The collapse?of the Shalom apartment building at Arch Cot Terrace, Brittons Cross Road, St Michael, four years ago, which killed a family of five, was not an act of God but an act of man, said Canadian geologist Professor Hans Machel.
And he told the Coroner’s Court yesterday that two parties were responsible for the collapse – those who had the apartment complex built on the site and those who demolished the cave.
Machel, who is a specialist in earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta, Canada, has conducted several studies into caves and the limestone formation in Barbados.
In dramatic testimony, in which he used a styrofoam structure depicting the apartment and demonstrated with a hammer how it collapsed, Machel maintained that the vibrations caused by construction equipment being used on the land behind the apartment had “brought down this cave”.
The professor gave the court a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation on the Arch Cot area and made several references to the study conducted by local geologists and engineers on the Arch Cot and surrounding areas. He explained that the apartment building should never have been built on the cave because the large cave entrance was known of for generations.
He added that the apartments were built very close to the cliff face, where the rocks were 125 000 years old, and there were two water courses near to the cave which channelled rainwater inside the cave.
In addition, Machel pointed out that the cave had a very thin roof, with the largest distance between the top and bottom being only 18 inches thick. The roof, he stated, was even more narrow on the right side of the apartment.
He said there were three joints or large cracks in the rock, with joint No. 3 extending “all the way from the top right down to the foundation”.
Machel told the court that the rock in the cave was crumbling and there were several dark areas that showed where water had penetrated the rock.
However, he maintained that the collapse of the cave had not occurred without warning.
“There were multiple warnings, and they were ignored,” he said, pointing to reports of residents feeling vibrations when the construction work was being undertaken, that ceramic tiles were popping off floors and that cracks had opened in some of the houses.
He charged that when holes were created by the construction during excavation the building team should have abandoned the site and “just walked away”.
