Ramp collapse tragedy shows risk management weakness 8 June 2013 GEORGE TOWN (June 8, 2013): The risk management of a project must be scrutinised to prevent incidents like the collapse of the exit ramp of the Second Penang Bridge on Thursday. This is because the collapse involved the lives of road users in the Bayan Lepas industrial area which is a busy route with thousands of people commuting to their place of work. Why was the route not closed or diverted away from the construction site and why does the public have to take risks to pass under the concrete ramp which was under construction? Engineering Expert and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Civil Engineering dean Prof Ahmad Farhan Ahmad Sadullah said every construction project must take into account and study in-depth risk management involving the public, workers and project. He told Bernama here, three main items which should be scrutinised deeply when implementing any construction project, were the technical aspect, environment aspect and risk management aspect. In the incident last night, two sections of the concrete ramp, one hard concrete section weighing 180 tonnes and a soft concrete section weighing 100 tonnes suddenly collapsed on a vehicle, trapping the occupant inside. Penang deputy police chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Jaafar said the rescue team had to wait for cutting machines to cut up the collapsed ramp in order to get the victim out. To date, police confirmed a local woman Thilasheni Rajendran, 24, was hurt on the hand after she was hit by debris from the collapsing ramp. Two foreign workers, namely Slamat, 36, from Indonesia and Tin Maung Iwin, 39, from Myanmar, were also hurt and admitted to the Penang Hospital. The construction of the exit project of the second bridge was managed by Cergas Murni Sdn Bhd. Meanwhile, the Penang Department of Occupational Safety And Health (DOSH) said the main focus of DOSH was to investigate the basic structure of the concrete ramp and exit connector of the bridge at the Tun Lim Chong Eu Highway area. Its director, Mohd Anuar Embi said the collapse could have been caused by the weaknesses of the basic structural work and further investigation on it was being conducted. – Bernama thesunDaily
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:42:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015