The President, Nigerian Association of Exploration Geophysicists, Akin George, has said that a number of buildings and roads in Nigeria collapse due to faulty soil.
He said this during a one-day technical symposium for geoscientists and engineers in Abuja
According to the NAEG president, if a building or road was located in a zone of structural disturbance, it was likely to collapse.
He then stressed the need for developers and engineers to ensure they worked with geophysicists during construction or road work.
He said, “Apart from the materials which they use, which may be substandard, some of the surveys, which I carried out some time ago, revealed that buildings are being founded on fractured zones – zones of structural disturbance. If your structure is solid and you build your foundation on a place where the soil will fail, definitely it will fall.
“Look at our roads. Roads are failing every day because people are not using the correct method. They are not using geophysicists and all the rest to map out where you have to put concrete and some other materials. It is very important.”
In the same light, the Chairman of the symposium, Prof Ibrahim Garba, who is also a former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, said that the type of soil mattered when building a house.
He stressed for the need for developers and engineers to have good knowledge of the type of soil when handling any building or road project.
Garba said, “There are different kinds of soil. Clay, for example, when it takes water, it expands. When it gets dry, it contracts. If you have a building at the time when the clay has swollen, when the time comes for it to dry, it contracts, and you see the building crash.
“This means it is important to have a good knowledge of the sub-surface – the characteristics of the soil and what is below the soil. This will help you know where to place your foundation on a very competent and stable ground. And I think this will help a lot.”
In a recent Punch report, the former Chairman, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Bwari Branch, Halimat Adediran, had urged Nigerians to stop hiring quacks to avoid increasing collapsed buildings across the country.
