Technology used would cause damage – MD Abdulla Mohamed

President of Maldives Association of Construction Industry (MACI) as well as MD of Ameen Construction Abdulla Mohamed has said that the technology used in the construction of the 15 storey building at Henveiru Ameeneege, would result in damages to other houses in the nearby vicinity. Abdulla Mohamed said although such damage may not be evident at present, it would be obvious in the near future. He made the statement to Miadhu when asked for the opnion of the MACI with regard to the recent 2 orders issued by the Environment Ministry to halt contstruction work of the 15 storey building as well as the talks floating around town with regard to the micro piling technology used in the sheet piling work of the building.

President of MACI Abdulla Mohamed said that MACI has not analyzed the micro piling technology and that MACI has no suitably qualified engineers to provide a reasonable response. However he said based on his long experience in the industry, the technology would result in considerable damage to buildings nearby.

“Although some people say that it would not cause any damage, I just cannot believe that, I would say damage would be obvious in the near future, as you may remember, due to blasting of some rocks in the south Male’ region many cracks not visible to the naked eye occurred, these cracks later expanded and caused splits in sheets causing considerable damage” said Abdulla.

Highlighting his experience in the on going construction of the Velaanaage, the tallest building coming up east of Ameeneege, Abdulla said that the some areas of the raft foundation of the building had to be sheet piled. He also noted that as Velaanaage is being constructed with a basement it was essential to sheet pile some areas of the foundation. Abdulla Mohamed, President of MACI is also the MD of Ameen Construction which is the contractor of Velaanaage.

“We also had to sheet pile, but that was for water and soil protection, we used sheet piles up to 6 meters and that is about 12 feet under the ground” explained Abdulla.

Abdulla further said at Velaanaage sheet piling was carried out with the help of a hammer. He revealed that the hammer method is less damaging. Abdulla explained that the technique of the hammer principle is to drop a very weight on to the sheet pile to force the pile in the soil and that this method apart from a very audible noise give a small shock to the ground for a relatively small amount of time.

“We used the hammer after a lot of consideration, you see, one has to consider impacts to our environment” said Abdulla.

He also revealed that the outer perimeter of the Velaanaage was also sheet piled. He also noted once this was done, loosening of the soil was controlled. Further according to Abdulla this also stopped the ground water from getting salty.

Abdulla Mohamed further said before commencing the construction of the tall building at Velaanaage, consultancy from foreign experts was sought.

The issue at Ameeneege is that a completely new technology is used in the construction of the 15 storey building. The work was commenced with the approval of the Male’ Municipality. Under the current building code there is no requirement to submit an Environmental Impact Assessment report to Environment Ministry. This was never an issue earlier as no such high buildings were constructed before. However as the protection of the environment is very important, Environment Ministry is closely monitoring the construction work.

While accesses to a safe and secure environment is a basic human right, almost every one in Male’ has an opinion on the matter. The company engaged in the construction of the 15 storey building at Ameeneege has said that the environment should be explored so that it can be used in the most beneficial manner. They also revealed the shortcomings noted by Ministry of Environment after the initial halt order had already being complied with and that Ministry has already been duly informed. Environment Ministry recently issued a press release saying that the use of the micro piling technology is being further evaluated.