5 indicted for construction work damaging neighboring properties

Taipei, Aug. 14 (CNA) The New Taipei District Prosecutors Office recently indicted five individuals in connection with a construction site incident in New Taipei's Sanchong District in January 2025 that caused a nearby building to collapse and another to be demolished.

The five indicted individuals included a construction engineer surnamed Chen (陳), a construction company president also surnamed Chen, the company's vice president surnamed Liu (劉), a construction overseer surnamed Cheng (鄭), and an industrial company head also surnamed Cheng, according to prosecutors.

The individuals were executives or managers at companies responsible for construction, quality control, site safety oversight, and recording construction monitoring data.

Prosecutors are charging them with endangering public safety by violating established rules of construction and forgery.

Engineer Chen, company president Chen, and overseer Cheng allegedly cut the number of prepact piles by 12 and reduced the depth of the waterstop pile to just 10 meters, without altering the construction design or obtaining authorization.

When the decision led to a piping problem on Dec. 30, 2024, engineer Chen instructed workers to set up a well point system outside the site to pump water into the site which aggravated the tilting of the neighboring buildings, despite being aware that was a possibility, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said that company president Chen and Liu did not set up as much monitoring equipment as required, including omitting one inclinometer. In addition, they failed to keep up monitoring frequency, which delayed the detection of the neighboring building tilting.

Prosecutors said that a safety monitoring report on Sept. 25 showed tilting in neighboring buildings had exceeded safety limits and required corrective action, but engineer Chen, company president Chen, Liu, and company head Cheng took no action.

Instead, engineer Chen instructed Liu to readjust the inclinometer and recheck the data.

On Oct. 1, Liu and company head Cheng reset the inclinometer readings to zero and submitted falsified data to engineer Chen, who then reported it to the New Taipei City overnment's Public Works Department.