These pictures were taken from online news media – including Today, MediaCorp and Bernard Wong.
The roof of the linkway across the road was held up with a single pillar at both ends which were anchored to the ground with SQUARE FLANGES (circled in red in the pictures above and below).
It appears to be quite a common construction method of covered linkways in HDB estates island-wide.
Considering the size and length of the linkway, it looks like a flimsy way to anchor and hold up the linkway at both ends.
That the linkway roof has remained largely intact after it was struck and toppled over by the crane while the two supporting pillars at both ends have been decisively ripped off/uprooted from their anchoring flanges (which did not appear to have been bolted down) clearly underscores this point: that this manner of anchoring the bases of the supporting pillars is simply INADEQUATE and UNSOUND, and poses a real SAFETY HAZARD to people (and cars parked in the vicinity).
It is very unlikely that the crane-mounted lorry had been travelling at any appreciable speed given the location was inside a car park. So it would appear that it hadn’t taken much force for the crane-mounted lorry to dislodge and uproot the two supporting pillars when it struck the roof of the covered linkway. Another observation is that in the 2nd and 3rd pictures you can see that there were NO metal railings surrounding the base of the pillars to protect them against a direct impact from vehicles, although this is not an issue or factor in this accident.
Clearly, the present specifications and requirement leave much to be desired and need looking into before a more tragic accident involving people.
One must wonder how did this structure and other similar ones like it all over the island, ever got past the project architect and the professional engineer involved, as well as the relevant government agencies like the HDB (and perhaps the BCA)?
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