Description
Formwork is the significant factor that decides the success or failure of a construction project. It is a temporary or permanent mould made of concrete or similar raw materials. Construction projects use formwork for slabs, columns, shells, beams etc., and it can be made with wood, steel, fibreglass or plastics.
Formwork affects your project time, cost, quality, and safety of the work. The study says formwork constitute around 35 to 40 per cent of the total roller compacted concrete (RCC) project budget and almost eighty per cent of the project time.
Having established the importance of formwork in the construction sector, we should not take it casually. Any lapse in planning can cause severe loss of money, human lives, time, etc. If you follow leading news channels and news portals, you can see numerous accidents happening due to faulty formwork. We will share some recent instances in the blog and the causes of formwork failure.
Formwork failure is a major reason for construction accidents. The viewpoint was underscored by Mr Kumar Neeraj Jha while delivering a lecture on the topic ‘Innovative Formwork for Construction Projects’ at a seminar held in Margao, Goa. He said, ‘formwork failure is the reason behind up to 60 per cent of the building accidents.’
Let us go through reasons and a couple of real-life accidents that happened due to formwork failures.
Causes of Formwork Failure
Careless Stripping and Shore Removal
Construction is not a casual business. Improper shore removal and stripping can cause formwork failure. It can lead to deadly accidents, and multi-story buildings are highly prone to such accidents.
We have seen several news coverages about a multi-story building collapse in leading newspapers & channels.
For example
The Hindu published about a building collapse in East Bengaluru on 8th October 2021. It was the third accident in a fortnight due to presumably faulty construction.
Improper Bracing
Bracing in formwork protects building or construction projects against strong winds, storms, etc. Improper bracing in formwork cause accidents with extra concrete weight, storms, and other external factors.
Other Reasons for Formwork Failure
- Unable to manage the order and rate of concrete placement on the horizontal formwork. It leads to disbalance while loading and subsequent formwork failure.
- Excess traffic, high headcounts of labours, hardware, and machines on the project site can cause vibrations and high impact. It also causes formwork failure and can lead to accidents.
- Formwork dependability can be compromised due to out of plumb shore and shaky soils. Unstable land leads to weak settlement and is prone to collapse. We can see several bridges and flyovers collapse due to unstable ground.
Examples of Bridge or Flyover Collpase
Concrete beams of an under-construction flyover collapsed in Vizag (Times of India 6th July 2021), under-construction flyover collapses in Bandra, Mumbai (NDTV 17th September 2021), and many more.
- Small missing details in formwork can cause fatal accidents. It includes improper or missing nailing, inadequate management to forestall pivot of pillar formations, improper corner tying, unable to arrange the locking gates etc.
Formwork should be planned with minute details and quality raw materials. You require a trustworthy supplier for quality formwork. Contact Nav Nirman to get the best formwork at the most competitive prices and expert help for your construction projects. Call now!!!