Posted on 03/30/2025 10:05:41 AM PDT by Steven Scharf
The Telegraph via Yahoo News
Chinese company investigated after Bangkok skyscraper collapses in earthquake Sarah Newey
Sat, 29 March 2025 at 1:03 pm GMT-4
A Chinese-backed contractor is facing an investigation over the collapse of a 33-floor skyscraper in Bangkok in Friday’s earthquake.
The unfinished building’s glass facade tumbled to the ground in a heap of smoke and dust, trapping dozens of people in the rubble, when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar, some 800 miles from the Thai capital.
But despite the skyline of the megacity being dotted with cranes, no other construction site reported similar collapses.
Eight bodies have so far been recovered from the ruins of the skyscraper, with an estimated 50 people still missing.
. . .
“Something was wrong, definitely,” Prof Suchatchavee Suwansawas, a civil engineer and politician from the Democrat Party, told The Telegraph.
“You see all other buildings, even high-rise buildings under construction, they’re safe. So either the design was wrong or construction was wrong, but it’s too soon to reach conclusions.”
After visiting the site on Saturday, Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand’s deputy prime minister, said that the country’s government would launch a rapid investigation to better understand the disaster.
. . .
The collapsed building belonged to the national audit office and had been under construction for three years, at a reported cost of more than two billion Thai baht (about £45 million).
(Excerpt) Read more at sg.news.yahoo.com ...
The "democrat party" in Thailand is a small Classical liberalism Liberal conservatism party with 25 seats of the 500 in the lower chamber of the Thai parliament. I would suggest they are in alignment with the ruling People's Party.
"two billion Thai baht (about £45 million)" = $58,785,400 US at current exchange rates.
"The collapsed building belonged to the national audit office." So who is going to audit the auditors.
Another Chinese Rice-paper building
“The “democrat party” in Thailand is a small...party with 25 seats of the 500 in the lower chamber of the Thai parliament.”
Thailand likely has NO IDEA just how lucky they are.
Lowest bidder usually means cheaply made. T was obvious that the collapsing building was crap.
Substandard Chinese steel.
Lowest qualified builder. And inspections to keep them honest.
Substandard Chinese-made construction materials have long been a problem. https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/articles/buyer-beware-counterfeit-substandard-inferior/
The whole world will one day know what every Chinese person knows:
If a Chinese company can save .01% by using substandard, dangerous or contaminated materials, they’ll do it without remorse.
The same applies to their ships and aircraft. And it’s why they still cannot field a decent fighter jet engine even after being given the detailed engineering plan AND onsite engineers.
Performs to spec for 40-50hrs, then kaput.
Isn't that interesting.
It was designed by the the famous Chinese Architect and Structural Engineer Some Ting Wong.
The first earthquake I ever experienced happened in Bangkok. Unstable river silt ground. I’d hesitate to a) put up a 33 story anything there (always stayed in single story bungalow style hotels), and b) wouldn’t hire a Chinese firm to build it (or anything else for that matter). We’re not talking Tokyo standard building codes.
That building collapsed just the way a planned implosion would occur - story by story, in pancake fashion. But when buildings are intentionally imploded, they are first substantially weakened. The fact that the building was incomplete is no excuse. You don’t build a hi-rise weak and then come in at the tail end and strengthen it. I wouldn’t put it past some authority invoking that excuse though.
Tofu Dreg construction
Italian-Thai has been in Thailand for decades, and has built all kinds of stuff, including the Skytrain in Bangkok.
On the building that I saw on the news, it appeared to be an entire collapse, not just the glass facade.
That was some serious “pancaking”, right there.
They were describing the building. I think they were just starting to put the glass on the building.
The unfinished building’s glass facade tumbled to the ground in a heap of smoke and dust, trapping dozens of people in the rubble, when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar, some 800 miles from the Thai capital.
Going back to look at the sentence in question, it is from a British news organization but has some problems of trying to pack to much into one sentence.
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