According to a statement in Emirates Today's lead story, there are fixed working times for construction companies.
"The working hours of construction companies are from 6am to 8pm."
That's news to me!
None other than the head of the engineering supervision section of the Building Department of Dubai Municipality is the source. Fawzi Mohammed Al Shahi is the gentleman in question, and if anyone knows the rules it would be him.
He goes on: "Any company that wants to work for more than this has to get permission from our section. In this case, we study the request and see if is going to disturb the residents. If it doesn't, then we grant them permission for extra hours."
If there is a complaint, inspectors are sent to measure the noise levels. The story says that levels of noise should not rise above 55 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night, as per international standards. It goes on to say that these figures are quieter than a normal conversation between two people, which is said to generally hit levels between 60 and 70 decibels.
Hmmmmm.
Is there any construction site in Dubai that doesn't work after 8pm? Driving around in the evening I see the vast majority of sites still working well after 8pm. I'm surrounded by them too, and I can't think of more than one or two that aren't going through the night. Did they all apply for and receive permission?
I'll add it to my examples of laws not being enforced.
Emirates Today story
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Another construction site death.
What a bad few days this has been for construction workers. The roof collapse, the tower fire, now scaffolding collapse.
One worker dead and two seriously injured, the reports say, when scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. This was on a thirteen storey building in Al Nahda, behind Sahara Centre.
Photo. Asghar Khan/Gulf News
There are suggestions that vibrations from digging for cable-laying nearby might have been the cause. That's another thing for the authorities to investigate.
There's an obvious need for safety standards to be imposed on construction sites as a matter of extreme urgency. The two injured workers are said to have escaped death because they had their safety belts on.
I suppose there are two positives to have come out of the recent tragedies. One is the spotlight that's been focused on safety issues. Hopefully this will mean less accidents in the future.
The other is that the companies involved have been quick to offer compensation to the families of the victims and to injured workers. The company involved in this latest incident say they will cover the medical bills, no wages of workers undergoing medical treatment will be cut and the dead worker's family will be compensated. He was only 25.
Gulf News story: Scaffolding collapse kills worker.
One worker dead and two seriously injured, the reports say, when scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. This was on a thirteen storey building in Al Nahda, behind Sahara Centre.
Photo. Asghar Khan/Gulf News
There are suggestions that vibrations from digging for cable-laying nearby might have been the cause. That's another thing for the authorities to investigate.
There's an obvious need for safety standards to be imposed on construction sites as a matter of extreme urgency. The two injured workers are said to have escaped death because they had their safety belts on.
I suppose there are two positives to have come out of the recent tragedies. One is the spotlight that's been focused on safety issues. Hopefully this will mean less accidents in the future.
The other is that the companies involved have been quick to offer compensation to the families of the victims and to injured workers. The company involved in this latest incident say they will cover the medical bills, no wages of workers undergoing medical treatment will be cut and the dead worker's family will be compensated. He was only 25.
Gulf News story: Scaffolding collapse kills worker.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Tower fire update
There's better news today about the fire in the inaptly named Fortune Tower.
They now say that two workers died as a result of the fire, not four as earlier reported. And less were injured than the earlier reports, the figure is now thirty-seven.
Still too much death and injury, but better than the original figures.
It's also been announced by the Fortune Investment Group that they will pay compensation to the families of the dead men and to injured workers. That's over and above any legal insurance claims and any compensation that may be paid by the contractors.
They now say that two workers died as a result of the fire, not four as earlier reported. And less were injured than the earlier reports, the figure is now thirty-seven.
Still too much death and injury, but better than the original figures.
It's also been announced by the Fortune Investment Group that they will pay compensation to the families of the dead men and to injured workers. That's over and above any legal insurance claims and any compensation that may be paid by the contractors.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Marching forward to the past.
Big news on Page 3 of Emirates Today this morning:
"In a very innovative solution to the rising demand for hotel accommodation, Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) has chartered two cruise liners. It is expected to fill the void in the industry because of forthcoming events and exhibitions in the capital.
The cruise liners will be berthed in the UAE capital as floating hotels from today until the end of February.
Innovative?
Back in 1977, when I first arrived in Dubai, a ship was moored on the Creek on Deira-side that was used for exactly the same reason. There was another in Sharjah too.
Here's my photo taken in 1977...
"In a very innovative solution to the rising demand for hotel accommodation, Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) has chartered two cruise liners. It is expected to fill the void in the industry because of forthcoming events and exhibitions in the capital.
The cruise liners will be berthed in the UAE capital as floating hotels from today until the end of February.
Innovative?
Back in 1977, when I first arrived in Dubai, a ship was moored on the Creek on Deira-side that was used for exactly the same reason. There was another in Sharjah too.
Here's my photo taken in 1977...
Friday, January 19, 2007
Reports of four dead in tower fire.
Sadly the fire at Jumeirah Lake Towers yesterday is reported to have cost four workers their lives.
Photo. David Renkwitz. Gulf News.
Many more were hospitalised but thankfully the biggest problems seem to be smoke inhalation and minor burns and all are expected to recover quickly.
The emergency services seem to have done an excellent job, so congratulations to everyone involved. I have enormous respect for the emergency services, especially firefighters. I've said in my posts about the Aussie bushfires that the word 'hero' has been overused to the point of it being meaningless, but firefighters to me are true heroes. They run towards the thing that the rest of us are running away from in terror.
