Fortunately, there were no injuries in the collapse of the ramps of the parking garage at the Sint Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein. The Dutch Safety Board is starting an exploratory investigation. Contractor Balast Nedam is cooperating fully.

It seems that the collapse started at the top ramp of the garage, which has eight floors. Then, in its fall, all the ramps below came down with it. At first it was thought that the bulbous floors were involved, but nothing seems wrong with them. As a result, this is not comparable to the collapse of the parking garage in Eindhoven, in 2017. At that point, the garage was also found to be safe after a thorough inspection

The construction of the ramps differs from the rest of the garage, and so the collapse appears to have been confined to the space that had been saved for it.

Large hole in the middle of the building

The ramps were prefabricated, most likely with hollow-core slabs. The slabs were laid on two sides on steel angle profiles, on which they probably lay loose on overlay rubbers. They were six to seven meters long and had two lanes, for traffic going up and down.

Images that have been released show that the corner lines on which the channel sheets had been laid have collapsed. On one side of the "stairwell," all the corner lines have been torn loose and fallen down. On the other side, large pieces are still hanging, but they are badly damaged. The steel angle lines were bolted to steel H sections, which formed the columns around the section that now forms a large hole in the center of the building.

Monday morning, the Safety Board immediately began an exploratory investigation into the cause of the collapse. In doing so, the council is looking to see if any underlying mechanisms play a role that might also lead to a safety problem in other structures or garages. Ballast Nedam has promised full cooperation with the investigation but is refraining from commenting further. According to the construction company, there is no reason to close other garages it has built as a precaution.

No casualties

The collapse occurred Sunday evening around 9:30. Fortunately, no one was in the garage at the time. The busy visiting hour was already over. Dogs were still used to search for possible victims, but it soon became apparent that there were no victims.

The parking garage was completed in 2008 and was designed by Gortemaker Algra Feenstra architects. Ballast Nedam built the garage and Q-Park is the manager.