GS E&C to rebuild apartment complex from scratch after accident

GS Engineering and Construction (GS E&C) will rebuild a whole apartment complex from scratch after the roof of its underground parking lot collapsed in April due to poor construction.

An official from the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety inspects the ruins of a collapsed roof at an underground parking lot in Incheon. [NEWS1]

GS Engineering and Construction (GS E&C) will rebuild a whole apartment complex from scratch after the roof of its underground parking lot collapsed in April due to poor construction.

The apartment complex, which was being built by GS E&C and developed by Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH), was set to be completed in October.

GS E&C will need to demolish and reconstruct 17 apartment buildings in the complex, which housed 1,666 units in total.

The decision is likely to cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

GS E&S made the announcement with an apology on Tuesday, as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released the result of its inspection on the incident that day.

The ministry’s inspection team concluded that the collapse was caused by overall failures throughout the whole project, from design and supervision to construction.

On April 29, a slab roof of an underground parking lot at an apartment complex under construction in Seo District, Incheon, collapsed at around 11:30 p.m. The parking lot lay between two apartment buildings at the site.

The incident was due to missing rebars, the Infrastructure Ministry confirmed Tuesday in its inspection report. Steel rebars that were supposed to connect the upper and lower reinforcement were omitted during the design process, and even some of the rebars included in the design were not installed during the construction. Moreover, additional weight generated during landscaping added pressure onto the roof, which ultimately led to the collapse.

Hong Geon-ho, far left, head of the inspection team on a roof-collapse incident at an apartment complex in Incheon, speaks during a press conference on the result of the inspection, held on Tuesday at the government complex in central Seoul. [YONHAP]

The strength of the concrete used for the roof also missed safety standards, according to the ministry’s inspection team.

GS E&C apologized for the collapse in May, admitting that some of its construction work did not align with the design, but has been butting heads with LH over who was responsible for the faulty design.

LH claimed that GS E&C had also been heavily involved during the design of the project.

The ministry held both GS E&C and LH accountable for the poor construction, as the construction company failed to properly review the design, and the developer granted the final approval for the faulty design.

“This would not have happened if at least one of the parties involved, whether it be the construction company, the superintendent, or the designer, fulfilled their responsibilities,” said Land Minister Won Hee-ryong during a press conference on the inspection report Tuesday.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]