2 dead, 8 injured in MRT worksite accident

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The scaffolding at the Downtown Line Bugis Station construction site has collapsed on Wednesday morning that left two workers from China killed and eight others injured who were working on top of the structure and were sent to close by Raffles Hospital before rescuers arrived. This construction site was near Rochor Road/ Victoria Street junction. They had small injuries and five of them have been discharged.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has ordered to stop all construction work and issued findings of preliminary investigations into the Downtown Line’s Bugis MRT worksite accident, while the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has cancelled the construction permit for the site while investigations were underway. 
MOM said the workers were bucketing wet concrete into a mould that was believed to be for the roof of a link way joining the new station to the existing Bugis station when they were working on a four-meter high structure collapsed.
Channel NewsAsia spoke to engineering experts who explained how the scaffolding could have collapsed. 
While pouring cement was a routine process in construction, workers still need to be careful and understand the hazards, explained by the experts. One of them said the material of the scaffolding must be carefully selected and erected by the competent workers and in the design of the scaffolding, it was essential to consider how much load each leg could hold up. 
Mr. Tan said the incident is also not on the same scale as the 2004 Nicoll Highway incident, where a retaining wall at the Circle Line MRT worksite gave way, claiming four lives.  He said, “It’s a serious accident but it is localised where the formwork gave way when they were constructing the roof slab. This is not a complex construction work. What we’ve done essentially is to revoke the work permit for the localised work in this area. The rest of the site remains safe.”