Petitioners say blueprint proves their school made of 'tofu'
- Source: The Global Times
- [00:18 May 15 2009]
- Comments
Causes uncertain
It was difficult, if not downright impossible, to find out whether quality problems existed in collapsed buildings, Gao Yongzhao, vice director of the Sichuan Institute of Building Research, was quoted as saying in the booklet issued by an official work unit.
Chief engineer of the China Southwest Architectural Design & Research Institute Chen Zhengxiang was quoted as offering his explanation for why neighboring buildings collapsed to completely different extents.
"This is caused by many factors including the direction of the seismic wave, the frequency of vibration and the front of the buildings," he was quoted as saying.
The government last year investigated and experts sent by the government admitted serious quality problems existed in the school buildings in earthquake-affected Sichuan, according to Southern Weekend.
The location and quality of many school buildings had problems, said Chen Baosheng, an architecture professor with Tongji University, and also a member of earthquake relief expert team under the Department of Construction.
At the ruins, his team had found reinforced steel within precast slab and in upright columns that was too thin to meet minimum safety standards. Connecting bars were missing in places where they should have been, according to a report published in Southern Weekend on May 29 last year.
The 21st Century Business Herald on May 28 also revealed a report released by Sichuan Construction Department, which listed unqualified design of some structures and quality control as key reasons that a significant number of school buildings collapsed during the earthquake.
Nine-year compulsory schooling campaign
Southern Weekend also found many of the collapsed buildings were constructed during a nationwide government campaign for nine-year compulsory schooling in the 1990s.
Construction of school buildings left behind large debts, according to the article. By the end of 2007, about 4 billion yuan remained unpaid in Sichuan.
Inadequate funding allegedly made it impossible for many relevant authorities to under-write or guarantee the quality of raw materials and construction. Supervision of engineering project quality and construction contracts was very much confused in the 1990s: Many counties' education bureaus contracted construction of school buildings to their own construction teams, or people connected to local officials, the article claimed.
"It's a cast-iron fact that serious problems existed in collapsed school buildings," said an architect once involved in a government investigation.
"The government wants to play it down because they are not specific cases but widespread phenomena," said the man, who requested anonymity. "It has to do with the poverty of the countryside and the long-existing unfair rural-urban divide."
"But if we continue to cover up the truth more disasters will come."
Beichuan Middle School principal Liu Yachun, who lost his only son at the school, and Beichuan Education Bureau chief Wang Anping both refused to be interviewed for this story.