Willow Island Disaster – April 1978
In April 1978, the construction of power plant cooling towers was carried out in West Virginia. In this case, the usual method of scaffolding is to fix the bottom of the scaffold to the ground, and then design the remaining scaffolding so that it increases as the tower height increases.
On April 27, the height of the scaffolding reached 166 feet. The entire scaffolding structure collapsed. This resulted in the death of 51 construction workers and more injuries.
This catastrophic collapse was thoroughly investigated. It was found that the accident occurred due to the collapse of the concrete layer with scaffolding. The time required for the concrete to fully cure is not given, which means that it is not strong enough to support the scaffolding structure, which causes it to collapse when the next layer of concrete is lifted.
Further investigation revealed that the possibility of collapse is greater due to the loss of bolts. Many bolts used are of low grade. In addition, only one enters the ladder, which means that many construction workers cannot escape when the scaffolding collapses.
Cardiff – December 2000
In December 2000, in the centre of Cardiff, the 12-story scaffolding collapsed. Fortunately, this collapse occurred late at night, causing no harm. According to reports, if an accident occurs during working hours, it will almost certainly cause death. Due to the collapse, the road and railway below were closed for 5 days.
After investigation, it was found that there are a lot of problems in the scaffolding site. First, the initial scaffolding design was poor and ambiguous, which meant that it was difficult to set up the scaffolding correctly first. Not only that, only 91 anchor cables were used instead of the 300 required. There is no fixed drill hole at 6 meters from the top of the scaffolding.
In addition to these problems, many of the 91 existing anchor cables that have been implemented are defective. Each anchor bolt system consists of two ring bolts and drilled bolts. The construction workers on this particular site did not receive the training necessary to properly implement the bond, which meant that many of them were not strong.
Yichun City – November 2016
Similar to the Liudao disaster, a huge scaffold collapsed in the cooling tower being built in Yichun, China. The scaffolding disaster killed 74 construction workers and is the worst scaffolding disaster in Chinese history.
Although there is not much information about the cause of the accident, it is widely reported that the collapse was caused by a lack of sanitation and safety procedures, resulting in the arrest of nine officials.
Post time: Jul-10-2020