UNDER INVESTIGATION:Structural engineer to identify the cause of the cracks
A THOROUGH inspection of the damage affecting a row of houses adjacent to the construction site of the former Jaya Supermarket will be carried out by an independent structural engineer.
The Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has asked the developer of the new project, Domain Resources Sdn Bhd, to get a structural engineer to identify the cause of the cracks which appeared on the houses in Jalan 14/15 in Section 14.
The inspection is slated to begin early next month with the badly affected houses given prompt attention.
The exercise is expected to take as long as three weeks before a detailed report is submitted to the council.
According to MBPJ Building Regulation senior assistant director Siti Azurah Mohd Ghazali, while waiting for the report to be completed, the council has also instructed the developer to monitor the ground settlement, as constructed buildings gradually sink due to the compression of the soil below the foundation.
Siti Azurah said once the findings are known, the council will instruct the developer to rectify the badly damaged houses based on recommendations by the structural engineer.
"We carried out checks on the construction site in February after complaints of cracks surfacing in the residential houses nearby.
"That prompted the developer to appoint a surveyor to look into the problem.
"The surveyor's findings concluded that hairline cracks were pre-existing there and it was recommended that patch-up work be carried out to repair the cracks," she said at a press conference held at the council head office on Wednesday afternoon.
However, Siti Azurah said her department found the surveyor's findings not satisfactory enough and hence they were rejected.
Domain Resources chief operations officer Teong Choo Cheing, who was present at the press conference, said the company would heed the council's recommendations and bear the cost of repairs.
Meanwhile councillor R. Selvarajan said he had a dialogue with the affected residents recently when he visited their homes.
"The council will monitor the project's progress until its completion next year. We have been informed that piling works had finished and the developer is currently levelling the foundation to build a basement car park," he said.
A seven-storey building housing retail outlets with four levels of basement car park is currently being built there.
As the former supermarket was being demolished three years ago, a portion of the building collapsed, killing seven workers.
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