Experts warn on risky soil in Vizag

They suggest the realtors to follow soil stabilisation measures wherever necessary and also the GVMC officials to insist on soil treatment measures in writing before giving approvals. It may be recalled that four persons were buried alive when a huge block of supporting wall collapsed at the workplace near Jagadamba Junction in June 2009 while they were working about 30 ft below the ground level. The victims were laying foundation for a multiplex coming up in place of the pulled downed Chitralaya theatre.

Thursday’s mishap has been the second ghastly incident after five years which came to fore with loss of lives. In fact, many areas in the city are vulnerable to mishaps where construction activity needs to be done under scientific supervision of geo-technical experts. Since the city is close to coast and some areas fall under sandy, soft clay and marine clay soils too. A very few areas like Seethampet, Marripalem are having gravelly soils where the structure can withstand.

Civil Engineering Department of Andhra University collected data of many areas where different kinds of soils are present. They also observed that some areas fall under vulnerable zones prone to failures during construction if they excavate beyond 3 meters. Sandy soils are spread over Siripuram close to Polamamba temple, Chitralaya theatre in old town up to post office, Rishikonda, part of Seethampet and areas all along the coast.

“Many techniques have been developed cost-effectively. Builders need not to incur huge expenditure and can sometimes follow methods to avoid structural failures. We experimented even with casuarinas for supporting ground excavation up to 3 meters,” said Prof. C.N.V. Satyanarayana Reddy from Andhra University.