As a construction engineer, I was really intrigued by this occurrence. Alas, your freelance reporter on foot caught these on Saturday afternoon.
- YOU can view all the 4 Mb at the Picasa Web Gallery here
The shots are taken from GROUND level and you can see that many spectators are having a grandstand view from their balconies!
SOME BACKGROUND HISTORY
The original contractor who constructed the building which is NOW listed on our BURSA Malaysia, never intended for the structure to be occupied with heavy machinery on its roof top.
Each of those excavators weigh anything from about 30 tonnes each. So do the math!
As comparison, a small car weighs about 1 to 2 tonnes only!
From reliable sources and eye-witnesses (familiar with the construction industry) who were present in the vicinity a few days before the account (patronising Digital Mall), they too, looked worried when they saw huge excavators beginning to demolish the building FROM the top WHILST the bottom was also being dismantled manually. Is this a sign of NEGLIGENCE here?
What ought to have occured as a quick and swift operation, as those seen in professional American demolition works (where the whole building can come down safely within minutes) was once again MUCH delayed! Apparently the professional demolition contractors were already specified and pre-qualified (investigators can check with the contractor on this!) but were finally given the rejection by the local government, as they were prohibited from bringing in their own explosives.
Thus the other option was to PURCHASE the explosives from local sources. However to due to APPARENT reasons (beyond the scope of this blog) whose news was "politically linked" last year, the option to purchase the equipment local was ALSO prohibited.
So, if bring in ALSO cannot and BUY locally ALSO cannot, what to do next? Well, have to resort back to CAVEMAN methods and hack down the whole building lah!
But with our "stringent" safety guidelines, this is the result to be seen!
However the news as of today (SUNDAY), many residents have been requested to evacuate and will stay in a nearby hotel fully subsidized by the contractor (I doubt they'd pay for PJ Hilton!). On top of that, they are to get a RM 150 per diem, just enough to cover basic meals for a small family.
