Chinese Building standards or lack of

[Busman]

Gotta love Chinese building standards !! Cheap and quick is not always the best.
The people in the other residential buildings must be a bit worried !!

Ark Hotel Construction time lapse building 15 storeys in 2 days (48 hrs) - YouTube

Amazing : New apartment building tips over in China - YouTube

[101RRS]

Is it the same building in both clips - if not what is the relationship between the two clips?

Garry

[Busman]

One shows how quick they can construct a building, the other not the same building, but shows what can happen the same.

[101RRS]

I watched a building about 2/3rds the size of the one being built go up in Canberra in a week (not working at night like the chinese building and not fitted out ) - it was made of precast concrete panels that were being trucked in - they just locked into each other without a frame. Just around the corner also saw the first two stories (basement and ground floor) disappear in the the 50 foot deep 100mx100m hole it was being built on - so I guess anything is possible anywhere.

Garry

[sheerluck]

I've spent a fair chunk of time in China with work, about 5 months or so in total over the last 3 years, and have seen this type of construction activity first hand.

The standards they have are pretty poor, and health and safety is non existant as a concept.

I've walked over road bridges in the middle of being repaired, where a guy was welding with people walking past no more than 30cm away. Another episode where a pedestrian walkway was having the tiles removed as people walked on them.

One of the factories I was working in was in a new development, <5 years old and the cracks in the walls, malfunctioning plumbing, aircon and heating, leaky roof......

The drive to the office from the city centre hotel to a different factory took us past the site where the Expo area was being built.
I shot some video on my phone of what it looked like. To anyone of a construction or workplace H&S bent, you'd be horrified!

[101RRS]

My brother was a designer for a large steel fabrication company that won Chinese contracts to design a build 250 tonne concrete mixers for the Chinese highway building programme. The deal was that they would be designed in Australia and built by a chinese sub contractor.

These mixers were basically a big barrel with on end that is bolted on.

When the first one went into service, it is filled up with cement etc and after the second turn the end came off spilling out the 250 tonnes of concrete.

The Chinese sub-contractor had decided his profits would be better if he replaced the huge high tensile nuts and bolts with mild steel ones.

As a side issue my brother and a work mate were driving to the construction site in central China. They were in a Chinese car with a Chinese driver when they collected an old lady on a push bike (not badly injured but had to be hospitalised) - it was not the drivers fault. The Chinese cops did not arrest the driver but arrested my brother and his mate and they were put in the can until they paid an on the spot fine of the equivalent of $5000 and another $5000 restitution to the old lady. They then continued on their way with the same driver after having to for his accommodating costs while they were in the klink.

Garry

[BMKal]

The Chinese building standards extend even to the basics.

It is now quite common to find Chinese built "dongas" in Australian mining camps. One way to tell if the components in these buildings are of Chinese origin is to check out the "S" bend in the dunny bowl. The Chinese made ones are designed to a different standard - obviously intended for people whose diet consists predominantly of rice and not steak. ;)

At the mining camp where I am currently staying, it has been proposed that a "breaker bar" be provided in every dunny to "assist in pushing through the items that a standard water flush cannot shift". :o