Geotechnical forensic investigation.

One wall of an 8m deep basement in Nicosia City Centre collapsed; fortunately, this occurred outside of working hours, and nobody was hurt. However, the ground behind the perimeter wall collapsed into the new basement, causing the adjacent property to lose its garage and its foundations, leading to undermining. This put the property at immediate risk of damaging subsidence. Expert forensic investigation to identify the cause for insurance and legal purposes.

And expert study of site investigation reports, designs, construction records, photographs, and witness accounts were undertaken. The case was back-analysed by finite element analysis (FEA) to identify the probable cause of the collapse. Using this methodology, several scenarios could be simulated using ground data until the most likely cause of the collapse was identified.

Insurance and legal teams for all interested parties had reliable, impartial technical information concerning the events leading up to the collapse.

Highlights

• Gathering of all communications, records, reports, designs, etc. concerning the project.
• Interviews with the interested parties.
• Study of the collected information.
• Simulation of construction events by geotechnical FEA.
• Identification of cause and submission of technical report.

Want to read about another forensic investigation that involved the use of FEA? Check out this study.