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The Highland Towers collapse occurred on 11 December 1993 in
Taman Hillview, Ulu Klang. Block One of the three apartments
collapsed after 10 continuous days of rainfall led ___1___
a landslide, killing 48 people. The remaining two blocks had to
be completely evacuated due to safety reasons.
There were three 12-storey blocks built in phases between
1974 and 1982, at the western base of a ___2___
sloped hill, which was terraced extensively in the early 1980s.
Behind the Towers, a small stream known as East Creek, had
flowed into the site of the Towers before their construction, so
a pipe system was built to ___3___
the stream to bypass the Towers. Then, in 1991, a new housing
development project, the 'Bukit Antarabangsa Development
Project', began construction on the hilltop behind the Towers.
Trees and other land-covering plants ___4___
from the hills, exposing the soil to land erosion, the leading
cause of landslides. The water from the new construction site
was diverted into the existing pipe system used to divert the
flow of East Creek. This overloaded the pipe system; water, sand
and silt from both East Creek and the construction site
infiltrated into the pipes. ___5___
burst at several locations on the hill. The surrounding soil had
to absorb the excessive water from the underground pipes. The
monsoon rainfall further worsened the situation.
The water content in the soil became ___6___
saturated that the soil turned muddy. By October, water was seen
flowing down the hill slopes and the retaining walls. Shortly
thereafter, a landslip took place, destroying the constructed
retaining walls. The landslide contained an estimated 100,000
square meters of mud -- a mass equivalent to 200 Boeing 747
jets. The soil rammed onto the foundation of Block One, pushing
it forward. After a month of this ___7___
pressure, the foundations snapped and in November, residents
began to see cracks forming and widening on the road around the
Highland Towers. It was a forewarning of collapse, but
unfortunately, there was no further investigation before Block
One collapsed on December 11, 1993. |
