FROM THE millions spent on renovating Nicosia’s Municipal Theatre, not a single cent went toward beefing up the structure of its wobbly roof, which caved in last summer, it emerged yesterday.
The renovation of the theatre cost near €6 million and lasted two and half years before the roof collapsed on an empty auditorium on June 11, 2008 – just one night before it was booked for a schoolchildren’s play. The theatre has 1,200 seats, most of which would have been filled by children, families and teachers.
An experts report made various references to structural deficiencies but there was no mention that the roof had not been touched during the renovations.
Whenever a building is to be renovated, it is standard practice to carry out a new structural study because the modifications impact its configuration. In the case of the municipal theatre, this was not done.
Now, informed sources tell the Mail that the causes of the accident – which might have proved fatal – can be traced back to a litany of lapses stretching back several years and involving a number of municipal councils.
The Municipal Theatre was shut down initially after plaster was seen peeling off the ceiling.
Then Nicosia mayor Lellos Demetriades decided to shut down the building and proceed with renovations.
But according to municipal sources, Nicosia municipality did not hire an expert to carry out a structural integrity assessment of the roof – something which is normally standard practice whenever a structure is about to undergo renovations.
The same omission was repeated during the mayorship of Michalakis Zampelas, Demetriades’ successor. Under Zampelas’ watch, the municipality assigned the overall architectural study to the company of the late Pefkios Georgiades, who was Education Minister at the time (his daughter was running the company). The actual renovation works were undertaken by the A.Panayides company.
What’s more, no tenders were invited for the contract for the architectural study, which was assigned directly to Georgiades’ company. The justification – some say flimsy – cited for bending the rules in this way was that Georgiades’ firm had been involved in the project during the 1960s, when the municipal theatre was first opened, so it made sense to award the new study to the same company.
Incidentally, the quantity surveyor then hired for the renovation works was a relative of Zampelas, raising questions of conflict of interest, the sources said.
“So in a nutshell, they didn’t address the root of the problem which was the darn roof,” the source said.
“When plaster starts coming off, then normally the alarm should go off. Basically no money was spent on fixing the roof, which was the reason why the theatre was closed in the first place. Instead, they spent the money on things like state-of-the-art equipment, expensive seats for the audience and marble for the walls.”
Speaking to the Mail yesterday, Nicosia mayor Eleni Mavrou confirmed what the sources said.
“To my knowledge, no structural work was done on the roof during the renovations. The beams, for example, were not changed. The only thing that was replaced was the false ceiling.”
She did not wish to comment when asked who might be responsible for this oversight.
“What I can say is that fixing the roof would have cost peanuts compared to the total cost of renovations—say €350,000 compared to the €6 million. Why was this not done? I don’t know,” said Mavrou.
According to a fact-finding report after the incident, design flaws were behind the collapse of the roof. The report said the steel substructure of the roof was on the verge of giving way, and noted that even a small addition of weight – such as a fall of snow -would have caused it to cave in.
“The steel structure left no margin of safety, that is, no margin for the difference between the strain and resistance. This may be considered as the main cause for the collapse,” the report said, without apportioning responsibility for the incident.
At the critical moment, some of the suspenders failed, causing one of the metal trusses to give way and setting off a chain reaction that brought the entire roof down.
Moreover, the configuration of the original roof “suffered from serious deficiencies” and deviated from “accepted norms of craftsmanship which are applied in structures of a similar nature.”
The report added: “Neither the coordinating architect’s office, nor the municipal authority [Nicosia municipality, the contractor] demanded detailed structural calculations from the civil engineers…concerning the loads acting on the roof in order to ascertain the adequacy of the structure’s components according to the relevant regulations.”
In short, the structure, as it was initially designed and built, conformed to strain requirements, but only barelyIndependent experts in the field, with whom the Mail spoke earlier, are convinced that human error is to blame, and have all but ruled out wear and tear.
Meanwhile Nicosia municipality said yesterday it is planning to take legal action against “anyone who may be considered responsible” for the roof collapse.
Mavrou said through the civil lawsuits, the municipality would be seeking damages for the incident.
She declined to say whether the municipality had specific individuals in mind. The mayor did offer, however, that the lawsuits would be based on the findings of the fact-finding probe.
The fact that Nicosia municipality itself is reprimanded in the same report “is not a problem,” Mavrou told the Mail. “We feel the municipality is blameless. In any case, all these things will be heard in court, and the court will decide,” she added.
It is thought the lawsuits will be directed at architects and civil engineers involved with the renovation project, and whom the municipality considers to be accountable.
“We are moving forward with the process of the lawsuits. We’ve already assigned a civil engineer the task of assessing the cost of the repair works [for the roof], and based on this assessment we shall be determining the extent of the damages for which we shall be suing.”
