Built by GS E&C
In April, an investigation of a Geomdan New City apartment complex in Incheon where an underground parking lot collapsed found that 19, or 60 percent, of the 32 parking lot pillars had no reinforcing bars (rebar) at all. The missing rebar was blamed as the main direct cause of the parking lot collapse.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced the results of the Construction Accident Investigation Committee’s look into the construction site of the apartment complex under construction by GS Engineering & Construction (GS E&C) on July 5.
The committee found out that the underground parking lot was designed as a flat plate slab structure with columns directly supporting the slabs without beams. As a result, all of the 32 columns in the underground parking lot needed reinforcing steel bars to withstand the load, but the design included steel bars in only 17 of the columns. The design itself was flawed.
Then, during the construction process, it was found that GS E&C omitted some of the already inadequate amount of rebar included in the design. When the committee examined eight of the 32 columns, excluding those that could not be checked as they had collapsed, it found that four columns did not have the rebar specified in the design.
All 32 columns in the underground parking lot should have been reinforced with rebar, but rebar was missing in at least 19 (60 percent) of them.
The investigation also found that the strength of the concrete of the columns in question was inadequate. Strength tests measured 16.9 MPa, 30 percent below the standard design strength of 24 MPa. Concrete strength must be at least 85 percent of standard design strength.
GS E&C’s shoddy apartment construction practices are not limited to Geomdan Apartment in Incheon. Last month, a water leak occurred in the underground parking lot of a Xi apartment in the Gangnam district of Seoul, followed by a similar problem at another Xi apartment in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
GS E&C said in a lengthy apology on July 5 that it has decided to completely rebuild Geomdan New City Apartment in Incheon. The builder’s decision to reconstruct all 15 buildings, even those that were not involved in the accident, comes as a result of a growing brand reputation crisis. According to the Korea Corporate Reputation Institute’s May apartment brand survey, Xi’s preference ranking plummeted to 17th place from third at the start of the year.
GS E&C’s stock price has also been at a 52-week low due to the faulty construction allegations. It closed at 18,640 won on June 30, the first time it fell below 10,000 won since Jan. 3.