Opal Tower, Sydney

[Greynomad]

Amazing that a 4-month-old building is crumbling!
Just on the news that the CEO of the company which certified it as conforming to building standards has previous form.
Failure to adhere to building standards.
He was ‘reprimanded’ & fined $1100.
A slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce.

[Shirley]

Maybe it's built on an area where the old rubbish tips use to be for many years, everything as well as household garbage use to be dumped at Homebush Bay, there were several tip areas.

[Greynomad]

In which case the foundations needed to be significantly deeper & stronger to pass certification.
Who checked?
Still comes back to the company which signed off the construction as safe.
... and if the builders couldn’t find bedrock on which to set the foundations, the building should never have been built on that land.
Still a wet lettuce...

[Peter and Sandra]

There were also all sorts of other industries in the area, brickworks etc so as has been said much of the ground has been disturbed, originally none of it was available for highrise because of that so what has changed.

[Busman]

lots of rubber on the brickworks road, was the longest straight bit in west Sydney for many years so friday and saturday nights were drag nights for the local hoons (read william) Bloody idiots. Hmmm, must be getting old ?

[Shirley]

The brickworks where right out on the end of Underwood Road, it use to be the end then in I think early sixties the road was extended right out into Homebush Bay & the drag strip in the newly formed industrial area became a reality for hoons to meet, I grew up in the area learnt to swim in Powell Creek before it became absolutely polluted, the high tides use to cover the swamp as we called it. The activities that took place & the rubbish dumped into the swamp & Parramatta river back in those days would never be allowed today. The aboriginals from La Perouse use to come & cut the forks out of the mangrove trees to make boomerangs or so we were told at the time. It was a great area to grow up, we road our bikes, played & scavenged all the dump sites built some great forts as we called them & built some enormous bonfires on the mud flats over the years. :

One night in the early days of the extended road, we were parked right over in the long grass watching the drags & a police car arrived of course there was no racing when they arrived always had a lookout for them, they drove along with a spotlight when they saw us drove over, told us that they would have us up for aiding & abetting & to get out of the area, think I would of been about sixteen, I met Bruce when I was fifteen & he owned a Porsche there were not many in Australia back then, wish we still owned it.

[Riverlander]

I have been wondering where this may end up. Have people purchased units in this complex? If so it could end up in a real fight for compensation as even if the complex is deemed safe it has to devalue the unit prices a bit. Surly they would know the type of soil under it and built accordingly. I had to have a soil test just to put a small extension on the back of an existing dwelling. Will keep an eye on the outcome and I bet there is a lot of covering one's backside with " Don't look at me "
Cheers John

[T1 Terry]

I think there might have been issues with the concrete used in some of the sections judging by the pictures shown a TV. I remember a few yrs back, a whole building complex in the Wollongong area stopped construction at the foundations stage when a worker was suspect about the concrete coming away with the frame work. He ignored the bosses reassurances and asked the union to step in and have concrete samples analysed. Turned out the concrete was sub spec to the point it was barely suitable for a footpath. The whole lot had to be dug up again and that was the end of that construction because it went broke.

T1 Terry

[Dot]

Could also be crap steel from good ol china

[2foot6]

What,crap steel from China,Naah don't believe that .... .............Peter.