Apart from the deaths and injuries there were some other worrying aspects about the emergency that became apparent.
Safety standards
The first is site safety and safety training for employees. There seem to be several things that need to be looked at as a matter of urgency, not only at this site but at all others, indicated by this report:
Speaking from Dubai Hospital where he was being treated for smoke inhalation, Moataz Khalil, the general supervisor at the site said the first couple of floors were blocked.
"There was a special lift but the workers could not access it," he said.
He said when he rushed in with Civil Defence officers, the place was engulfed in smoke and there was only darkness. "The staircase from the beginning of the 15th floor was locked and I had to unlock all the doors," he said.
He said they ran up through the fire escape staircase and as they reached the 15th floor, one Civil Defence officer started helping the workers stuck on the higher floors.
"The workers were in a very shaky state. The very brave Civil Defence worker and I tried our best to get everyone out," he said.
"Some of the workers escaped the fire and smoke hanging onto wires outside the building and others were taken by the Civil Defence worker and me to the roof," he said.
Photo. David Renkwitz. Gulf News.
Many more were hospitalised but thankfully the biggest problems seem to be smoke inhalation and minor burns and all are expected to recover quickly.
The emergency services seem to have done an excellent job, so congratulations to everyone involved. I have enormous respect for the emergency services, especially firefighters. I've said in my posts about the Aussie bushfires that the word 'hero' has been overused to the point of it being meaningless, but firefighters to me are true heroes. They run towards the thing that the rest of us are running away from in terror.
Apart from the deaths and injuries there were some other worrying aspects about the emergency that became apparent.
Safety standards
The first is site safety and safety training for employees. There seem to be several things that need to be looked at as a matter of urgency, not only at this site but at all others, indicated by this report:
Speaking from Dubai Hospital where he was being treated for smoke inhalation, Moataz Khalil, the general supervisor at the site said the first couple of floors were blocked.
"There was a special lift but the workers could not access it," he said.
He said when he rushed in with Civil Defence officers, the place was engulfed in smoke and there was only darkness. "The staircase from the beginning of the 15th floor was locked and I had to unlock all the doors," he said.
He said they ran up through the fire escape staircase and as they reached the 15th floor, one Civil Defence officer started helping the workers stuck on the higher floors.
"The workers were in a very shaky state. The very brave Civil Defence worker and I tried our best to get everyone out," he said.
"Some of the workers escaped the fire and smoke hanging onto wires outside the building and others were taken by the Civil Defence worker and me to the roof," he said.
Lifts not accessible, doors locked, workers not trained where to go, how to escape the fire? Surely that shouldn't be acceptable.
Emergency service locations
The other thing is the emergency services vehicles having to fight the traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road to try to get to the site.
Jumeirah Lake Towers is in the midst of 'New Dubai', with its hundreds of towers, thousands of villas, plus malls, hotels and so on. Surely long ago we should have had fire, police, ambulance stationed in the area. A public hospital too.
They have a hard enough job to do and people's lives depend on their rapid response. To give them the added obstacle of fighting traffic on the busiest road in Dubai to get to the scene is asking too much.
The stories are in Gulf News: Tower fire traps workers.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Major fire at construction site
Not a good week for the labourers of Dubai.
Yesterday we had reports of a roof collapse which caused one death and several injuries, on a construction site in Academic City.
This afternoon there was a fire towards the top of a building under construction at Jumeirah Lake Towers. There are reports of one worker falling to his death, others rescued from the roof by helicopter. The Gulf News story has a photo which I'm afraid seems to show the worker falling.
I just went to check and the fire is out. Emergency services, police, fire, ambulances, are there in big numbers and a helicopter is still buzzing about.
The yellow fire trucks and ambulances in big numbers.
You can see from the photo below that the building has a flat roof so I guess that many workers would have gone there to wait for the helicopters.
There are burn marks, from smoke I imagine, on the top three floors on the far right of the photo.
Gulf News' story is at Rescue drama after building fire.
The previous day's bad news is at Worker dies as roof collapses.
Yesterday we had reports of a roof collapse which caused one death and several injuries, on a construction site in Academic City.
This afternoon there was a fire towards the top of a building under construction at Jumeirah Lake Towers. There are reports of one worker falling to his death, others rescued from the roof by helicopter. The Gulf News story has a photo which I'm afraid seems to show the worker falling.
I just went to check and the fire is out. Emergency services, police, fire, ambulances, are there in big numbers and a helicopter is still buzzing about.
The yellow fire trucks and ambulances in big numbers.
You can see from the photo below that the building has a flat roof so I guess that many workers would have gone there to wait for the helicopters.
There are burn marks, from smoke I imagine, on the top three floors on the far right of the photo.
Gulf News' story is at Rescue drama after building fire.
The previous day's bad news is at Worker dies as roof collapses.
What is going on?
Just a PS to my post, below, about the road system planning stuff-up at Dubai Marina.
This wasn't a slight misjudgement on the part of the road 'planners' if what they're up to now is any indication. There's some major work going on, ripping up the whole road...
They had a Master Plan of the development, on which they presumably designed the road system. They built the roads a year ago. How could they possibly have got it so wrong?
This wasn't a slight misjudgement on the part of the road 'planners' if what they're up to now is any indication. There's some major work going on, ripping up the whole road...
They had a Master Plan of the development, on which they presumably designed the road system. They built the roads a year ago. How could they possibly have got it so wrong?
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