Specialist:

A scaffolding specialist revealed to Sunday Newsday yesterday that the scaffolding, which on Wednesday left 20 persons injured and one an ampu-tee, is more than ten years old.

The ten-storey (approximately 130 ft) “quickstage” steel scaffolding collapsed at the Customs and Excise building, plunging the labourers to the concrete surface below. According to reports the men were installing glass on the site at the time of the incident.

The incident left the south western area of the city in chaos with police vehicles and Emergency Health Services ambulances swarming.

Minister of Health John Rahael and Minister of Labour, Danny Montano were also quickly on the scene.

Emile Elias, Executive Chair-man of NH International Carib-bean Ltd, indicated on the day of the accident that it had been 41 years since any such thing had happened at an NH International site. He highlighted the daily safety inspections and observance of several precautionary measures at the site.

Information received by Sunday Newsday indicates that the scaffolding in question is rusty, second-hand material. Based on reports received by a former contractor and scaffolding specialist, the part of the scaffolding which initiated the collapse was over a decade old.

“The scaffolding was ten to 12 years old and you could see by the rust on the inside of the pipe. The yellow part of the scaffolding is new, that’s the one that they brought in from the UK.

“The blue parts however are refurbished. That area was reconditioned and painted over. The thing is that when it’s reconditioned you can hardly determine the actual strength of the structure.”

According to the Scaffolding Safety Guidelines of the Occupa-tional Health and Safety Bureau of Montana, rusty or corroded scaffold equipment is not to be used because the strength of such material is unknown.

The experienced contractor indicated that the company which was installing the glass on the building, would have to remove the braces which secure the scaffolding in order to carry out their duty on the site.

“The braces are tied around the columns. These need to be moved in a systematic way for different things to be done and when daily workers are doing their jobs at the same time, it could have been a case where this was not done,” explained the source.

The source went on to highlight one potential reason for the manner of the collapse which, according to eyewitness reports, occurred from the top of the scaffolding.

“When you have hundreds of wooden planks lying across the scaffolding if one collapses, the impact distributes the weight to one side.

“When you look at the rainfall, the planks would have increased in weight. Lumber absorbs a certain amount of water and the moment the top falls, it would hit the next and then the next.

“If two of the braces at the top are removed all the weight can go to one side then it can fall just like the twin towers,” explained the source.

The concerned scaffolding expert expressed his hope that the accident was not a matter of negligence.

Howeve, due to routine checks and stringent safety standards which abound in the construction industry today, he thought that the only other cause could be the integrity of the second-hand scaffolding.

Investigations into the accident are being carried out by inspectors from the Ministry of Labour, engineers from the Ministry of Works and Transport and the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UdeCott) (with the assistance of foreign experts) and Insp Joanne James of the Central Police Station.

A report from the police team is to be submitted this week to the Snr Superintendent of the Port-of-Spain division.