After floor collapse in PJ building, engineers call for stricter safety compliance

KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 - Local engineers today proposed stricter compliance to safety standards after a building being constructed in Petaling Jaya suffered a partial collapse yesterday.

The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM) said the construction industry must be held to higher safety standards, and proposed mandatory training for those who responsible for scaffolding and falsework.

“It is recommended that there is a need to update and amend the relevant local Acts and regulations, guideline and code of practice.

“Beside more stringent enforcement, it is also important to have mandatory requirement for sufficient training for supervisory personnel and erection teams,” the institution’s president Ir. Tan Yean Chin said in a statement today.

Yesterday, six foreign construction workers were hurt after the temporary structure at the fourth floor of the building they were working on at Jalan Barat, Petaling Jaya collapsed.

Expressing the IEM’s sympathy to the six’s family workers, Tan also said that all temporary structures that are built should be properly designed, endorsed and supervised by professional engineers to ensure it matches accredited standards for construction practices.

He noted that IEM had already published a position paper titled “Revised Position Paper on Prevention of Collapse of ‘Scaffolding & Falsework’”, where the main causes of collapse of temporary structures are listed as including the lack of safety considerations at the design stage, improper or bad construction practice, usage of inferior materials, lack of enforcement and lack of maintenance.

The May 12 position paper also contains recommendations to avoid or mitigate the collapse of such temporary structures, he said, citing as example having sufficient funds to cover safety, health and environmental programmes for all construction projects.

He offered the professional body’s assistance through the provision of technical expertise and recommendations to the authorities on the prevention and mitigation of the collapse of temporary works.