A structural engineer who inspected the site of Sunday’s building collapse at Avenor in Accra has raised serious concerns about the quality of concrete used in the construction, suggesting it may have fallen significantly below accepted engineering standards.
Emmanuel Aidoo, a Professional Engineer with the Ghana Institution of Engineering specialising in Structural Engineering, said an initial visual assessment of the debris revealed clear signs of substandard concrete.
“Visually, from the concrete, what I’m seeing is that you can clearly see that the concrete is not in the best condition,” he told journalists.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Aidoo explained that structural concrete used in multi-storey buildings is generally expected to achieve a compressive strength of at least 25 Newtons per square millimetre. Based on his observations, he doubts the collapsed structure would meet that requirement.
“I don’t think it will get to that particular value,” he stated.
Aidoo described the structure as a four-storey building consisting of a ground floor and three additional floors, topped with a concealed roof. He stressed that buildings of such scale require proper engineering design and supervision.
“This is not a single-storey building — your house or something. This is a four-storey building, so the concrete, the steel, everything has to be designed. These structures have to be engineered. You can’t just use your mind to construct such buildings. It’ll come back and hunt you,” he said.
According to him, construction of the building is believed to have started around 2020 or 2021, making it less than six years old at the time of its collapse.
“For it to just come down, it’s an issue,” Aidoo noted.
He cautioned that his assessment remains preliminary, adding that comprehensive investigations, including laboratory testing of concrete samples and structural analysis, are required before definitive conclusions can be reached.
His comments come after fellow engineer Prince Kas-Avotri, also of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, disclosed that the building was allegedly constructed without a permit from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA). If confirmed, the absence of a permit would indicate that no approved architectural or engineering plans guided the project.
The building collapsed in the early hours of Sunday, June 7, killing two people and leaving two others hospitalised.
The incident is the second building collapse recorded in Accra within a week. On June 3, a similar collapse at Adenta New Site claimed one life, renewing concerns about building safety standards and regulatory enforcement in the capital.
