred in the case of the North Road and Oronoque Street structure.
City Hall insiders have previously told this newspaper that there are cases of construction projects going ahead in the city without plans being approved for those structures.
Boyce told Stabroek Business that given the number of structures being erected at this time it was likely that the gap between approved plans and buildings under construction could be “widening.” Assuming that was the case, he said, the likelihood that structures were being erected with features not approved by City Hall also existed “since some of the work was going ahead without the City Engineer’s Department pronouncing on the plans that are submitted.”
Asked whether last week’s announcement by City Engineer Colvern Venture that as of January 1 persons seeking to construct buildings a minimum of three storeys tall must submit a technical report along with the foundation design was a positive move, Boyce said he was supportive of “every initiative that would make structures safer.” However, he added, those initiatives would only serve their intended purpose if the systems are allowed to work as they should. “At the moment, a lot more needs to be done to render the work of the City Engineer’s Department more efficient and more transparent,” Boyce added.
