Is Mascot Towers going to collapse?

By in Australian Property, Featured Article

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Via the ABC:

Owners and residents of Sydney’s Mascot Towers have been advised existing cracks in the building have widened and new cracking has developed requiring urgent remediation works to avoid a “structural failure”.

In the latest update on the troubled apartment block, law firm Mills Oakley, acting on behalf of the owners corporation, said engineers had found cracking around the north-eastern transfer beams and the basement was of “significant concern”.

The report also suggests waterproofing systems used to excavate the basement levels of the new neighbouring Peak Towers construction “likely caused the erosion of fine particles and the destabilisation of land supporting Mascot Towers”.

Apartment owner Brian Tucker said it was another blow on top of huge levies owners were already being asked to pay, and called on the State Government to provide more financial support through a low-interest loan.

“It’s absolutely devastating. From what I believe the latest information is the building is a catastrophic failure,” Mr Tucker said.

“And the problem is that, as an owners corporation, we need to fund this building for building stabilisation.

“And we don’t have the money to do that.”

Mr Tucker, who is also a engineering lecturer at the University of NSW, said he believed the building was still moving.

“It’s going to be a long, drawn out process, maybe four or five years,” he said.

“We need this money immediately to try and stop this building collapsing as per the engineers’ report.

“My partner and I have paid this levy this week which is $13,000 and at the end of the month we’re up for another $10,000. We just can’t afford this.”

The developer of the Peak Towers building, ALAND, has previously rejected speculation the development was linked to the cracks.

The company has been contacted for comment.

More of this to come:

Houses and Holes

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the fouding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.

He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.

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