By Staff Reporter Chen Zhong Xiaolu and Intern Reporter Xiao Hua

From Caijing Online

The recent collapse of a section of the Hangzhou subway highlighted a series of safety problems in the region’s construction industry, said a recent statement from the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS). Among the issues on the top of the list were deficiencies of safety measures, neglect of dangers once they are discovered, insufficient or nonexistent training for workers, excessively informal hiring practices, and the failure of government oversight.

Thirteen people were still buried in the debris on the afternoon of November 19, two days after an under-construction subway tunnel caved in trapping underground construction workers and drivers from the road above it.

The deputy manager of Xianghu Station, which is on the collapsed subway line, attributed the disaster to the copious ground water in Hangzhou, which creates greatly variable soil conditions. A large rain storm in October had exacerbated this danger, he said, adding that the large volume of traffic on Fengqing Road, part of which was buckled into the subway tunnel, was also a factor.

But the rain was merely the last straw. Real culpability lies with China Teisiju Civil Engineering Group Co. Ltd. (CTCE), the company in charge of construction on the collapsed line.

Investigators of the accident disclosed that one of the main causes of the cave in was the protection wall did not provide enough support. Arriving on the scene, Caijing’s reporter found that the protection wall at the west end of the hole was terribly warped. One investigator suggested that contortion of this degree must have happened over an extended period of time.

Many workers onsite also said they had found cracks in the wall but did not bother addressing them. “We saw those problems, but we did not know what they meant,” said one worker who had escaped the disaster. “There was no way for us to report them either.”

CTCE’s CEO Li Changjin admitted, “We ignored lots of problems while rushing to finish the project.” Pressure to rush the job probably came from the local government, according a source from the construction business.

In the race to meet deadlines, workers are often asked to give up weekends and vacations. Some workers who survived the accident said they regularly began to work at 6 a.m. and usually ended around 1 a.m. the following day. This is common in all the construction sites.

Insufficient pay is another problem. “The local government has to control costs and reduce construction fees,” said one source familiar with the construction industry. Local governments usually have lots of subway construction projects and cannot afford to sustain all of them with full funds.

Contractors are obliged to stay on good terms with local governments in order to win contracts on future projects. For this reason, they are willing to accept certain jobs at a loss. However, safety is usually one of the first things on the chopping block, as construction companies try to cut balance their margins. The same source said CTCE was losing money on the collapsed line.

Even without the above problems, it appears that tragedy was planted in this project from the start. An expert on the investigation team said the choice of location was problematic. The eastern part of the area is a swampy river bank, while a road on which several thousand cars travel daily lies to the west. However, suggestions to relocate the subway line were abandoned due to the interests of real estate developers who built houses in the vicinity, among other factors.

Safe construction is still possible even if the soil conditions are less than desirable. The same expert said China has the technology to build any tunnels it wants. It’s up to contractors to choose safe methods. Failing that, disaster is immanent.

“If they had strengthened the base first, it’s likely they could have avoided this tragedy and harm to the environment,” said the same expert. The method he suggested would have dramatically increased the cost, by 20 to 30 percent at least. If CTCE was already losing money on this project, it’s likely this was beyond consideration.

The collapse in Hangzhou is not the first subway accident to have occurred. In the past, Shanghai and other places witnessed other accidents, but these were relatively minor in comparison, with little loss of life or injury.