Fernvale Palms Progress - 25 Dec 2012

I was at Fernvale Palms on the same day when the accident happened but I did not sense anything wrong on site though I did notice that no one was working on the project. I thought it was due to Christmas celebration.

I took a closer look at the project progress on that day (as my Mrs. was not with me, thus no one was nagging me to leave fast). I was actually quite delighted to see progress for the B blocks but I was not aware of the accident at that time.

The main contractor has finally completed the painting for the last 3 floors for 432B blocking facing the basketball court. The outstanding painting of this side of the project is the white paint of the lift shaft.

For the other side of the B blocks facing the MSCP, the contractor has progressively painted more facades. In fact, it looked like the painting of 432B is faster than 433B. There were about 5 more facades to be painted.

It is a sad case for worker to fall from height despite MOM’s recent strong effort to advocate safe work at height. Being a public officer project engineer, I also understand the paramount importance of ensuring the safety of workers at site. Hope the main contractor learns from this accident and finishes the project fast and safely.    

To those who are worried about the accident and progress,
(a)  MOM has issued stop work order for plastering works and working at height for the project. However, if the main contractor has experienced project manager on site, I believe he will re-schedule their workers to do those works which do not require harness. This can be lying of tiles, ground level painting work, etc. So, the progress will not completely halt. I doubt the main contractor has finished laying all the shelter, bathrooms, kitchen and service yard tiles. For being selfish, please send all the workers to complete tiles lying for 433B.

(b) Likely, MOM will review the main contractor’s safe work procedure and risk assessment to determine if the contractor has inform the worker about the potential risk for his work and if they have trained the worker sufficiently for him to perform the task. Based on what was reported, it seemed like the worker has a safety harness on but was not hooked on to any anchoring point.

I was searching online about HDB’s work procedure for handing over the flat to the owners. Based on what I have gathered online, HDB will issue a letter to owners about 2 months before project completion to inform the owners about the good news. Next, they will issue the HLE application letter to owners requesting them to apply for HLE (if necessary). Upon approval, they will send them the approved HLE letter. The last phase will be BCA granting the TOP. Normally, HDB will start issuing the keys 1 week after BCA awards the TOP, pretty fast right! Another thing is that HDB will update the website, informing the exact month of probable completion date when the date draws nearer.

Anyway, this is only what I have gathered online, may not be accurate. For whoever who read our blog and is aware of HDB’s work procedure, please share with us.