New floor plummets
2006-08-31
BUILDING renovations at the old Paarl Hotel on the corner of Zion and Main Street near Zeederberg Square came to a halt on Monday morning, when part of the top floor that was under construction, collapsed.
Four construction workers plummeted about three metres, together with concrete beams, bricks and other building rubble.
Tenants of the ground floor and customers shopping at the supermarket across the street, looked up in awe at the building site, wondering where the screams for help had come from.
Fellow workers dragged their unfortunate colleagues from the rubble, afraid that there could be further collapses.
Patrick Nonbonbo sustained head injuries and Buyisile Mthi a broken left leg. Nonbonbo’s brother Elliot and Titus Ashipula suffered light injuries.
Local firemen and paramedics took almost an hour to stabilise the two seriously injured workers before they were taken to Paarl Medi-Clinic.
The building is being upgraded and redeveloped into 34 sectional title units to be known as La Roche.
The oldest section of the building, where the collapse occurred, dates from the middle of the 19th century. It was known as the Royal Hotel from the 1860’s and during the twentieth century as the Picardie Hotel.
The new concrete deck replacing the wooden floor previously separating the second and third floors of the older section, was being installed by LG Structures/Quickslab, a subcontractor of MB Construction.
Newly installed concrete struts carrying part of the concrete deck gave way when ready-mixed concrete was poured as surfacing over the new floor structure.
Project-coordinator Johan Louw of CDC Engineering is investigating the incident on behalf of developer Rock Properties.
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