Preliminary Assessment of Building Failures in Civil Engineering Construction

Abstract

Over the years, the Civil Engineering practice in Nigeria and Worldwide
is one of the professions among others that have greatly contributed to the
infrastructural development of many nations of the world. Nonetheless,
cases of structural and functional failures of physical infrastructures
essential for human sustenance and economic development; particularly,
cases dealing with building collapses are obviously the harbinger of
serious environmental challenges which are critical issues in Nigeria at
present. Generally, there are many factors that are responsible for building
collapses and structural failures in Civil Engineering Construction in
Nigeria and other developing nations. Moreover, the review of this paper
unfolds the major causes of building collapse; two of which are principally
the use of substandard building materials (SBM) and poor workmanship
(PW) in the construction phase of engineering in Nigeria. In order to
ascertain this fact, questionnaire survey method with a total of thirty-two
(32) questionnaires were distributed but twenty-nine (29) questionnaires
were retrieved from the respondents at the proposed construction site.
The questionnaire consists of two sections which are namely: sections A &
B. Section A is the demographic characteristics of respondents which
comprises: sex, age, marital status, educational qualification and work
experience was adopted to collect useful data which was descriptively
analyzed using simple statistical tools such as: tables and percentages.
Besides, the already analyzed historical data revealing the causes of
building failures in Nigeria (1974- 2011) was used to justify the facts that
SBM and PW are the dominant indicators of building failures.
Interestingly, a total of thirty-two (32) questionnaires were distributed but
twenty-nine (29) questionnaires were retrieved from the respondents at the
proposed construction site. The questionnaire consists of two sections.
Section A is the demographic characteristics of respondents and it
comprises: sex, age, marital status, educational qualification and work
experience. Section B deals with relevant research questions. The data
generated from section A were analyzed via simple statistical tools viz:
tables and percentages to identify and establish the principal factors that
may likely be responsible for the grave effect of using low quality or
substandard building materials and poor workmanship at any stage of
work in Civil Engineering Construction. The results obtained in
correlation with the analyses of the historical data which reveals the causes
of building collapse between the period of the year (1974-2011) confirmed
that the use of substandard building materials (SBM) and poor
workmanship (PW) contribute over fifty percent (50%) to building collapse
at many construction sites in Nigeria. In conclusion, possible measures that
will help to preclude the detrimental effect due to the usage of substandard
building materials and poor workmanship to lives and properties in
Nigeria at large were recommended.