SHODDY SCAFFOLDING may have been the cause of Tuesday’s freak accident at a construction site at the new Larnaca airport building, when three workers were injured after a roof collapsed under their feet.
The three men, identified as being Filipino nationals, were laying a concrete slab on top of the ceiling of the second floor of the building.
Without warning, the 5m x 40m ceiling buckled, sending them crashing down to the floor below.
Thankfully none of the three was seriously injured. Two of the men suffered fractures and have been kept for treatment at Larnaca hospital; the third has been discharged.
Police brought in sniffer dogs to make sure that no one had been trapped under the debris. All other workers at the site have been accounted for.
“It was a miracle we did not mourn any victims,” said Fire Chief Andreas Nicolaou yesterday.
The Fire Department were the first to arrive on the scene.
The scene of the accident was kept strictly off limits to the media, and Bouygues, the French contractors, have yet to release a statement.
Hermes Airports took over administration of Paphos and Larnaca airports in May 2006 in a development contract worth about 622 million euros.
Hermes is an international consortium comprising French construction firm Bouygues Batiment, a unit of conglomerate Bouygues, Egis Projects SA, Iacovou Brothers, Charilaos Apostolides and Ireland’s AerRianta International.
The 25-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract gave administration control and reconstruction of the two airports to the private sector in one of the largest outsourcing contracts undertaken by Cyprus.
Cypriot tycoon Nicos Shacolas, President of Hermes Airports, said yesterday that the French contractors were carrying out their own investigation into the accident, parallel to a probe launched by the Larnaca Work Inspection Department.
“By tomorrow [today] at the latest we should have some announcements from the contractors,” he said.
And he expressed “grief” over the incident.
According to Shacolas, Bouygues is a “very capable and experienced company…one of the largest and most reliable in the business around the world, and we have full confidence in them and their work.
“Right now we don’t know what exactly caused the roof to collapse. It may have something to do with the casting,” added Shacolas.
Human error could not be ruled out, he said.
He said it was the contractor’s responsibility to hire workers.
“Bouygues has a reputation for carefully selecting and training all its employees.”
In addition, two organisations were technically monitoring all construction work,” said Shacolas.
Later in the day, Hermes itself released a statement, expressing “regret that three workers were injured….”
It added: “Hermes gives assurances that, despite this unfortunate event, works are progressing normally and that the project will be delivered within the pre-agreed specifications and on schedule.”
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