What is structural load?

After reading the article in the Star on the press conference given by the Jaya Project Consultants, I am intrigued further by the causes of the Jaya collapse. Coffee shop pundits have been bouncing around the idea that structural failure was somehow involved. Well, it is better to speak from an informed standpoint than to be an 'armchair expert', so for all you kopi tiam experts, here is a brief explanation of structural load:

Structural loads are forces applied to a component of a structure or to the structure as a unit.
In structural design, assumed loads are specified in national and local design codes for types of structures, geographic locations, and usage. In addition to the load magnitude, its frequency of occurrence, distribution, and nature (static or dynamic) are important factors in design. Loads cause stresses, deformation and displacements in structures. Assessment of their effects is carried out by the methods of structural analysis. Excess load or overloading may cause structural failure, and hence such possibility should be either considered in the design or strictly controlled.
In the Eurocodes, the term actions has a similar meaning to loads, but encompasses applied deformations as well as forces.
The following lists the common loading types primarily for civil infrastructure and land machinery. Structures for aerospace (e.g. aircraft, satellites, rockets, space stations, etc...) and marine environments (e.g. boats, submarines, etc.) have their own particular design loads and consideratio includes dead loads but also includes forces set up by irreversible changes in a structure's constraints - for example, loads due to settlement, the secondary effects of prestress or due to shrinkage and creep in concrete.

Malaysian Insider article

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.

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!'.

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.

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.

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...

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!