New condos condemned in Fort McMurray, Canada

[amorrison]

See

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/1239665812/ID=1856942217

Any further information, thoughts?

 

[hokie66]

Condemnation may be the only way, but not allowing people to remove their possessions seems like a gross overreaction. The report said the people were ejected in the middle of the night. Surely this decision took some time to develop, and the residents should have been given some warning.

 

[JAE]

What happened in the design? The video shows a few pics of shear failure in a wood member or some kind of bearing crushing. I can't believe that they can't shore up things to let some experts in to remove belongings.

 

[BAretired]

I have been following the news bulletins but have not heard a detailed account about what went wrong and why. See the following link:

http://penhorwood.ca/?page_id=110

BA

 

[BAretired]

Something further:

http://penhorwood.ca/?p=76

BA

 

[JAE]

For those of you that have complained about being able to hear your neighbour flatulate...

Wow...

It appears that some type of geotechnical engineer was not used and the fill on the site is shifting the foundations such that damage to the roof caused leaks.

They also refer to this:

if and when the foundations and crawl space walls are stabilized, we must also determine whether this structure can withstand the flood that will occur in this area...

. emphasis added.

I guess they know a flood is coming. Sort of like Noah?

 

[dik]

This says a bucketfull, "The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo by-laws and their development permit for this project required engineering certification that the project was built in accordance with CMHC flood plain guidelines. The guidelines were completely ignored. The RMWB waived the requirement for engineering certification. This gave rise to the soil problems referred to above..."

There is also inference that requirements for professional engineering and geotechnical consultants were waived. I wonder who has the biggest pockets...

Dik

 

[dik]

and the petition:

7 buildings built in Fort McMurray in 2003/2004 have had all access denied because they are collapsing. 300 people are homeless. Although the current collapse is due largely to geo-technical (soil) and structural conditions, numerous other life-safety issues exist(ed). We believe the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) is wholly responsible through gross negligence, together with others, for the geo-technical failure and life safety issues. We believe the RMWB is indirectly responsible for the structural failure due to gross negligence of its agent, the building inspector. We believe the RMWB acted in extreme bad faith in participating in a deliberate cover-up of their conduct and that of the building inspector. If we do not act now, many if not all of the Penhorwood Condominiums owners will go bankrupt!!!

We demand of the RMWB that they:

1. Immediately provide interim financial relief for the victims,

2. Acknowledge their role in this matter, and:

3. Assist the victims by joining them in a lawsuit against the other defendants.

 

[dik]

I downloaded the Statement of Claim... boy, is it a read... It's too large to post as a single file...

If there's any interest, I'll print it out and break it up...

Dik

 

[a2mfk]

My initial reaction is similar to Hokie's. I looked at all the pictures, albeit I have never been to the site or seen all of the pictures, but where is the imminent danger concern coming from? Not to say the building is not settling or has issues, but not allowing anyone to enter the building seems like its way off the deep end. Again, we don't have the full picture, but the condo board needs to immediately hire an attorney and structural engineering firm to do their own investigation, inhabitable is one thing, no person ever entering is another.

We deal with soil problems every day, including open sinkholes. Almost any structure and soil problem can be fixed. I would think they could do some emergency pressure grouting to stabilize the foundations enough to make this safe enough for people to enter to get their belonging and do more in depth engineering studies.

Nice post, hope there are follow ups...

 

[Brad805]

It seems the condo board has been dragging its feet waiting to find someone to pay. I would not be surprised if many of the problems started to appear shortly after construction was complete in 2004. Presenting the last report to the District after filing the law suit seems to have been the last straw and might have been a tacticle error. It looks like the unit owners are bearing the burden of the legal case.

I didn't notice too many things that could be fixed more cost effectively than demolishing the whole complex. Now that it is public, I bet they end up knocking it over and fighting in court for the next 10 years.

I found it interesting that there are underground pipes in most of the pictures showing sink holes.

Brad