Fifteen more apartment complexes in Korea found missing reinforcement bars

An accident investigator at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is conducting an on-site inspection at an apartment construction site in Geomdan New Town, Incheon, on July 2. A roof structure on the first and second floors of an underground parking lot collapsed here on June 29. [Photo by Yonhap]

The South Korean government has identified 15 more apartment complexes with missing reinforcement bars at their underground parking spaces, which is cited as the cause for the recent parking lot collapse in an apartment in Geomdan in Incheon.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) held an emergency safety inspection meeting for public housing at LH’s regional headquarters in Seoul and announced that 15 out of the 91 flat-plate structure apartment complexes were found to have inadequate share of reinforcing bar installation.

In the flat-plate structure, there are no beams supporting the weight and slabs are directly connected to the columns. To ensure that the columns can withstand the load, sufficient shear reinforcements must be installed.

Among the 15 complexes with insufficient shear reinforcements, five of them have already been occupied with residents. Among these, four are currently under negotiation with residents or conducting detailed safety inspections to carry out subsequent remedial work.

The remaining one complex is already undergoing remedial work.

LG plans to complete the remedial work before residents come in the 10 complexes that have not been occupied yet.

Six complexes are currently undergoing remedial work and the remaining four are also planning to complete work before residents come in.

“We will investigate all 15 complexes thoroughly and take full responsibility without any suspicion,” said Lee Han-jun, chief executive officer of LH. “We have already obtained a list of all design, supervision, and construction companies to hold them accountable on a complex-by complex basis.”

Land Minister Won Hee-ryong who attended the meeting also apologized for the missing reinforcement bars in public housing apartments.

“For those responsible for the design and supervision that led to the missing reinforcement bars and other issues while designing and building using the flat-slab method, we will take the most severe disciplinary measures and initiate legal actions,” Won said.

He added that it is “truly shameful that such an incident occurred in apartments built by LH, a public company that should be trusted by the people.”

He ensured that the government will take comprehensive personnel actions and launch legal actions to prevent such incidents from happening again.