‘Collapse of retaining walls at six construction sites no cause for panic’

AMMAN – Engineers and municipality officials on Sunday urged the public not to panic over news of six retaining walls collapsing at construction sites in the capital.

Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) Spokesperson Izz Eddein Shammout called on media outlets not to describe the collapses as a “phenomenon”.  

“When you encounter six incidents that are not serious out of 2,000 construction projects in Amman this year, you cannot call it a phenomenon,” Shammout told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The GAM official said Amman has four kinds of soil and three of them absorb rainfall. 

“In winter, some contractors start implementing their building projects when there is no rain. Later, when rain falls, the soil absorbs water and places pressures on the retaining walls around the construction site, causing cracks or collapses,” he explained. 

“At the same time, we cannot ban people from building during winter, which has been marked by heavy rainfall this season.”

The municipality official said it is permitted to dig a basement to use for services, not for commercial or residential purposes, but the drilling could also lead to cracks.

“When workers start digging near an old building, its foundations are exposed leading to collapses and fissures. The contractor or the owner pledges to compensate neighbours if the construction work damages their building,” Shammout explained. 

Sari Zuaiter, a member of the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) council and the head of civil engineering division at the syndicate, said GAM must monitor construction sites to ensure that the work is in accordance with regulations. 

Contractors submit blueprints and work plans that meet all the conditions but do not implement them, Zuaiter said, stressing that the JEA cannot monitor construction work day-to-day all around Amman.

He noted that some projects start before the plans are approved, citing the Abdullah Ghosheh Street incident as an example. 

Drilling at the construction site of a commercial complex caused a crack in the vital Amman street, according to GAM, which sent an official letter to the owner of the site, including engineering reports on the method and duration needed to fix the fissure.

Raed Haddadin, director of the building control department at GAM, said in previous remarks that road closures are around 150 metres long, with the damage estimated to extend for around 80 metres.

Shammout noted that a committee comprising JEA and GAM representatives visits locations that witness similar incidents, and submits recommendations to the governor. 

But Zuaiter said the committee is sometimes unable to cover all ongoing projects or “breaches happen” within it. 

Meanwhile, Abdullah Ghosheh Street is expected to be fully open to traffic by the end of this week, Shammout said.