PIE viaduct collapse: Construction firm fined S$1 million; jail for 2 senior staff
this is index.phpSINGAPORE — The main contractor involved in the 2017 collapse of an uncompleted Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) viaduct along Upper Changi Road East was handed the maximum fine of S$1 million on Wednesday (May 12).
The court found Or Kim Peow (OKP) Contractors guilty of failing to ensure the safety of 11 foreign workers who were casting a concrete deck slab.
The firm’s project director Yee Chee Keong, 51, was jailed for 13 months and its project engineer Wong Kiew Hai, 32, was jailed for 11 months. They were convicted on the charge of recklessly endangering the workers’ safety.
Yee and Wong had failed to stop all works, despite other personnel urging them to do so. This was after Wong discovered cracks on the temporary corbels supporting the deck slab some 40 minutes before the collapse.
They were also found guilty of a second charge of obstructing justice by deleting a WhatsApp conversation between the two of them on the night of the collapse. The conversation contained photographs that Wong took of the cracks and sent to Yee.
WHAT HAPPENED
The collapse, which took place on July 14 in 2017, resulted in the death of 31-year-old China national Chen Yinchuan who was working on the deck slab. The 10 other workers suffered varying degrees of injuries, including spinal and pelvic fractures.
The collapse happened because two corbels, or temporary concrete structures, that were supporting the longest section of the viaduct gave way.
The viaduct, which is about 1.8km long and made up of 50 spans divided into eight flyovers, links the PIE to Tampines Expressway and Upper Changi Road East.
The incident happened at the longest span, which measured about 43.5m in length.
Numerous red flags had surfaced in the lead-up to the collapse.
On June 16, 2017, a month before the incident, OKP’s employees discovered cracks on one of the corbels that eventually collapsed.
OKP’s project manager, Mr Andy Chang, took photographs of the cracks and sent them to Yee.
The company then took steps to rectify the problem on the recommendations of its technical director, Mr Yueng Chun Keung, but did not tell the project’s qualified person, Robert Arianto Tjandra, about this.
Tjandra was an employee of CPG Consultants, which was engaged by OKP and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to design and supervise the building works.
Two weeks later on June 30, more cracks appeared on the sides of several temporary corbels in neighbouring sections. The deck slab had already been cast to three-quarters of its length.
OKP and Tjandra discussed the cracks and took steps to reduce the load placed on the corbels.
Tjandra further instructed the firm to add two to three times more reinforcement to other corbels. The prosecution said that this should have indicated a systemic corbel under-design problem.
OKP also did not tell LTA about any of the corbel cracks.
In the early hours of July 14, 2017, the works began with Wong among those present. At about 2.50am, they saw cracks on the sides of the two corbels, prompting Wong to call Yee and send him photographs.
The prosecution said that the cracks were “much more serious” than those that appeared earlier. They were longer, wide enough to be visible from the ground more than 4m away under night lighting, and had rendered supports at both ends of the viaduct span vulnerable.
An LTA site supervisor, among others, urged Wong to stop the works. He did not.
Shortly after the collapse at 3.30am, Wong and Yee deleted their WhatsApp conversation. They argued that they did this in a moment of panic.
Both men also lied to the authorities that they had ordered for works to stop but could not implement this in time.
Tjandra, 47, was sentenced to 86 weeks’ jail, or about one year and nine-and-a-half months, in December 2019. The design engineer pleaded guilty midway through the trial to failing to double-check his team’s calculations.
The project’s accredited checker, engineering consultancy boss Leong Sow Hon, 62, was jailed for six months after pleading guilty to failing to check detailed structural plans and design calculations of the viaduct in accordance with regulations.
‘EGREGIOUS BREACH OF DUTY’
In delivering his sentence, Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun said that “there was clearly an egregious breach” by OKP of its work safety and health duties when it failed to follow the necessary safety measures.
He said that throughout the period when the cracks first appeared and up until the date of the collapse, the firm did not undertake any precautionary measures to guard against the risk of the corbels collapsing.
Moreover, the judge noted that the accident happened shortly after the firm was found guilty of a 2015 safety breach.
In that case, one worker had died, while three others were injured after they fell more than 6m from a dislodged platform.
Senior District Judge Ong said that OKP had “demonstrated a wanton disregard for the safety of its workers, and a shocking failure” to adhere to its statutory obligations under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.
As for the firm’s senior employees, the judge said that Yee had “direct and intimate knowledge of the red flags”.
Being the most senior person on the project, Yee’s failure to call for a stoppage of works on July 14 was “wholly inexcusable”, the judge said.
“There was ample time and approximately 25 to 30 minutes to call for a stoppage of works from the time of discovery of the corbel cracks to the time of the collapse,” he noted.
As for Wong, Senior District Judge Ong said that Wong knew the occurrence of corbel cracks was a serious issue that demanded his urgent attention, and it was an obvious sign of danger in view of the multiple red flags.
Even if Wong had been labouring under any impression before the night of July 14 that there were no issues to the corbel design, Senior District Judge Ong said that cracks appearing during the deck slab casting would have called into question the adequacy of Tjandra’s measure and the corbels’ load-carrying capacity.
“Like Yee, Wong had about 25 to 30 minutes from the time of the discovery of the cracks to stop the works. However he failed to do so and recklessly endangered the safety of the workers,” Senior District Judge Ong said.
A spokesperson for OKP said after the sentencing that it is “glad that there is now a closure” to the accident.
“We have since re-calibrated how we work with our subcontractors and other stakeholders.
“We take this opportunity to recommit our responsibility towards the Workplace Safety and Health Act and safety.”
The spokesperson added that back in 2017, the company had made it a priority to ensure that the workers injured were taken care of and the family of the deceased was provided all necessary assistance and support.
The company had also worked closely with the insurance companies to facilitate the payout of compensation to all affected workers.
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