AYALA mall management yesterday submitted its proposed rehabilitation plan for Cinema 5 to Cebu City building officials.
The Office of the Building Official, however, did not act on the plan, which proposed to convert the use of double-layer acoustic ceiling design into a single-layer acoustic design.
Engr. Jose Mari Poblete, OBO head, said they still need to evaluate Ayala’s findings on the cause of the cinema ceiling’s collapse and present these to the city council for review.
Poblete met with Ayala officials yesterday afternoon to discuss the assessment report and the proposed rehabilitation plan.
Based on the incident report prepared by Ayala Center Cebu, half of Cinema 5’s acoustic ceiling collapsed at 8:37 p.m. of June 15 this year due to the large volume of water that came from the sprinkler lines. Nine persons were hurt.
Poblete said Ayala’s assessment report showed that there was a leak in one of their pipes in the ceiling.
“Lahi sya, dili sa sprinkler system. Wa na notice sa routine inspection ang Ayala engineers (It’s different from the sprinkler system. Ayala engineers didn’t notice the leak during their routine inspection),” Poblete said.
The sprinkler system was initially blamed for the collapse. Poblete said the Ayala report showed a leak in the sprinkler line located between two layers of the acoustic ceiling in Cinema 5.
“Since pressurized, nigawas gyud daghan tubig,” Poblete said.
The Ayala report also said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake on March 30 this year may have worsened the condition of the sprinkler line.
Along with its assessment report, Ayala mall management presented its remediation plan, building permits and test results on their facilities.
Aside from converting to a single-layer acoustic ceiling design, the rehabilitation plan also proposed to use multiple ceiling frame design instead of a single frame for the entire cinema.
Poblete said this would ensure that if one portion of the ceiling weakens, the rest of the ceiling will not be affected.
A proposal to relocate the sprinklers to the walls from the ceiling was also brought up during the meeting.