A crack at the metro line station “Heroyv Dnipra” as an indicator of “disease” of construction regulation
The construction industry in any country of the world is one of those ones, which are under the significant regulatory influence of the state. And it is quite natural. All stages – from facility designing to operating – influence the safety and human life preservation. Complicated and non-transparent regulatory standards and the outdated technical regulation have at least become a catalyst if not a cause of the extraordinary situation on the capital underground station.
Careless developers and officials put not only the Kyiv transport system, but also the most valuable thing – a human life at risk by using imperfections of the Ukrainian regulatory legislation. The Construction sector head of the Better Regulation Delivery Office Olena Shulyak believes that the review of the regulatory legislation is a time-consuming, complicated and long process, but it should be just the process – the permanent and effective one. The history of modern independent Ukraine hasn’t entered into this process.
“The standards developers and officials use have been created yet in the 60-70s, they don’t take into account current realities. This makes the business and government officials to seek “bypass roads” that would legitimize breaches of safety standards. And we can clearly see the result of this in Obolon,” the expert said.
According to the Better Regulation Delivery Office, the reform of the regulatory field in construction should provide for clear lines of responsibility for actions. This responsibility should be not only clearly defined between architects, designers and developers, but also take into account the responsibility of government employees and officials.
Each breach should have a name and surname. Any case of corruption and deviation of safety rules should have a named respondent. A crack in the underground station in Obolon clearly shows that the regulatory system of the Ukrainian construction sector is “sick”.
The symptoms are alarming:
– the principle of “collective irresponsibility” introduced by state;
– the existence of “bypass” administrative maneuvers on the principle “if the regulation prohibits, but you really want, it is possible to arrange about that”;
– non-transparent rules to allocate construction land plots;
– obsolete national construction regulations; etc…
The worst thing is that this “policy” may affect hundreds of human lives. Therefore, the BRDO experts appeal: the regulation reform should be a national priority. This is not only virtual rankings and outstanding press releases about achievements. This is the safety and human lives!