Faculty of Civil Engineering The University of Belgrade confirmed that Milan Spremić is an associate professor in the field of metal structures of that faculty among those detained due to chance canopy collapse at the railway station in Novi Sad. His colleagues believe, however, that the professor is "completely unjustified in detention."
The statement of the faculty states that the media reports that Spremic was the "executor of technical control of the project documentation" are incorrect, adding that he did not participate in the development and review of the Project for the building permit, on the basis of which the building permit was issued, nor the Project for execution based on when the works start.
They added that it is also incorrect that Spremic was the "responsible person for the design of the Republican Revision Commission", considering that such a person does not exist according to the Law on Planning and Construction.
"From all of the above, we responsibly claim that Professor Spremić, a respected expert with decades of experience in the field of metal constructions, is in custody for no reason," added the statement, Beta agency reports.
"Long-term non-compliance with the law by the authorities"
The faculty states that as the rapporteur of the Republic Revision Commission, Professor Spremić carried out expert control of the preliminary design of the construction, which in this case represents the initial and lowest phase of the project documentation.
"In that part of the project, no work was planned on the existing supporting structure of the building, especially not on the canopy in question. "According to the conclusion reached by the Republic Audit Commission, the documentation was in compliance with the Location Conditions, which gave the opportunity to proceed with the development of the Project for a building permit," the statement added.
The Faculty of Civil Engineering stated that it strongly opposes the possibility of transferring part of the responsibility for "long-term non-compliance with procedures and laws in construction by the authorities to the engineers".
"Also, we ask the responsible persons and members of the Republic Audit Commission to address the public and explain the competences of this commission." Once again, we express our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. As before, the Faculty of Civil Engineering is at the disposal of state authorities in clarification of the cause this unprecedented tragedy," reads the statement signed by the dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Branislav Bayat.
What is Professor Spremić charged with?
According to the order on the investigation, Milan Spremić, associate professor of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade, was responsible for the design of the Republic Revision Commission and technical control of the construction, reconstruction and adaptation project of the station building, which was created by Slobodan Naumović.
The prosecutor believes that Spremić failed to determine that in the conceptual project "the scope and type of necessary previous research that will be the basis for the development of the reconstruction project was not assessed, and that the technical properties of the existing structure were not determined, as well as that there is a lack of a recording of the state of the existing structure."
In the translation, Spremić is criticized for not pointing out that it is necessary to take a picture of the state of the station building in order to know precisely what the stability of the entire building is.
As the media previously announced, the planners did not have an original project of the station building, which is why it was necessary to make a video, but this was allegedly not done.
The prosecutor also believes that Spremic did not check whether the project contained all the materials and data and whether the project ensured the fulfillment of the basic requirements for the building in question. This should ensure that the building as a whole and its special parts are suitable for the intended use, writes Forbes Serbia.
The prosecutor also claims that he did not issue any measures or make any objections in order to eliminate the deficiencies, but that he prepared a report on the expert control of Naumović's project, which did not contain any measures. It was then submitted to the Railway Infrastructure of Serbia in order to further implement the project. In this way, according to the prosecutor, he failed to establish that there was corrosion at the connection of the tensioner and the roof support.
Sources: Beta/Forbes Serbia
