Public pavements are stronger than certain concrete structures supporting Mater Dei Hospital’s accident and emergency department, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.

In some areas, the grade of concrete used falls way short of the established standards, forcing authorities to take immediate action – a substantial number of columns supporting A&E may need to be replaced or reinforced.

However, Health Minister Konrad Mizzi stressed when contacted that nobody’s safety was being compromised and metal props were already being installed to secure the structures.

“Based on the information we have, the building doesn’t exhibit any physical strains.

“However, we have contingency plans for every eventuality,” Dr Mizzi said, when asked about the developments at the State hospital.

“Obviously, if there is even the slightest risk we will take immediate action to shift A&E’s operations elsewhere.”

Dr Mizzi was not in a position to quantify the cost of this unforeseen expense. Last week, this newspaper revealed core stress tests had exposed significant variations in the concrete’s strength, forcing authorities to rethink the location of two new medical wards as the building could not take the weight.

Officials close to the hospital told The Sunday Times of Malta the government had settled on the stretch of land adjacent to the A&E. The only challenge envisaged was the link between the new wards and the rest of the hospital corridors.

When the news emerged there was a furore over how and why the certification was issued when parts of the structures were clearly below standard. Dr Mizzi would not say who was responsible for certifying the works as an inquiry is under way.

The setback emerged when the company that secured the tender to build the wards, Mekkanika and Attard Bros., carried out a stress test to ensure the building could take another two storeys.

Former finance minister Tonio Fenech last week told Times of Malta the structures were never designed to carry such loads and Skanska, which had been entrusted with the construction work, had refused to build beyond two storeys for safety reasons.

Dr Mizzi said the plan had been to build on top of the A&E and if the concrete had met the stipulated grade of C30, it would have been possible if reinforced accordingly.

“The way things stand it’s not even strong enough as it is,” he said.

Basically, the strength of a concrete mix – which includes cement, sand and gravel – is measured in grades: C30 is very strong as it contains less gravel, while C15 is used for general purposes, such as pavements.

But everybody was surprised when the first core stress test, which took at least 30 different samples, exposed a huge disparity – none of the samples taken hit the grade of C30, and in some instances the concrete was even lower than C15.

These tests were not relied on and further stress tests were taken in a laboratory in the UK. The results confirmed the original test and in some cases the grade was even lower; close to C10 (cement normally used to fill in a trench).

The government decided to further examine the structure and commissioned a local firm to carry out a number of tests, including the extraction of 25 cylindrical cores.

Although these yielded higher results, they were not reassuring and still below the C30 standard, exposing a structure that was far from homogenous.

“We never expected such results,” Dr Mizzi said.

This stumbling block threatened to jeopardise the EU funds Malta had obtained to build the wards.

However, Dr Mizzi said since an alternative site had already been earmarked, discussions had started with the planning authority and other stakeholders to meet the June deadline for completion.

An inquiry board, headed by Judge Philip Sciberras, has been set up to establish the facts and analyse criminal and civil liabilities. Dr Mizzi said the board will meet for the first time on Wednesday.

There are some 150 boxes of documents to sift through to establish who the architects, surveyors, and engineers were.

Since the number of companies tasked with the design and construction of the hospital kept changing throughout the years, the task is made doubly hard. [See box].

In the meantime, the government is in discussions with a top engineering company in the UK, which will be commissioned to carry out a site survey of the A&E within the coming weeks.

Since this unprecedented situation raised concerns that similar structural weaknesses were prevalent, another site survey of the entire hospital will be done.

Mater Dei’s protracted labour

• October 1993. The Foundation of Medical Sciences and Services issues a tender to construct a 480-bed hospital and a scientific research institute specialising in degenerative diseases, diabetes and cardiac conditions. Italian foundation responsible for the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan will run the hospital. Designed by Italian company Ortesa, the project will be spread over 60,000 square metres. The completion date is set for December 1996, at a cost of €119 million.

• April 1995. Opposition leader Alfred Sant casts doubts over the project saying works were falling behind and labelled the decision to build a new hospital a mistake.

• May 1995. The government defends the decision to award the contract to Swedish construction company Skanska, whose €73.4 million offer was €5.6 million higher than the cheapest bid.

• April 1996. Dr Sant reiterates his call for an independent inquiry into the tendering process and hit out at then finance minister John Dalli, whose brother Bastjan – the owner of Mixer Ltd – was supplying concrete to Skanska.

• October 1997. A year after the change in government, the Labour administration announces its decision to ditch the San Raffaele project and to turn the venture into an 850-bed acute general hospital. Architect Carmel Busuttil examines the structural integrity of the project and concludes the building can be developed vertically by up to two additional floors. New plans include a medical school, an emergency department and a pharmacy.

• April 1998. Health Minister Michael Farrugia says the hospital would be opened by 2001. A month later, British company Norman and Dawbarn take over the hospital design from Ortesa.

• February 2000. Skanska is awarded the design and contract tender following the change of government in September 1998, which led to the decision to terminate the agreement with Norman and Dawbarn.

• March 2000. During an onsite visit, then prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami says the first patients would be admitted in 2003. The revised estimate of the project increased to €193 million.

• November 2004. Skanska agrees to hand over the new hospital on July 1, 2007, following weeks of intense discussions with the government who, agreed to pay the Swedish company €339 million.

• July 2007. Then prime minister Lawrence Gonzi inaugurates Mater Dei Hospital, which would become fully functional by 2008. Meanwhile, the total cost of the project soared to €512 million, but reports later claimed the true cost was closer to €600 million, five times the original estimate.

Compiled by Keith Micallef.