SINGAPORE - The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has instructed the owners of Nex shopping mall to inspect the building's ceiling structures, after parts of a false ceiling collapsed in the mall's basement on Sunday (Aug 7).
In response to queries from The Straits Times, a BCA spokesman said on Thursday (Aug 11) that the authority had instructed Nex's owner to direct its professional engineer to carry out a detailed investigation into the cause of the incident.
The owner of Nex, developer Gold Ridge, had appointed a professional engineer to inspect the affected ceiling, and the affected ceiling board has since been replaced.
BCA directed the engineer to inspect and assess the condition of the ceiling structure at the affected location, as well as other areas in the building.
The authority also instructed Gold Ridge to carry out permanent rectification measures as recommended by the engineer.
The spokesman said BCA was alerted to the fallen ceiling board at around 2.30pm on Monday and sent an engineer to check on it.
"Our engineer observed that part of a ceiling board had fallen from (the underside of) Level 1 to Basement 2. Water leakage from choked plumbing of a toilet in one of the shops at Level 1 of the mall had caused the ceiling board to become damp and break," she said.
No injuries were reported.
A Nex spokesman said it had engaged the professional engineer to inspect the affected premises on Saturday night after the leak occurred, which is required before rectification works can be arranged.
The engineer carried out the inspection on Sunday night, and instructed Nex’s contractor to proceed with the repairs.
“We have since been working closely with BCA on the incident and rectification report,” she added.
On Monday, several shops in Nex's two basements reopened for business after suspending operations on Sunday because of the water leak.
A Nex spokesman said they were alerted to the backflow by a tenant on Level 1 at 5.55pm on Saturday.
"A plumbing issue was subsequently identified to have originated from the tenant's floor trap where the water backflow had spread to their retail area and leaked down to Basement 1 and Basement 2," she added.
The choke was resolved, but the remnant water continued to leak from the unit and affected some tenants across the basements, she said.
The spokesman added that the collapsed ceiling was related to the leakage.
An employee at a Pezzo outlet in Basement 2, who declined to be named, told ST on Monday that the store had to shut on Sunday due to water dripping from the ceiling in front of its premises.
Ms Peter Margaret, 60, a salesman at the atrium on Level 1, said water flowed out of the H&M outlet at around 6pm on Saturday, and that the nearby toilet also flooded and was closed.
