INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightEPAImage caption
The Opal Tower in Sydney opened to residents in July
On Monday,
Christmas Eve, hundreds of people were forced to leave their homes in a 38-storey tower in Sydney, Australia, when a huge crack was found in
its wall.Authorities later found the split in a support wall on the building's 10th floor
Engineers estimated it caused parts of the building to shift by up to 2mm.Although nobody was injured, Australians were shocked by the fault
in the newly-built Opal Tower in Sydney's Olympic Park.The shiny high-rise boasted million-dollar apartments, and the developer and
builder are well regarded in the industry.The tower's construction and design has since been called into question, as have the standards
of the wider Australian building industry itself.Both the tower's builder and the developer defended the construction, saying that the
temporary relocation was just a precautionary measure while repairs are carried out and that the tower remains "structurally sound".What do
we know about the crackAfter they had moved back in following Monday's evacuation, residents were forced to move out on Friday for a
second time, as investigators scrambled to find the cause of the fault.Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Angry residents
complained about having to leave their apartments for a second time
The tower's builder, Icon Construction, said the
building was safe and the disruption was simply to allow investigations and repairs to take place as quickly as possible
The company identified the crack in a pre-cast concrete panel
This panel was part of a chain of other panels up and down the building, thus rendering 51 units of the tower's 392 uninhabitable.Pictures
on social media showed the building's damage, with crumbling walls, loose plaster and jammed doors.However, the engineering firm WSP
leading the investigation have not determined why the panel cracked."The reasons for the failure at the moment are unknown," WSP's Guy
Templeton said on Thursday.What are investigators doing nowMr Templeton said engineers were "working around the clock" to investigate and
repair the site.The New South Wales government has also launched its own probe, headed up by the deans of two engineering schools from
Sydney universities.One of those leads, Prof Mark Hoffman from the University of New South Wales, told the TheIndianSubcontinent the
investigation would focus on the concrete panels, which were made offsite.These could be found in 16 other locations around the building and
had been installed to build balcony recesses into the building, he said.Image copyrightAFPImage caption
All tower
inhabitants have been told to leave
He described the fault as "completely out of the ordinary", noting that the Australian
construction industry was "world-renowned", and regulated by a framework of national and state codes.What does this say about the
industryHowever other experts say the enforcement of those regulations has been lacking.In February, a government-commissioned report found
a "prevalence of serious compliance failures in recently constructed buildings".The Shergold-Weir report had been commissioned in response
to the UK's Grenfell Tower tragedy, and was scathing in its assessment
In particular, it specified the industry's lack of oversight and noted that "those involved in high-rise construction have been left
largely to their own devices".Prof Bill Randolph from the University of NSW told the TheIndianSubcontinent that the industry's private
certification process - by which developers can choose their own certifier - is "hugely flawed".Image copyrightEPAImage caption
Experts say there are broader concerns about industry standards
"In a big building no final certifier signing off
would really have much idea about the details of what went on," he told the TheIndianSubcontinent
"The sub-contractors sign off on their own work and just pass it on to the next person up the chain".The rapid pace by which high-rise
buildings had sprung up in Sydney was also concerning, he added.Engineers Australia, the professional body representing the trade, also
described the approval process as an "overarching problem"."[We] hear from our members that the people signing off the work often do not
have the qualifications or experience to actually be in a position to make an informed judgement," said spokesman Brent Jackson.While the
causes of the Opal Tower's structural faults are still unknown, concerns over certification were prevalent across the industry, he said.
