“We understand that Dominican politicians, especially the presidents and ministers, are enemies of stormwater drainage because they have all rejected it, and we are all paying the consequences of not having a good drainage system.” Aníbal Rincón.
SANTO DOMINGO.- Engineers Reginald García and Anibal Rincón maintain that the failure that occurred in the overpass on 27 de Febrero Avenue, part of whose slabs collapsed last Saturday the 18th causing the death of 9 people, was due to the drainage and not to a structural failure, as several experts have stated so far.
"It's not a structural failure, it's the drainage, and the problem that worries me is the number of deaths. But look what I'm trying to say, the underpass at 27th and Tiradentes is the same system and it hasn't failed, because it's the drainage," said García, who is a structural engineer and the project's designer.
He said that the report presented by the Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (CODIA) in 1999, which determined that the aforementioned overpass "had structural failures", was wrong, "and the authorities of that time knew that.".
"It's a prefabricated system; one part is poured (the footing) and the other is made with a slab. That's fine, but the water pressure ruined it," Reginald García explained.
Engineer Garcia says he is not afraid to go through the tunnel, after explaining that the water got between the wall and the rock, pressing until it collapsed, because "the structure was not designed for such a large load.".
He believed that with proper maintenance over the years, the potential collapse could have been detected. "Furthermore, I think that if they had installed anchors like they did in the first phase, the structure would have been in better condition.".
“That structure was designed to withstand a certain percentage of soil, a certain percentage of rock, and water pressure, but not the water pressure that was present there. It wasn't designed for that,” the engineer said in an interview with Roberto Cavada on the Telenoticias flagship newscast, channel 11.
He emphasized that the problem that caused the collapse and subsequent tragedy was due to the lack of a drainage system, which is lacking in parts of Greater Santo Domingo. He insisted that the construction site is on solid rock, so the wall that collapsed on Saturday was not a retaining wall. "The water got between the wall and the rock," he said
“In Miraflores (a nearby area) there is a ravine that no one has studied, they opened it up and there was a gush of water that the pipe reached the wall in front of the Lina, in the northern part and the walls failed,” he said, referring to the 1999 crisis.
“The solution is to install a drainage system,” García stated.
He emphasized that he has seen many people talking about the issue without knowing, using terms that are not appropriate and that have nothing to do with the collapsed structure.
“That’s not a retaining wall, that’s an environmental wall,” he said in the conversation.
He compared it to the design of the pedestrian bridge on Núñez de Cáceres Avenue, describing that it does have a metal structure, that it is made of retaining walls and that it is more resistant due to its clay soil, which does not affect water pressure, nor the pressure of vehicular traffic.
However, it states that the structure that collapsed last Saturday was an “over”, referring to a “push over”, a structural analysis method used to evaluate the behavior and resistance capacity of a building to lateral loads, such as earthquakes.
“I designed it as an overhang, and that’s how the construction company defined it,” the expert noted.
Anibal Rincón
Engineer Anibal Rincón, a member of CODIA, explained that at the time of construction it was recommended that the current tunnel of Avenida 27 de Febrero with Máximo Gómez be built in a north-south direction, to facilitate drainage towards the sea, but that the current authorities at that time did not heed the advice.
“It was proposed at that time that the tunnels should be north-south, because it facilitated drainage towards the sea, but the authorities at the time opted for the east-west solution, and what happened with that decision is that the 27 de Febrero is a dam for the drainage waters,” the expert stated.
He asserted that the main problem lies in the weakness of the storm drainage system and blamed the country's politicians for not being interested in solving this problem.
“We understand that Dominican politicians, especially presidents and ministers, are enemies of stormwater drainage, because they have all rejected drainage systems, and we are all paying the consequences of not having a good drainage system.”.
Following the heavy rain event that occurred last Saturday, November 18, the engineer reiterated that on this occasion the stormwater drainage system on 27 de Febrero Avenue contributed to the collapse of the aforementioned retaining wall at any moment.
Source: Roberto Cavada.
