UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | The 14-story Lotis Towers’ restorations have been put on hold by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) as they look further into its construction flaws.
This is in response to the authority rejecting the building’s developers’ findings citing cracks in one of its columns.
KCCA had advised Lotigo Property Ltd. in a letter dated August 17 to submit, among other things, a thorough report from qualified structural engineers on the origin of the issue, suggested fixes for the problems they found, and an application for a building permit to carry out major repairs.
The building developers commissioned independent engineers Roko Construction Ltd and others to conduct an investigation, and their findings suggested that the cracks were not severe and could be rectified.
Findings
An unnamed developer claimed that a team of engineers from Roko undertook an examination to determine the causes of the default and that their study indicated that the developed fractures were just surface-level.
The source also said that the developers recruited Proman Consult, a separate private business, to do more research and that Roko’s findings were consistent with those of Proman Consult.
“We hired two teams of engineers, including a team from the contractor and the reports were clearly indicating that the cracks were not structural but surface cracks. Using those reports, we had embarked on renovating and rectifying the damages but KCCA stopped all the activities pending investigations” the source said.
The National Building Review Board (NBRB) evacuation orders, according to the source, were not technical because KCCA and the board had not looked into the situation.
Although the fissures were apparent, the spokesperson for Roko Construction, Mr Bernard Muhangi, claimed it wasn’t necessary to issue an evacuation alert since they could be fixed as usual business operations continued.
Some tenants, including the Judicial Service Commission and Cairo Bank, are considering moving offices out of the building because of the evacuation orders.
On September 21 Wednesday, Mr Jacob Byamukama, the Interim Director for Engineering at KCCA, told the Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure that a team of private engineers was inspecting the building, particularly on the floors with issues of cracks.
He added that a comprehensive report on the situation is anticipated from the team.
According to KCCA, Prof. Jackson Mwakali and Mr Ivan Lule are leading the inquiries into the structure, and when the engineers have turned in their report, the final recommendations and next steps will be made public.
Solutions
Herbert Zziwa, the NBRB’s spokesperson, stated earlier this month that the organisation has almost finished creating the quality assurance centre, where the standards of all building materials would be done.
To address building issues, he said that new interventions will be made to strengthen already-existing regulations and institutions.
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