Construction faults on the up in capital area

Overly complex projects and poor site communications seen as main problems

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Faults in construction have become an everyday issue on building sites in the capital area.
      "Mistakes are clearly on the up", says construction engineering chief Kauko Juutinen from the Helsinki Building Regulation Department.
      And construction sites in neighbouring Espoo are not void of mistakes either.
      On roughly two out of three construction sites, solutions are found that are not in compliance with regulations or good building practice, sums up structures manager Kari Pajanne of the Espoo Building Control Centre.
      The cities’ building regulation offices are the best place to get an estimate of the scale of the problem, for no statistical information on the matter is available. However, both the authorities and researchers agree on the direction of the present development: the number of construction errors is on the increase.
     
The problems the authorities hear about are issues that have a direct effect on the safety and health of the occupants. Matters pertaining to interior finishing work are not included.
      Juutinen divides the most important construction mistakes into two groups. The first group includes mistakes that lead to problems with damp. Such mistakes include leakages in water systems, as well as failures to waterproof the building properly against rain.
      The other groups includes mistakes relating to the fact that buildings are becoming more and more complicated.
      "There are more and more joints and seams between different materials", notes Juutinen.
      In Pajanne’s view architectural designs that are becoming more and more varied in form cannot always be translated into competent structural solutions.
     
The mistakes are a result of both the design and of the construction work having been divided among too many players.
      "This requires a lot of attention to detail from the project management. The biggest problem is the neglect of overall responsibility", says information officer Heikki Korhonen from the Finnish Construction Trade Union.
      The message from the construction sites indicates that information does not always travel well between different players, or that instructions are not understood or interpreted correctly.
      "The workers do not always speak Finnish", says senior researcher Veijo Nykänen of VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland. "The very last guy in the long chain of subcontractors does not always know enough about the goals of the project."
     
Korhonen points out, however, that many of the workers are extremely skilled, so long as someone reminds them of the level of occupational safety and quality of work that is expected of them.
      A construction worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, also reveals that the building site management easily tell workers to mind their own business if they come to report a mistake.
      Fears are growing that in a few years’ time, when the construction faults start making their presence felt, somebody will pay a hefty price for the poor flow of information.
      A frustrated Kauko Juutinen summarises the problem: "At the moment, the responsibility for the supervision of the whole construction process does not seem to rest with anybody."


Links:
  City of Espoo Building Control Centre

Helsingin Sanomat