DEMOLITION JOB

TWO DERELICT buildings in downtown Kingston that partially collapsed during the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that rattled the island three days ago will be demolished on Sunday.

“We had posted the relevant notices to give the owners-occupiers 48 hours to demolish – failure to do so the city will carry out a demolition exercise,” city engineer for the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), Xavier Chevannes, told The Gleaner.

The buildings, which are located on Church Street, are the first in an assessment that Chevannes said the KSMAC would be carrying out to determine the extent of the damage caused to buildings downtown “to see which ones we can also put on the list to be demolished based on the structural integrity”.

The assessment is expected to be completed over two weeks.

While he was unable to provide a figure on the number of derelict buildings downtown, he noted that not all the old buildings in the area are compromised.

Chevannes pointed out that it is the owners of the building who have a responsibility to demolish them and that one owner was served notice before the earthquake on Monday.

However, this authority has been defaulted to the KSAMC as they received no acknowledgement to the notices.

He shared that two earthquakes over the last two months have increased its urgency to address the situation.

“We’re not looking at it only from an earthquake perspective because when you have heavy precipitation, these also will compromise the structures. So had this earthquake (occurred) last week when we had the heavy rains, the results probably would be different,” he said.

The prevalence of dilapidated buildings in the busy town is once again being spotlighted after Jamaica experienced what is arguably its most significant earthquake in three decades, with president of the Master’s Builders Association, Lenworth Kelly, arguing that bulldozing them could save lives in the event of a stronger earthquake.

“A lot of times you check earthquakes, people die in the buildings or die from stuff falling off buildings,” he said.

Kelly added that many of the buildings downtown are very old and were built below the standard that currently exists.

Therefore, he contends, demolishing them is the best precautionary measure.

“We tend not to be so motivated to spend the money to create safety. We tend more to want to spend the money to respond rather than spend the money to be proactive,” he said.

Sixty-three-year-old Donald McNaught sells pets on Tower Street, downtown Kingston, and stores his wares in a renovated area of one of the buildings that is scheduled to be demolished. He is hoping that that area will be spared.

“My part a building firm, unless dem a guh tek off da part and give me the likkle part ya suh like how it refurbish. Dat (demolition) good still,” he told The Gleaner, sharing that he knows the danger the building poses.

Chairman of the Scientific Research Council, Dr Parris Lyew Ayee, also shared similar sentiments.

“We are preserving old buildings downtown that are just shells because they have some kind of heritage value, collecting garbage and whatever. But what’s the issue? You either preserve it and accept responsibility when something happens, or you knock it down and put up a proper structure,” he assessed.

Stating that assessments are necessary, he urged the KSAMC to give value to expert opinion.

“You’re going to need to rely on the engineers, proper engineers and not politicians and not people with their own opinions, to do this type of thing,” he said.

But just as important as demolishing old derelict buildings, Kelly contends, is the need to ensure that the newer ones that are currently being built are up to standard.

He believes more oversight is needed to ensure this..

“The regulators are to ensure that they inspect every step of the way and sign off to say ‘Yes, we approve this. This the amount of steel, this is the type of concrete’, and so on and sign off so the public can say ‘Yes, this building is built properly and is safe’,” he said, while questioning whether the expertise exists in the island’s parish councils to perform these assessments.

The Building Act of 2018 outlines the standards for construction of buildings.

However, the regulations that would allow for its enforcement are still not in place.

Chevannes, in the meantime, laments the resource constraint of the KSAMC, which he said hampers their work.

“When I speak about resources, we (are) not only speaking about human resources in terms of manpower, but we also speak in terms of monetary resources to undertake these works because these works require funding,” he said.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com