The Cellar Image of the Day

OMG.... Haggis! The pics at the link are strangely beautiful.

I'm impressed by how well the building stayed together during the fall. I'm more impressed (in a bad way) by what appears to be a 13 story building with foundations about 50cm deep! WTF? You have to go down before you go up. Okay, they have some piles too, but obviously not enough!

Eh, its probably for the best. They probably used lead based paint, and put milk in the plastics.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have a new earthquake strengthened apartment to replace your recently collapsed schools and homes. Over here is the last one having the finishing tCREEEEEEEEEEAKKK - RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

Pretty good construction otherwise. In the US the thing would have cumbled into bits. If you were inside of that you may have survived. It would have been a hell of a ride and more hell of a stop.

We still do good concrete work in the US, maybe things are different in boomtowns.

One the bright side, now every apartment will have a skylight. And think of the money they can save on elevators!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum

I'm more impressed (in a bad way) by what appears to be a 13 story building with foundations about 50cm deep! WTF? You have to go down before you go up. Okay, they have some piles too, but obviously not enough!

Quote:

Originally Posted by WSJ

The disaster could reveal some uncomfortable facts about lax construction practices in China, where buildings are put up in a hurry by largely unskilled migrant workers, and developers may be tempted to take shortcuts.

According to Shanghai Daily, initial investigations attribute the accident to the excavations for the construction of a garage under the collapsed building. Large quantities of earth were removed and dumped in a landfill next to a nearby creek; the weight of the earth caused the river bank to collapse, which, in turn, allowed water to seep into the ground, creating a muddy foundation for the building that toppled.

The South China Morning Post noted that the pilings used in the Lotus Riverside development, made of prestressed, precast concrete piles, are outlawed in Hong Kong because they aren’t strong enough to support the kind of ultra-high buildings that are common in Hong Kong. But in mainland China, they are often used because buildings there are typically much shorter

No matter what the excuse, hollow pilings with hardly any re-rod wouldn't fly in anything I built. As an amateur even I know better.

Very interesting that many of the windows aren't even broken or cracked. Amazing, actually.

Just like the house (garage?) that the tree fell on - no broken windows, either perfectly fine or missing completely.

Our windows in this old house crack if you look at them funny...

I spoke with my friend who lives in Shanghai and he said that every body in his 50 story appartment building is VERY nervous... including himself.

There's no way it could have fallen all in one piece! This was blown up by the Government!
I bet there was a BBC reporter there saying it had fallen before it did...

Soil conditions investigated as cause of Shanghai apartment building collapse

Quote:

There are differing opinions among the experts, but the main conclusion is that the cause is a tall pile of dirt next to the building, they said.

“It’s clear that if there had been no pile of dirt, there would have been no problem,” said Fan Qingguo, an engineer with state-run Shanghai Construction Group.

Other experts explained that dirt excavated for the garage may have compacted the soil, causing it to shift and damage the building’s foundations so that it fell over. Heavy rains and cracks in a flood wall for a nearby river also suggest problems with the soil on the site, they said.

Well, there's two things wrong about that construction......

13 floors? That's trouble right there.

Obviously they didn't use enough duct tape......because if it moves and it shouldn't. Duct Tape.

Quote:

(1) An underground garage was being dug on the south side, to a depth of 4.6 meters
(2) The excavated dirt was being piled up on the north side, to a height of 10 meters
(3) The building experienced uneven lateral pressure from south and north
(4) This resulted in a lateral pressure of 3,000 tonnes, which was greater than why the pilings could tolerate. Thus the building toppled over in the southerly direction.

That's strange, with the additional pressure on the north side and a hole on the south side, I would expect it to creep from north to south. Evidently the surface wasn't moving, only the subsoil. Must have been wetter down there.