The Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers (NICE), Lagos State Chapter, has called for an integrity test of all the buildings above five years in the state to ascertain their structural stability.

Its Chairman, Mrs Lola Adetoye, made the call on Friday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Adetoye said that the test would reveal both the structural fitness and stability of the buildings, so that necessary renovations would be taken to correct dictated defected buildings.

She said the integrity test had become paramount as most buildings in the state had been changed from the use they were initially designed for.

Adetoye said that the test would ascertain whether the structure was suitable for its current use.

According to her, there is need for the government to develop a continuous monitoring concepts for structures through the integrity test exercise.

“It will help in checkmating the incidence of building collapses across the state

“If the building integrity test can be conducted for at least once in two years as a continuous monitoring concept, the defected buildings will be dictated, demolished and rebuild.

“And through such exercise, the sudden collapse of buildings that usually result to loss of lives and property will be brought to an end,” she said.

The NICE chairman said that the essence of the integrity test was to ensure the acceptability of the buildings following any deterioration or damage that might have caused by blast, fatigue or overload.

She stressed the need for discouragement of unapproved constructions, saying that all clients or building developers should be compelled to comply with the approved building regulations.

The chairman added that all building construction works should be well designed and supervised by registered and responsible authorities.

According to her, the government can as well set up corps who can be moving around to detect structurally defected buildings and report to the appropriate authority.

“I want to suggest to government to establish ‘Special Building Development Marshals’ like that of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to complement efforts of the government officers in charge of physical development.

“The special corps will provide information to the appropriate authority on any suspected illegal development or structurally defected building,” she said.

Adetoye said that a building was said to have general structural stability if its localised damage does not lead to widespread collapse. (NAN)

– Nov. 23, 2018 @ 13:09 GMT |