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GS E&C to rebuild entire apartment complex in Incheon after parking garage collapse
Rebar and wires are exposed in the collapsed parking garage of an apartment complex construction site in Incheon in this May 2 file photo. Yonhap
By Park Jae-hyuk
By Park Jae-hyuk
GS E&C will tear down and rebuild all 17 buildings for 1,666 households in an apartment complex under construction in Incheon, which experienced a collapse in a parking garage on April 29, the builder said Wednesday.
Its announcement was made a few hours after the government attributed the accident mainly to the company's omission of rebar in multiple pillars of the destroyed parking garage.
Although there were no casualties in the accident, the apartment complex's future residents called for reconstruction, pointing out that the collapsed parking garage was underground beneath the planned site of a children's playground.
“Considering the opinions of the future residents, we will completely rebuild the apartment complex and compensate them for the delayed construction,” the company said in a statement. “We will offer both financial and non-financial support for them.”
After the announcement, the builder's stock price plunged as investors were concerned about the significant price of reconstruction.
GS E&C admitted on May 9 that it had missed installing rebar in multiple places of the destroyed underground parking lot. Since then, the public has ridiculed the company's apartment brand “Xi,” saying its apartment buildings are “boneless.”
After two months of investigation, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also said Wednesday that the builder had not followed the blueprints for the apartment complex when installing rebar and that the construction project's manager failed to discover the omission during its inspection.
The apartment complex's blueprints were also problematic, according to the ministry, as they incorrectly showed some pillars as not requiring rebar.
Hoseo University architectural engineering professor Hong Keon-ho, who led the ministry's committee to investigate the accident, said the lack of rebar made it impossible for the pillars to withstand the weight of the earth and sand piled on the surface on top of the underground parking garage.
Although the pillars had to withstand heavier weight than initially planned and the intensity of concrete used for the pillars was lower than the standard, Hong told reporters that the pillars could have withstood the weight, if they had been equipped with rebar.
The professor, however, supported GS E&C's claim that its omission of rebar was not intended to save costs.
“It is true that installing shear reinforcement bars is difficult, but the number of such bars needed for the construction site is not large enough to have a significant impact on costs,” he said.
During the investigation, the land ministry also discovered that GS E&C diverted 41 million won ($31,600) of the safety management budget to lease a shuttle bus for construction workers. In addition, the builder violated the quality management guidelines, as it did not test the quality of concrete aggregates.
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong, right, speaks to reporters at the Government Complex Sejong, Wednesday, after announcing the findings of the ministry's investigation into a collapse at an apartment construction site in Incheon. Courtesy of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
The ministry plans to announce disciplinary actions for GS E&C next month.
“The investigation exposed unacceptable irregularities in the construction process,” Minister Won Hee-ryong said.
Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH), the state-run real estate developer which served as the construction project's owner, also made an apology and vowed to come up with follow-up measures to prevent similar accidents in the future.