The Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory (LSMTL) and Experts in the building industry have proposed a policy formulation to protect professionalism in the Construction sector through the collective efforts of the various departments in the Engineering industry on a position paper of grade test analysis for structures.
Speaking recently with Executives of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NISTRUCTE) at a meeting organised to enhance collaboration in Lagos, the General Manager of LSMTL, Engr. Olayinka Abdul expressed concerns about the lack of proper interpretation given to materials test results following constructive assessment of raw materials used for building projects.
She said: ”Just as laboratory tests are being conducted for scrutinising presented ailments with doctors stepping in to interpret such results through diagnosis, so do materials test results require structural engineers to interpret remedies for buildings to avert demolition”.
“However, most of these materials tests are interpreted wrongly due to quackery proliferation in the Engineering industry. Core professionals cannot access such test results because the owners sort for cheaper means from unqualified Engineers to process them”.
While enumerating LSMTL‘s revamped process in averting total building collapse in Lagos State, Engr. Abdul said, “We are advocating a shift from our comfort zone at LSMTL by collaborating with NISTRUCTE to ensure all test results are well interpreted, for we believe that because your building looks seemingly distressed does not mean you have to pull it down. Engaging the right professionals will help assumingly distressed buildings stand”.
The General Manager further emphasised the use of the right materials, recalling an incidence where an almost completed decking that required extra sand, which freshly mined sand from the Iyana-Oworo Lagoon was used, only for the decking to develop spoilage 12 years later, due to eroded steel aggravated by the salinity of such sand.
She stated, “Soil salinity could pose an expensive risk that aggravates collapse when sought. I remember that freshly dug sand from Lagos Lagoon can erode steel and thus collapse. Our builders/construction workers need to be educated about this. We will need to introduce reliability tests to standing buildings across Lagos state, to protect our residents”.
In his remarks, the President of NISTRUCTE, Engr. Adeyoye Johnson, who received the LSMTL’s delegation along with other Executives of the Association at its Office in Surulere, maintained that only core professionals and seasoned Structural Engineers with vast experiences in the field were allowed to represent the profession, hence, collaborations with LSMTL were a welcomed development to fully curb episodes of buildings’ collapse across Lagos State.
In his words, “No professional under NISTRUCTE has ever been traced to buildings’ collapse in Lagos State. It is appalling that builders or project developers will expend so much on constructing an edifice and will never expend much in conducting proper strategy to ensure long-lasting structures which are kobo wise, naira foolish”.
Engr. Johnson averred that certification and re-certifications would help curb quackery that debars public safety while recounting that all buildings beyond 10 years should be rechecked for integrity tests to avert disaster.
