On the morning of August 15th, several videos began to circulate on social media of the collapse of a road in Zone A of the New Urban Landfills, more precisely in the Hou Kong Roundabout and Avenida Doutor Ma Man Kei. Luckily, none of the shipyard workers were injured and no heavy trucks, concrete mixers, construction machines or private vehicles were in circulation at that time. Otherwise, it would have been a huge tragedy.
According to published news, the pit was three meters deep and around nine meters long, and this large “hole” appeared without the responsible companies and competent authorities having previously been able to detect the hypothesis of this “abnormal and serious” incident.
Zone A is an artificial island, whose land was conquered from the sea. At the moment, it is connected to the terminal of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, where thousands of vehicles from Hong Kong and Macau circulate in chaotic traffic. Let us not forget that, in the future, more than one hundred thousand people will be in this location in an authentic megapolis with a concentration of inhabitants, public and tourist buses, private and motorized vehicles, predicting a lot of confusion and high congestion in road traffic. Many citizens are concerned about this serious collapse, raising doubts about the safety of residential buildings, as well as the sidewalks that will have to withstand the high traffic.
According to the opinions of some local engineers, the pavements in Zone A should be built with multi-layer structures on the final earthwork surface, to be able to resist the efforts coming from traffic and changes in thermal amplitudes and rainfall, to guarantee comfort and safety. of those who live, work and travel there. The crucial issue is the quality of the asphalt on the sidewalks, which directly depends on a process of correct use of construction materials, with a direct influence on the durability and quality of the service presented.
The state of the land conquered from the sea in the Zone A Landfills is related to sufficient time for the soil to settle and the in-depth studies that should have been carried out regarding its knowledge and respective characteristics, such as granulometry, compaction and density, which They are basic, essential and crucial elements when designing the paving and construction of mega-buildings.
It is this information that determines, for example, the type of thickness formed in the base, sub-base and sub-grade layers that make up an asphalt pavement, and which in the future support pressures from traffic.
In Macau, it is normal to see roads and streets that soon after being paved appear full of holes due to negligence, design errors, use of inadequate conservation and maintenance materials, and deficient construction processes. Depending on the opinions of these engineers specializing in the paving of streets and roads, the type of asphalt that should be used, its temperature, transportation to the place where it will be laid, the granulometry and degree of compaction, are essential procedures that favor the appearance of pathological manifestations, resulting from inadequate paving or the use of materials of questionable quality – as almost always happens in Macau.
The competent authorities must take this serious and abnormal incident as an example, carrying out appropriate investigations by an independent entity into the likelihood of further sinking of land in Zone A of the New Landfills. It is necessary to dispel the concerns of future inhabitants, residents and millions of visitors.
Macau Public Service Workers Association(atfpm)
