The recently collapsed 21-storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos state was originally designed to be six floors, according to the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructE).
This was disclosed by Kehinde Osifala, NIStructE president, on Tuesday, November 16.
Giving details of the building, Osifala said the changes made to the project appear to “have been seriously inadequate.”
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“There are clear indications of several design changes on the project and the engineering and management of these changes appear to have been seriously inadequate,” he disclosed.
“The building that collapsed was initially designed for just six floors, and later to 12 floors, before this was further changed to 15 floors.
“It could not yet be established the adequacy of any properly designed and documented further revision to the eventual (and tragically, final) 21 floors that was being implemented and which collapsed.
“There are also indications that more than two structural engineering design firms worked on the project at different times.
“The preliminary investigation also revealed some evidence of structural inadequacy in the construction and that signs of some structural distress had already started to show within certain elements of the building. Some remedial measures were already being undertaken to address some of this.
“The changes made on the structure which crumbled on November 1, 2021 claiming 45 lives and 15 survivors was not properly adhered to according to best practices, Osifala noted.
“The method of implementation of this was not in accordance with sound structural engineering practices.
“All the above findings, which are very significant from the structural engineering point of view, need to be investigated further during the detailed investigation stage so that all factors related to the cause or causes of the collapse can be truly established and the appropriate lessons identified and implemented,”
“It is our view that the outcome of our preliminary investigation will give a general indication of what likely led to the unfortunate incident,” he concluded.
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