Abstract
Despite the relatively well-established concrete practice in the East
African region, there are frequent incidents of construction failures, resulting
into heavy loss of lives and property. The main objective of this paper was to
examine structures that have failed during the construction phase, in East
Africa, since the start of the 21st century; identify and discuss the primary
causes and sources of failures. A classic failure case of building collapse,
herein referred to as BBJ building, has been used to examine the most
important issues related to construction failures. Following the analysis of
reports of technical investigations undertaken on the collapsed structure, it was
found that failures in reinforced concrete (RC) structures during construction,
result from five primary causes of: (1) poor materials and workmanship, (2)
design and construction errors, (3) absence of professional supervision of site-
works, (4) wrong implementation of construction methods, (5) neglect of
design approval procedures. Secondary issues that are complicit to
construction failures are:- attempts to severely minimize construction cost,
neglect of inspection and monitoring by local authorities, influence peddling
by proprietors. It is evident that construction failures can be minimized if the
right procedures are followed in the design, construction and operation of the
structures; a matter that is of interest to stakeholders of the Built Environment.