During the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, tens of thousands of school children were buried alive due to the inferior building quality in the area. (see report)
After the tragedy, the Chinese population questioned whether the corrupt officials behind the problem had learned a lesson from what the locals called a “manmade disaster.”
Two years later, time has told them that the officials have not.
A widely circulated online article shows that one of the reconstructed post-disaster buildings collapsed on July 1, in Mainzhu City’s Hanwangzhen Town, one of the earthquake-hit areas.
The building was being rebuilt after the earthquake, and the workers have just finished putting up the reinforced concrete frame, when it suddenly collapsed. The building is one of the new dwellings in Hanwangzhen Town, which had been moved a few kilometers away after the earthquake.
People who heard the news came to the scene in swarms,” said Mr. Wang, a local citizen, “Lots of people experienced the earthquake and told me that this case reminds them of the collapse during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake - just look at that low-quality rebar, reinforced steel and concrete. I have to confess that it was my bad luck to have to live through the Sichuan earthquake, but how come we have to go through the ‘tofu waste’ construction again?”
The local government announced that the reason for the collapse of the building is that it leaned away from the gridline and was demolished.
Nevertheless, a local revealed that the scaffolding equipment was not even removed at the time of the collapse, it looked more like construction than destruction. In addition, according to the national building code, a certified company is required to demolish buildings. And it should remove the buildings floor by floor as opposed to demolishing the fourth and first floor at the same time.
The local continued that even if they were demolishing the building, the quality of the construction materials do not look like the materials have enough seismic resistantce to keep the building up during a severe earthquake.
The project is sponsored by Jiangsu Provincial government. The contractors are Hongyang Ltd. And Mingfu Ltd.
