BY SAMSON SADE
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
The inaction by authorities to act decisively to demolish the hotel development at the Rove Seafront bears the hallmark of corruption.
Work continues on the hotel despite expert reports explicitly calling for total demolition because of the threat it poses to human life in the event of seismic activities.
This sentiment was echoed by a local developer who requested that his name be withheld for fear of retribution.
The call for demolition was contained in a 2018 ‘Structural Engineering Technical Review Report’ as a result of hosts of structural and engineering faults and failures.
The developer said it is sad that authorities are gambling with the lives of people of Solomon Islands by allowing such shoddy work to continue.
“It is paramount that all structures whether it be a family dwelling, a hotel or a shop or whatever, must be built with human safety considerations,” he said.
He mentioned that had the hotel development locally owned, authorities would have sprung into action a long time ago.
The 2018 Structural Engineering Technical Review Report overtly recommended that the building be completely demolished and reconstructed because of non-compliant with SI building code, faulty and therefore unsafe for human habitation in any form or shape.
It is worth noting that Solomon Island is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire which is an area prone to very high seismic activities.
This indicates that a 0.4 – 0.5g peak ground acceleration with an equivalent seismic base sheer force of about 40 – 50% is transmitted into the building during a code prescribed seismic event.
With a four storey Hotel Development sitting on a poorly reclaimed land with structural defects and failures to begin with, the result can be fatal.
“For this reason alone I wish to call on authorities to act immediately to prevent a future tragedy from happening,” the developer said.
According to the SI building Code with reference to modern day structural engineering, it is mandatory that a building must be designed and constructed to satisfy the performance requirements stipulated in the relevant codes.
For the structural component of a building, the key performance requirement is to ensure the structure does not fail, collapse and injure or kill building users.
Sadly, the Hotel Development at the Rove Seafront is structurally non-compliant and in the event of seismic activities, a structural collapse is imminent.
