Architects look into risks of work next to party walls

The limited space available for building and the soaring prices of property are inducing a growing number of landowners to excavate their land in order to win extra floors or parking space.

Resources and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit told architects at an afternoon seminar yesterday that excavating next to party walls involved serious risks, as experience had shown.

Two women, a Maltese and a Russian, had died last June after part of a block of flats in St Paul's Bay collapsed. A digger had been excavating a trench next to the outer wall of flats on an adjacent plot when the building collapsed.

"The kind of rock being dug out from a site, the digging machinery being used and the state of the surrounding buildings all need to be taken into consideration," the minister said.

"We need to see whether laws relating to the demolition of buildings and excavation need to be updated and placed under the same chapter," Mr Zammit, an architect by profession, said.

Mr Zammit said the relevance of old regulations governing demolition and excavation was also being questioned. One such rule provides for a distance of 76 centimetres between the dividing walls of surrounding buildings. "Though this rule served as a precaution in the past, the distance is not a solution in itself and has to be interpreted with caution, especially when a number of storeys are excavated below street level," Mr Zammit said.

In a situation where architects carried great responsibilities, a culture where inhabitants of surrounding properties are consulted before a property is demolished or excavated should be introduced, the minister said.

While architects are held responsible for the advice they give, contractors should be held responsible as well, he added.

Though planning needs have changed and highly efficient digging machinery is available, the limitations of Maltese limestone remain the same.

There were existing ambiguities in regulations that remained unchanged since they were drafted in the 19th century, Anthony Cassar, of the Building Industry Consultative Council, said. The rules in the Civil Code not only left room for varied interpretations when it came to boundary walls and management of space but also on who was responsible for the safety of a building.

"To what extent are the architect and the building contractor responsible if a building is defective or if it collapses? Is the architect alone accountable or is the contractor responsible, too?" Mr Cassar asked.

The Code of Police Laws specifies that the Public Works Director should license a mason after he sits for an examination before the Mason's board. "No other tradesmen working on a civil engineering project needs to be licensed or even to have any basic training or any experience, whatsoever," Mr Cassar pointed out.