It was the breadth of the human failings that shocked me.\u00a0 Not the fact that human failings played a part in the collapse – they do often enough\u00a0when a structure falls down.\u00a0 What troubled me\u00a0is that\u00a0they ran much of the gamut of our darker side, including incompetence and greed, and were exhibited by all parties involved with the mall in it’s 33 year life.<\/p>\n
(On the flip side, however,\u00a0I was impressed by the thoroughness of the judicial investigation.\u00a0 Also, with\u00a0the commissioner shooting from the hip and telling it like it\u00a0is after the findings were in.\u00a0 Nice that)<\/p>\n
If there is a common denominator in the human failings a\u00a0case could be made for “money” being the one – getting and keeping as much as you can.\u00a0 Nothing wrong with money except when it blunts your moral and ethical fibre and gets in the way of doing the right thing.<\/p>\n
It`s not difficult to believe\u00a0undue interest in money was there\u00a0decades ago during the planning of the mall – the developer wanting the most\u00a0structure for the least money spent.\u00a0 Then\u00a0fast forward to a few weeks before the collapse when the engineer signed off on\u00a0the structure knowing it was unstable\u00a0– for certain with a view to being retained again and being paid for his services.\u00a0 And the undue interest in money on the part of the many private and public parties involved in the mall each year over the\u00a0decades\u00a0right up to the\u00a0collapse.<\/p>\n
(Be assured: In all my years, I’ve never heard of a professional engineer deliberately falsifying his report. \u00a0I’ve been around the block a few times and seen a few things but never this)<\/p>\n
We can be excused for wondering how many other structures are on the verge of collapse that we don`t know about –\u00a0due to\u00a0similar human failings.\u00a0 We know about\u00a0the mall because it fell down.\u00a0 There are bridges on the east coast that are in poor condition.\u00a0 But we know about these and the problem is being addressed.\u00a0 What about the structures that we don`t know about?<\/p>\n
I blogged a couple of years ago – shortly after the mall collapsed, about construction inspection and maintenance being the Achilles’ heels of project development, and touched on it again a few weeks ago.\u00a0 Inadequate construction inspection is almost like a default human failing.\u00a0 But this singular weakness in project development is not of the breadth and blatancy of the human failings that brought the mall down.<\/p>\n
We have our problems in forensic engineering investigation – a development project in a sense to an engineer, where investigations\u00a0“fail”, that is, they are inadequate because of human failings on the part of owners, counsel, and engineers. \u00a0The parties often\u00a0failing\u00a0by taking little interest\u00a0to\u00a0understand what’s involved in forensic work and that thorough and objective investigations are expensive.<\/p>\n
We can’t always prevent the tragic effects of\u00a0human failings on the\u00a0built environment\u00a0any more than we can prevent sick people murdering soldiers and shooting up our parliament.\u00a0 We must\u00a0recognize and expect that these tragic events\u00a0will happen – human nature being what it is, learn from them, and press on.<\/p>\n
It helps to\u00a0focus on\u00a0the fact that\u00a0there are few structures in the built environment that are in grossly\u00a0poor condition and on the verge of collapse.\u00a0 Fortunately, very, very few, I believe, knowing the engineering profession as I do.\u00a0\u00a0At the same time, however, to recognize that there are some structures in poor condition\u00a0–\u00a0but not about to collapse.\u00a0 Structures that are malfunctioning, performing poorly, and costing money that someone would like to keep and hang onto.<\/p>\n
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It was the breadth of the human failings that shocked me.\u00a0 Not the fact that human failings played a part in the collapse – they do often enough\u00a0when a structure falls down.\u00a0 What troubled me\u00a0is that\u00a0they ran much of the … Continue reading