I read an interesting article in M'sian Insider online. I'm not so much for paper papers (you know la physical newspapers) as the amount of waste generated from them is so much...so I read a lot of my news online. but I digress. The article was titled "Jaya Supermarket consultants hope for the green light to go forward" and can be found here.
The article is interesting for me as it names two of the people involved in the project. I must say that their statement put me at ease as to what the consultants are doing - they seem to be on top of things and not having a cancai attitude towards things like safety and reviving the project, and that things were in order before work started. Good la.
7/30/09
7/25/09
Jaya remains in a sad state
The old Jaya Supermarket in Section 14 which was a favourite haunt of PJ residents and an iconic landmark collapsed in a rubble two months ago, causing deaths and injury. Apart from an initial flurry of excitement and some investigations being conducted here and there, the collapsed podium stands there in a sorry state. The site which was earmarked for a new mall, is now in danger of becoming an abandoned site with mosquitoes, snakes and other vermin.
What is happening behind the scenes? Why is the MBPJ, DOSH and Ikram and others, including the developers, remaining silent? What happened to the State Government's pledge to do something? What is the Ministry responsible for construction doing? Are all demolition sites earmarked for redevelopment now going to be frozen? What will happen to the future of the construction industry?
We engineers were looking forward to a revision of the existing demolition guidelines but up till now, it has been a case of 'hangat-hangat tahi ayam'.
These and many other questions remain unanswered and I'm sure I join many other members of the PJ community when I say, 'bring out the reports, throw the book at the culprits, and let's move on with the redevelopment project!'.
What is happening behind the scenes? Why is the MBPJ, DOSH and Ikram and others, including the developers, remaining silent? What happened to the State Government's pledge to do something? What is the Ministry responsible for construction doing? Are all demolition sites earmarked for redevelopment now going to be frozen? What will happen to the future of the construction industry?
We engineers were looking forward to a revision of the existing demolition guidelines but up till now, it has been a case of 'hangat-hangat tahi ayam'.
These and many other questions remain unanswered and I'm sure I join many other members of the PJ community when I say, 'bring out the reports, throw the book at the culprits, and let's move on with the redevelopment project!'.
7/20/09
Jaya in the news!
Well looks like Jaya is making headlines again. It appears the six firms involved in the project have submitted the incident report and are starting investigations on site. Well, about time. I cannot understand why it took so long to get on site and start investigations!
I wont go into detail about what has been reported but this is the summary:
May 28 - the structure collapsed during demolition work.
(June)
Search and rescue identified 7 workers killed and several injured.
Six firms involved in the project blacklisted. Stop-work order imposed
MBPJ forms investigative panel
Priliminary investigations reveal that approvals were not obtained to progress with demolition and that many of the clauses in the demolition methods statement were not complied with.
Detailed Incident Report submitted.
Method Statements submitted. (after two rejections!)
Three firms start getting their names in papers - the project manager, architect, and engineer.
(July)
Stop-work order lifted.
Developer to begin investigations.
I wont go into detail about what has been reported but this is the summary:
May 28 - the structure collapsed during demolition work.
(June)
Search and rescue identified 7 workers killed and several injured.
Six firms involved in the project blacklisted. Stop-work order imposed
MBPJ forms investigative panel
Priliminary investigations reveal that approvals were not obtained to progress with demolition and that many of the clauses in the demolition methods statement were not complied with.
Detailed Incident Report submitted.
Method Statements submitted. (after two rejections!)
Three firms start getting their names in papers - the project manager, architect, and engineer.
(July)
Stop-work order lifted.
Developer to begin investigations.
7/9/09
Jaya reporting
Well, lets see. I think enough time has passed - over 1 month - since the building collapsed. I havent seen much in the papers about it since the initial flurry of reports (in newspaper and online) and posting of youtube vids. The most reports came out in the period May 28 - June 13. From these reports we can see that the following has happened:
- an investigative panel was formed
- six firms were blacklisted
- Citizen Nades bising about making the 'corporate wrongdoers' pay
- residents evacuated
Then came the pictures of the collapse - taken at the exact moment the structure collapsed! Published in the Malay mail, I honestly was surprised and a little bit shcoked at the pictures. They were amazing in clarity and showed exactly the sequence of events as they unfolded. Now, this of course brings up some pertinent questions - like, what luck that the photographer was there exactly at the right time, using just the right equipment to capture events as they unfolded! and also the angle the photos were taken at seemed to be a good vantage point. A sniper could not have chosen a better spot. This is indeed fodder for thought, eh? How convenient!
Links to the Malay Mail articles:
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/more-photos-ground-zero-search-trapped-ongoing
Pictures of the search and rescue. One question: why do our firemen wear camouflage?
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/jaya-supermarket-building-collapse-%E2%80%93-going-going-gone
Picture of the huge pit the demolition people had made on the roof.
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/mail-says-look-these-jaya-pictures-again
This is the one showing the sequence of events for the collapse.
- an investigative panel was formed
- six firms were blacklisted
- Citizen Nades bising about making the 'corporate wrongdoers' pay
- residents evacuated
Then came the pictures of the collapse - taken at the exact moment the structure collapsed! Published in the Malay mail, I honestly was surprised and a little bit shcoked at the pictures. They were amazing in clarity and showed exactly the sequence of events as they unfolded. Now, this of course brings up some pertinent questions - like, what luck that the photographer was there exactly at the right time, using just the right equipment to capture events as they unfolded! and also the angle the photos were taken at seemed to be a good vantage point. A sniper could not have chosen a better spot. This is indeed fodder for thought, eh? How convenient!
