Once again BubbleDeck director Rob Plug (79) goes to court to claim his case against construction company BAM. Five years after the parking garage at Eindhoven Airport collapsed, he hopes to have the appeal judge confirm what he has always maintained: it was concluded far too quickly that the problem was with his bulb floor.
What happened to the parking garage under construction at Eindhoven airport on 27 May 2017?
That Saturday afternoon, the nearest weather station indicated a temperature of 33 degrees. It’s much warmer on the top deck, leading to the concrete of the nearly completed parking garage starting to work. Part of the upper concrete floor, in which cracks and subsidence were already visible, will collapse around 7 p.m. The three floors below also collapse. It is a miracle that no one is injured. Construction workers had been working on the garage a few hours earlier.
What follows is a long discussion about the question of guilt. According to director Plug of BubbleDeck, there was nothing wrong with his floor. He can, however, name dozens of calculation and construction errors. “The builders poured concrete during frost. Did not know the bearing capacity of the pillars. The Stamps [ondersteuning tijdens het harden van het beton] were taken away far too early,” he sums up. Insufficient and too late action was also allegedly taken when large cracks were already visible and the structure was clearly on the verge of collapse. “There are so many factors that could have caused it to go wrong. And yet it’s all about that joint all the time.”
With ‘that joint’ Plug is referring to the conclusion that BAM drew a few days after the collapse. According to BAM, the adhesion of the floorboards was insufficient because the joints of the BubbleDeck wide slab floor had been too smooth.
BAM then instructs director Simon Wijte of the renowned Hageman Consultancy, who is also a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, to investigate the collapse. He acknowledges that construction errors have been made, but considers that they were not decisive. What was the cause: a system error in the joint, which could cause the floor to collapse. TNO and the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) are also investigating the accident. Their conclusions differ, but according to Plug BubbleDeck is still designated as a scapegoat. Almost five years later, he’s still mad about it. “We have piles of evidence, why aren’t they looking at it?”
Gathering ban
Because, according to researchers, it may be a system error, the question arises whether ‘Eindhoven’ is an incident, or whether more floors could collapse just like that.
In the Netherlands alone, there are hundreds of parking garages, office buildings and schools with these types of floors. Unrest is arising among property owners and users of office buildings. Based on the research reports, then Minister Ollongren (Internal Affairs, D66) will come up with a step-by-step plan in 2017 to determine whether a floor is safe. In the justification, the ministry refers several times to the Hageman report.
Dozens of buildings with wide slab floors are being evacuated, examined and reinforced. ‘Suspicious’ floors should not be loaded too heavily. In the towers of the Ministries of the Interior and Justice and Security, there will be a ban on gatherings near the coffee machines. The property of the Tax Authorities in Apeldoorn would also not be safe. A building of Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle is decommissioned and reinforced for 5 million euros. The costs are enormous: the Central Government Real Estate Agency announced in March 2022 that it would set aside more than 100 million euros for the repair of 21 government buildings. Other property owners also spend many millions to reinforce the floors of their properties.
The issue eventually ends up costing BubbleDeck. After the Hageman report, the assignments dry up quickly. Plug has to lay off his staff; the company now only exists on paper in order to be able to litigate.
In 2020, there will be a lawsuit in which Plug demands 10 million euros from BAM – as an advance on the damage to his company and reputation that has yet to be determined. He is accused of blaming BAM with the Hageman BubbleDeck report. During the hearing, the judge chooses not to make a technical judgment. After all, Hageman’s research would have generated a consensus by showing where it went wrong: the weak joint. BubbleDeck loses the case, and BAM does not have to pay Plug any compensation. The BubbleDeck director has only one word for it: tunnel vision. “It had to be BAM’s lecture.”
Appeal
In the months after the ruling, Plug filed a complaint against Hageman director Simon Wijte, both at Eindhoven University of Technology and at the National Body for Scientific Integrity (LOWI). Was that report really that scientific and independent? It was commissioned by BAM, was not published in a scientific journal and was also not subject to peer review†
Although researcher Wijte is listed as a professor in the report and university test facilities in Eindhoven have been used, the LOWI has ruled, following a complaint from Plug, that the term ‘scientific’ is inappropriate.
At the time, Wijte wrote in a professional magazine Cobouw note that his research method indeed scientific although it was commissioned engineering. The professor states that he has followed all the rules and that his work is verifiable. He declined to comment further now that a new subpoena has been issued.
In the appeal that will soon be filed, Plug again demands 10 million euros, and asks the judge to look again: did this report by Bureau Hageman, which cost him his company, not gain much weight in the aftermath of the accident? and the lawsuit?
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Not without a chance
Apart from the LOWI ruling, Plug has had few new pieces of evidence since the first court case. Nevertheless, according to engineer Nico Scholten of the Expertise Center for Construction Regulations (ERB), he certainly does not stand a chance in the appeal. “The only question is whether the judge this time asks for an independent technical opinion about the cause of the collapse of the parking garage, and includes all known facts.”
Scholten, who is involved on behalf of the ERB in the content and development of Dutch building regulations, says he can support Plug’s reading. He argues that numerous load tests have been carried out in the Netherlands and abroad with comparable floors, including on the part of the Eindhoven parking garage that has not collapsed. “Even under very heavy pressure, they could not break those floors – even though they would be unsafe according to the assessment model of the ministry. Moreover: this type of flooring is still used all over the world. If anything was wrong with it, more buildings would have collapsed or inexplicably bent. That is not true.”
Scholten also questions the TNO counter-study, which was published in mid-April 2022. “That should have been a broader view, but it was decided to work from Hageman’s research hypothesis, without international coordination. And that while there is also recent research from the Catholic University of Leuven that casts doubt on Hageman’s reading.”
BubbleDeck director Plug now feels that everyone is conspiring against him. The Ministry of the Interior? Fears millions of claims if it turns out that the eviction and reinforcement of buildings it was obliged to do was not necessary. TNO? Works on behalf of the ministry. Professor Simon Wijte? If he withdraws his report now, his reputation will be ruined. Building owners? Hide and say nothing for fear that their buildings will become unsaleable. Engineering firms? Make millions from re-screening and reinforcing floors. “All those heavy anchors cost hundreds of millions and are completely unnecessary.”
When asked about his expectations of the appeal, Plug is cynical. “If you see my evidence and there would be an independent judge, I can’t imagine losing it. But I do take it seriously, I no longer trust the government and the legal system.”
BAM has until May 17 to respond to the allegations. The case could go to court this year.