Following the appearance of sink holes in Seoul’s Jamsil district in June, the area saw another safety loophole as certain parts of the ground in the residential area gave way, leaving five buildings tilting to one side, according to the Songpa-gu Office Tuesday.
The district official said the construction of the Subway Line No. 9, which is 30 meters away from the residential area, may have contributed to the tilting of the buildings while the exact cause is yet to be investigated.
According to experts, the buildings tilted as the ground underneath fell by 20-30 centimeters. As a result of the tilting, one of the affected buildings is undergoing reinforcement.
But in its statement, the Seoul city government refuted that the leaning of the buildings was in any way related to the construction near the site. It said it had fully checked the stability of the ground before the construction.
The builder involved also denied the correlation between its construction and the tilting.
The residents said the buildings began to tilt in December last year.
One of the residents said that he had discovered the cracks on the wall and felt headaches as the building steadily lost its balance.
In recent months, sink holes began to appear in the region and the Seokchon Lake’s water level also fell, sparking safety concerns. Critics claimed that the massive construction project by Lotte nearby might have caused such phenomena, but the Seoul city earlier said Lotte’s construction was not the cause.
The government said it plans to check the ground stability underneath the buildings that had tilted to one side.
By Kim Da-sol, Intern reporter (dasolkim@heraldcorp.com)
