Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad -- There has been much concern expressed throughout the
region with respect to the principal causes of the structural failure
of the national sporting stadium at Queen’s Park, St. George’s
during the passage of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. The Association
of professional Engineers of T&T (Apett) is planning to undertake
a case study on the issues surrounding the failure of the Grenada
National Stadium.
“It is undoubtedly in the interest of the region’s industry
practitioners, as well as the wider community, that the reasons
for the failure be analysed and measures instituted to limit the
possibility of its reoccurrence,” the body said in a statement.
It is certain that, coming out of a thorough investigation, there
will be many lessons to be learnt in procurement procedures, systems
of contracting, hazard assessment, structural design, uniformity
of code usage, quality control procedures, approval processes and
the regulation of engineering practice.
Teams from the Grenada Institute of Professional Engineers (GIPE)
and Apett are to meet to agree on the best course of action in the
interest of engineering practice in both countries and throughout
the Caribbean region.
The team will carry out its work under the chairmanship of the Secretary
General of the Council of Caribbean Engineering Organisation (CCEO).
CCEO is the umbrella body for 12 Commonwealth Caribbean professional
engineering associations. The joint Grenada/T&T team will also
look at procurement procedures for public projects, the degree and
nature of oversight of turn-key projects, the use (or lack there-of
local professionals, the maintenance of standards documents, quality
control during design, quality control during construction, professional
indemnity insurance and the role of the regulatory agencies.
(Reproduced
from the March 2, 2006 issue of the Business Guardian in Trinidad
and Tobago)
Editor’s
Note: The multi-million dollar stadium was built by a Trinidad company
that was given the contract by the project developer, Colm Imbert,
the current Minister of Communications and Works in the Patrick
Manning government
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