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[February 20, 2006]

Constructor hid shoddy work at expressway project

(Yomiuri Shimbun, The (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 17--TOYAMA, Japan--A construction company has admitted covering up shoddy construction work on an expressway bridge in Toyama Prefecture to pass a government inspection, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.


Matsumoto Construction Co., headquartered in Tonami, Toyama Prefecture, installed smaller-than-normal piles to support two piers of the expressway bridge while preparing foundations for the four-pier elevated structure at Awara in Himi, also in the prefecture, in 2004.

In August of the same year, the company found the diameter of some piles was up to 10 percent short of the 120-centimeter standard set by the Construction and Transport Ministry.

To clear a ministry inspection confirming the construction work conformed to standards, Matsumoto Construction secretly cast concrete into each faulty pile's head--which remained above the ground and was examined in the official check--to make them appear up to the diameter standard.

The site in question is located on the Noetsu Expressway between Tonami and Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, between Takaoka-kita Interchange and another interchange tentatively named Himi Interchange, both of which are under construction.

In response to a Yomiuri Shimbun inquiry, Matsumoto Construction confirmed it had covered up shoddy construction work on piles for two piers. It is also suspected of misleading the government in its work on another pier, sources said.

The revelations of faulty construction work on an expressway follow a recent scandal involving the widespread use of falsified antiseismic data in the construction of condominiums and hotels.

The company began construction work on the four piers in January 2004. A supervisor involved in the work told The Yomiuri Shimbun his company had used concrete to extend the visible top of faulty piles on at least two of the four piers.

Almost all of eight piles for one pier were smaller than the required standard, with four of them having a diameter 12 centimeters less than the standard, according to the sources.

"We fixed them without telling the [ministry's] regional bureau. The inspectors didn't notice [the misconduct]," he said, referring to the official inspection from August to September 2004. The construction ministry paid 180 million yen to the firm for the work in March 2005.

As construction of the four piers has already been completed, the extent to which the piles fall short of minimum standards is impossible to confirm. The ministry's Hokuriku Regional Development Bureau, which has already excavated holes at the site to conduct sample checks on the piles, said the two piers were not in danger of collapse.

The bureau, however, has not yet carried out a similar check on a third pier to verify its strength. It plans to look into the matter as soon as possible, officials said.

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