Urgent renovation of old, degraded apartments damaged by storms

Living anxiously in an old apartment building waiting to collapse

Recently, many provinces and cities were severely affected by storms No. 3 and No. 4, causing many old apartment buildings that were being renovated and rebuilt to crack and tilt, making them unsafe for continued use.

Currently, in Hanoi, there are nearly 1,600 old apartment buildings, built between 1960 and 1990 of the last century. Most of the apartment buildings have degraded to this point, posing a potential risk of insecurity. Of these, there are 6 level D danger zones (the most dangerous level) that must be demolished for reconstruction, such as: Building C8 Giang Vo Collective Housing Area, G6A Thanh Cong Collective Housing Area, Building A Ngoc Khanh Collective Housing Area, Ministry of Justice Collective Housing Area...

Mr. Do Van Ky's family has lived in the A7 Tan Mai apartment building (Hoang Mai district) for more than 20 years. After many years of use, the building has gradually shown many serious signs of deterioration, especially the large cracks that have completely separated the entire staircase from the 1st to 5th floors and the landing from the building. After the impact of storm No. 3, the building has deteriorated even more, making him worried that it could collapse at any time.

According to the reporter's investigation, since October 2010, the Hanoi Department of Construction has issued a document classifying this apartment complex as a level C hazard, requiring priority renovation. However, residents said that the process of reporting and then checking has been repeated for more than 10 years now, but the renovation is still at a standstill.

According to the report of the Department of Construction of Hai Phong City, through the inspection in 2016-2017, consulting units have determined that the city has 97 apartment buildings with level D danger. Up to now, after 7-8 years of continued use, these buildings have not been repaired or maintained, and at the same time have been seriously affected and damaged by the consequences of storm No. 3, so these apartment buildings are currently particularly dangerous. In particular, the two old apartment buildings A7 and A8 in Van My ward, Ngo Quyen district have tilted and sunk, no longer meeting the safety conditions for continued use.

Waiting for relocation

In Da Nang City, there are currently 9 apartment buildings that have been inspected to have a level of danger of B and C. Among them, there are apartment buildings that were built more than 50 years ago, many items have seriously degraded. Among them, the collective house at K33/21 Cao Thang, Cao Thang Street, Thanh Binh Ward, Hai Chau District, Da Nang City has peeling bricks and mortar, exposing the steel bars inside. Moss and weeds cover the entire collective house.

Ms. Vo Thi Thanh Van - a resident of the collective housing area at K33/21 Cao Thang - said that whenever it rains, the wind is strong and there is information about unusual storms, the authorities will mobilize households in this collective housing area to evacuate to a safe place.

For 9 apartment buildings and collective housing units with level B and C danger in Hai Chau district, the Department of Construction of Da Nang City said that they need to promptly repair and reinforce dangerous structures and local damages before being used again. The repair and reinforcement must be designed and constructed by units with sufficient capacity according to regulations. The period of continued use of these apartment buildings is from 3 to 5 years, but some apartment buildings can only be used for 2 to 3 more years.

In Nghe An, many old apartment buildings are concentrated in Quang Trung ward, Vinh city, including 5 areas with codes from C2 to C6, each area has 80 apartments, a total of 400 apartments with residents. These apartment buildings were built using prefabrication techniques, have been in use for about 50 years, and are now in a state of serious and dangerous degradation. Decades ago, Nghe An province implemented projects to renovate and relocate the above old apartment buildings.

Due to the slow progress and problems with some projects, residents of old apartment buildings have not had new housing in time, leading to anxiety and insecurity, especially during the rainy and stormy season.

In recent times, Nghe An province has continuously urged investors to quickly complete projects to renovate old apartment buildings, with the goal of providing residents with new, spacious and safe places to live. However, during the project implementation, many problems arose related to mechanisms, policies, investor capacity, and people's requirements, leading to some projects being behind schedule, pushing thousands of people into unsafe and dangerous situations.

Need a breakthrough in renovating old apartments

Discussing the current situation of old apartment buildings, Architect Pham Thanh Tung - Chief of Office of the Vietnam Association of Architects - said that, to ensure safety for people, the issue of appraisal and inspection of apartment building quality needs to be assigned to private appraisal organizations to participate in the assessment. Accordingly, the State will manage the law and the appraisal agency must be responsible for its research. Currently, this model is being applied by many developed countries in the world and has achieved good results. In addition, it is necessary to build and renovate old apartment buildings according to the compact urban model to effectively utilize land resources. Instead of building 20 apartment buildings with a height of 20 floors, it is possible to study the construction of 4 apartment buildings with a height of 40 floors. The remaining areas can be used to build schools, parks, and bus stations.

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors, the 2023 Housing Law and Decree 98 guiding the renovation and reconstruction of apartment buildings (effective from August 1) are expected to create a breakthrough in the renovation of old apartment buildings.
However, the problem with the renovation of old apartment buildings today is to harmoniously solve the planning problem.Accordingly, in Hanoi, the renovation of dozens of old apartment buildings in Giang Vo collective housing area is quite favorable because the approved height of this area is about 40 floors, and the population of this area is not limited.However, there are also places such as Ngoc Khanh, Trung Tu, and Van Chuong collective housing areas with hundreds of old apartment buildings but renovation and reconstruction are extremely difficult.To renovate these old collective housing areas, the city must have other vacant land to compensate the investor.For example, if the old Van Chuong collective housing area wants to renovate this area, Hanoi must open more roads, so it needs to have land to compensate businesses participating in the renovation.

"The government needs to step in to open the road, the investor cannot do it themselves. The cost of building a road to this residential area is very high, it is very difficult for the investor to manage" - Mr. Hiep commented.