Contractor insists broken concrete stakes met quality standards

The broken stakes pre-constructed for the Environment Sanitation Project in Ho Chi Minh City

Several cracked and broken concrete piles prepared for an environment project in Ho Chi Minh City that were stored on site waiting for use had met the required quality criteria, a contractor’s representative said Friday.

All piles of the package were made by the contractor but had passed the approval by the independent assessment unit Sino Pacific Co., he said.

He said the piles, valued at VND60 million each (US$3,372), had broken because the contractor had piled them improperly without any cushioning in between.

The vibrations when installing other stakes at the site had also contributed to breaking the piled stakes, he said, adding that the contractor was at fault for that.

Thong also said CSCEC was working with the relevant subcontractor to identify responsibility for the damages.

A source said consultant CDM Company of the US next week will assign assessors to the stake producing facility in Long An to work with Sino Pacific Company on this issue.

Earlier, Thanh Nien found several stakes piled on the banks of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal were badly broken.

Reported by Dinh Muoi