The Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) confirmed in a statement yesterday that a decorative, non-structural column of an arcaded building on Rua do Almirante Sérgio in the Inner Harbour district collapsed on Tuesday, just next to an ongoing roadwork project.
The statement said that no one was injured in the incident.
The statement said that the authorities are still identifying the exact cause of the collapse.
The bureau is currently carrying out roadworks to resurface the uneven road surface on Rua do Almirante Sérgio in phases and sections.
The statement underlined that the bureau has ordered the roadwork project’s contractor to review its safety measures implemented for the construction area, to reinforce the other decorative column of the building, and to reinstall the collapsed decorative column.
The statement said that when workers of the roadwork project were just preparing for concrete pouring and had still not commenced excavation work, the decorative column “suddenly” collapsed.
The statement said that IAM inspectors had informed the Lands and Urban Construction Bureau (DSSCU) of the incident after the collapse, after which DSSCU engineers concluded that the collapsed column was a decorative, non-structural one, because of which the collapse had not caused any immediate danger to the building’s structure.
The statement underlined that the exact cause of the column’s collapse is yet to be determined by DSSCU engineers.
This photo taken yesterday shows the collapsed decorative column on the roadwork site outside the building on Rua do Almirante Sérgio. – Photo courtesy of TDM
