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Relatively low quality and useful lifespan of new Chinese construction

The structural collapse injury attorneys at Denena & Points remark that the pace of new Chinese construction is beyond impressive. The nation is building railways and raising up entire cities in record time, while U.S. construction and infrastructure projects languish.

China announced earlier this month that it planned to construct 5 ports, 25 subway and intercity rail projects, 9 sewage treatment plants, and 1,200 miles of road. With such massive construction on the boards, about 2 billion square meters of new buildings annually, our structural collapse injury attorneys don’t wonder that China utilizes about 40% of the world’s steel and concrete.

However, the fast and enthusiastic pace of Chinese construction has its downside. New Chinese buildings are only expected to stand for 25 to 30 years while the average lifespan of a U.S. commercial building is expected to be 70 to 75 years. (Source: Christina Larson, Bloomberg Business Week, 9/27/12) And many new construction projects aren’t even lasting a handful of years:

  • For example, we posted a piece some time back on the 13-story apartment building in Shanghai that simply toppled in its entirety in 2009 before it was even completed due to a poor foundation.
  • School buildings collapsed in 2008 following an earthquake in Wenchuan partly due to low-quality concrete that resulted in structures dubbed “tofu buildings.”

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  • The G-4 superhighway and areas near the “Fun City” development on the outskirts of Beijing flooded catastrophically in July, resulting in at 77 deaths. Many of these victims died drowned in their vehicles due to inadequate or clogged up drainage systems.
  • An 8-lane suspension bridge in Harbin, China, newly constructed at a cost of $300 million, suddenly collapsed in August. The collapse sent 3 people to their deaths.
  • In 2011, the new $210 million Guangzhou Opera House began to cast off its glass window panels and experience substantial cracking in its ceiling.

Our structural collapse injury attorneys note that the causes blamed for these structural failures cover the full range of errors:

  • The Chinese government employing as many untrained workers as possible on each project, rather than technology, in order to alleviate the unemployment problem as rural workers are displaced.
  • Use of poor materials.
  • Poor project management.
  • A timetable for the architectural design and construction phases on residential and commercial developments that is only half of that used in the United States.
  • Irregular implementation and oversight of construction standards. While there has been a move towards using accepted international building codes, the move has been sporadic.

China’s structural stability problems with its new construction serve as an apt lesson on prioritizing quantity over quality. Take it to heart. The lesson applies in every area of life and endeavor.

China is much to be admired in many ways. But its enthusiastic adoption of building at an unnaturally rapid pace has a dark side. The many spectacular structural failures tarnish the shining image of economic prosperity that China apparently tries to convey.

Learn some techniques you could use to prevent structural collapse in your structures at home. And learn where to turn and what to do in the vent of an injury caused by structural collapse. Download our structural collapse injury attorneys’ free report with a click on this web page.