Building found structurally safe after part of roof fell

A professional engineer has found a JTC Corporation building, where parts of decorative features on a concrete roof crashed to the ground on Sunday, and three surrounding buildings to be structurally safe.

Permanent rectification works are still ongoing but cleaning of the area at 3013 Bedok Industrial Park E, where the incident occurred, will end soon, JTC said yesterday.

A JTC spokesman said that as a safety measure, the tenants in the affected wing of the building from levels one to four are still unable to return to their units during the cleaning and rectifying process. Most of the tenants in the surrounding buildings were able to return to work.

The engineer, who was engaged by JTC, has inspected the surrounding three buildings in addition to the main building and assessed that the structural integrity of all four has not been affected, said JTC.

It said on Sunday that investigations into the incident are ongoing.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said on Sunday that it had received a report and found that a block of concrete about 40m long had fallen from a height of four storeys.

No one was injured.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said in a statement on Sunday that work was under way to remove some concrete pieces that were still dangling from the roof of the four-storey building.

BCA said it had asked JTC to get advice from a professional engineer on how to remove the dislodged concrete piece. The engineer would also recommend permanent rectification works and inspect three adjacent blocks with a similar concrete sunshade design.

Mr Alan Ong, one of the tenants affected, said he is not worried about the incident. The director at signboard-making firm Gomotex Signcraft Studio, located on the first floor of the affected building, added: "I'm sure that they do their safety checks... This building is a few decades old, so this kind of collapse is not too surprising."

Mr Ong, who is in his 50s, was at the building yesterday morning to check on the situation.

Affected tenants have been told that they will be able to return to work in three to four days, said the JTC spokesman.

Mr Benedict Mong, 26, a tenant from a nearby building, was on his way home on Sunday when he saw the collapsed sunshade and alerted JTC at around 4am.

"I do feel concerned about this incident. If it happened during the day, the situation could have been more complicated as there would be more people around," said Mr Mong, the founder of car repair workshop HH MotorSports.