Links to the Malay Mail articles:
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/more-photos-ground-zero-search-trapped-ongoing
Pictures of the search and rescue. One question: why do our firemen wear camouflage?
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/jaya-supermarket-building-collapse-%E2%80%93-going-going-gone
Picture of the huge pit the demolition people had made on the roof.
http://www.mmail.com.my/content/mail-says-look-these-jaya-pictures-again
This is the one showing the sequence of events for the collapse.
7/7/09
CRUNCH!!!
Ouch! that's got to hurt! A wrecking ball turns a car into scrap. Either that or they were trying to transport a wrecking ball and didnt realize a Ford Taurus isnt exactly a heavy load vehicle...
7/6/09
Demolition Academic Specialist!!
Good news! In a few days i will be meeting with one of Malaysia's foremost demolition experts. I'll be querying him on the process of demolition, what happened in jaya, what needs to be done, and etc. Look out for that!
7/4/09
Demolition standards
From my knowledge, there is no Malaysian standard for demolition existing. We are currently using an outdated Act, the Streets & Drainage Act 1975, which covers demolition as only part of the process of construction. Other countries have demolition cvered as a separate process with its own processes and procedures. these are some definition of demolition as can be found in other country's standards:
“The controlled removal of selected part of the structure or key structural members to cause complete collapse of the whole or part of the building structures” (BS 6187: 2000)
“The complete or partial dismantling of a building or structure, by pre-planned and controlled techniques or procedures” (AS 2601: 2000)
“Dismantling, razing, destroying or wrecking any building or structure or any part thereof by pre-planned and controlled techniques” (Building Department Hong Kong, 1998)
“Dismantling, wrecking, pulling down or knocking down of any building or structure or part thereof” (Department of Labour New Zealand, 1994)
I believe that here in M'sia we need to develop our own demolition standards as without them, this potential dangerous process remains open to so many interpretations and self-regulation - usually not a good thing!
“The controlled removal of selected part of the structure or key structural members to cause complete collapse of the whole or part of the building structures” (BS 6187: 2000)
“The complete or partial dismantling of a building or structure, by pre-planned and controlled techniques or procedures” (AS 2601: 2000)
“Dismantling, razing, destroying or wrecking any building or structure or any part thereof by pre-planned and controlled techniques” (Building Department Hong Kong, 1998)
“Dismantling, wrecking, pulling down or knocking down of any building or structure or part thereof” (Department of Labour New Zealand, 1994)
I believe that here in M'sia we need to develop our own demolition standards as without them, this potential dangerous process remains open to so many interpretations and self-regulation - usually not a good thing!
7/2/09
YouTube video on Jaya
There's a lot of youtube vids on the collapse, people with videocams on site just after it happened. Quite a few of them are the same - ground level recording, lots of people milling around and bomba/polis. But these are some of the better ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkUm0GDMy8A
MalaysiaKini, so its professionally shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFGJ6j727EE
amatuer, but taken from the nearby apartments, so it a birds eye view. shows the extent of the damage, however it is quite short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkUm0GDMy8A
MalaysiaKini, so its professionally shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFGJ6j727EE
amatuer, but taken from the nearby apartments, so it a birds eye view. shows the extent of the damage, however it is quite short.
7/1/09
Jaya nostalgia
Aiks I feel sad sometimes when thnking about old JS. I used to hang out there maybe too much as a kid. I knew all the shopkeepers, even the glum looking fellas in Poh Kong or watatime. they never seem to have any customers but the outlets never shut down. lunch and sometimes dinner was usually at Jaya Noodle House - Ipoh Hor Fun was quite good.
My only video/VCD (now DVD) store was there, run by the two brothers, just by the car park lobby by starbucks. For the whole ten years plus, the bigger brother there kept his long hair. Always ignore the mamak fler selling movies by the staircase. They've moved to jaya 33 now so I'm still stacked high with DVDs.
then there was pineapple computers. their shop was so cluttered with barang-barang i wonder if they even knew what the had. I found a video card for my old 486 there about 3 years ago. amazing! and it workedd, too, but when the aauntie took it down from the TOP SHELF behind a stack of PC-AT casings, it was so dusty and dotted with cicak tahi, I was reluctant to pay for it! but since auntie gave me a price of rm30....take la. and it worked!
My only video/VCD (now DVD) store was there, run by the two brothers, just by the car park lobby by starbucks. For the whole ten years plus, the bigger brother there kept his long hair. Always ignore the mamak fler selling movies by the staircase. They've moved to jaya 33 now so I'm still stacked high with DVDs.
then there was pineapple computers. their shop was so cluttered with barang-barang i wonder if they even knew what the had. I found a video card for my old 486 there about 3 years ago. amazing! and it workedd, too, but when the aauntie took it down from the TOP SHELF behind a stack of PC-AT casings, it was so dusty and dotted with cicak tahi, I was reluctant to pay for it! but since auntie gave me a price of rm30....take la. and it worked!
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