‘Sunsal Apartment’ Appears Again... Rebar Missing in Parking Lot of Namyangju LH Apartment

It was confirmed that the reinforcing steel bars were missing from the columns in the underground parking lot of a public sale apartment in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, which was occupied last April.

On the 29th, Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) announced that after inspecting apartments constructed with flat slab structures following the recent collapse accident in the underground parking lot of an apartment in Geomdan New Town, Incheon, it was confirmed that the shear reinforcing bars were missing from the columns in the underground parking lot of a public sale apartment in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, prompting urgent reinforcement work.

Last May, an underground parking lot of an apartment in Geomdan New Town, Incheon, collapsed due to missing reinforcement bars.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The flat slab structure is one where the slab is directly supported by columns without perimeter beams or walls supporting the ceiling. Therefore, reinforcing steel bars, which act as the 'skeleton' to help the columns bear the load, must be installed. Previously, the omission of reinforcing steel bars was identified as the direct cause of the collapse accident at the Geomdan apartment in Incheon.

However, upon inspecting 16 columns in the underground parking lot of this apartment, it was found that 15 columns were missing reinforcing steel bars.

In particular, this apartment complex is a newlywed hope town complex that began occupancy in April last year and is now in its second year, housing a total of 380 households, including 128 Happy Housing units and 252 public sale housing units. This could have potentially led to a major casualty disaster.

Going forward, LH plans to conduct a detailed safety inspection after consulting with residents and will decide whether to fully reconstruct the underground parking lot.

Meanwhile, the apartment where the problem was identified was ordered by LH and constructed by SM Samhwan Corporation. SM Samhwan Corporation ranked 86th in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's construction capability evaluation last year. Their housing brands include 'Gyeongnam Honorsville' and 'Samhwan Nowville,' and their officetel brand is 'Artnouveau City.'

Both the client LH and the contractor SM Samhwan Corporation claim that the responsibility for the poor construction lies with the other party. LH stated, “The design drawings provided by LH to the contractor clearly indicated all the shear reinforcing bars, and there were no issues,” adding, “It appears that the contractor and the supervising engineer were at fault.” On the other hand, SM Samhwan Corporation is resisting, saying, “We constructed according to the design drawings approved by the client LH.”