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Comparative Forensic Assessment of Building Collapse and Foundation Failure in Lagos State, Nigeria: Identifying Dominant Foundation-Related Factors Through a Multi-Case Study
Subject area: Science,Engineering and Technology · Area of research: Foundation and Geotechnical Engineering
Abstract
Building collapse and foundation distress remain important engineering concerns in Lagos State, where variable subsurface conditions and weaknesses in investigation, design, construction and control may interact. This study assessed foundation-related factors documented in building-collapse and foundation-failure incidents and identified recurring concerns from available forensic evidence. A qualitative–quantitative comparative case-study approach was adopted using three detailed forensic investigation reports and seven preliminary collapse reports. Evidence was extracted and classified through thematic content analysis, cross-case comparison, and frequency and percentage analysis. The detailed cases revealed concerns involving compressible peat and clay deposits, spatial variability of soil conditions, inadequate or variable pile termination depths, pile integrity defects, close pile spacing, insufficient pile capacity or pile numbers, and excessive settlement. Two of the three detailed cases (66.7%) contained clear evidence of foundation or pile-capacity inadequacy; the third also contained foundation-related concerns, although its immediate collapse mechanism was identified as flexural failure of inadequately reinforced structural vertical members. In the seven preliminary reports, absence of documented soil-investigation information and excessive loading were each recorded in three cases (42.9%), while reported or suspected foundation inadequacy occurred in two cases (28.6%). These frequencies describe only the selected reports and do not estimate prevalence across Lagos State. The preliminary reports did not provide sufficient technical evidence to confirm a specific geotechnical failure mechanism. The study concludes that foundation performance should be assessed in relation to site-specific ground conditions, verified pile capacity and founding depth, settlement response, and the loads transmitted by the superstructure. It contributes a comparative synthesis that distinguishes documented foundation concerns from unverified explanations and from the immediate structural mechanism of collapse.
Keywords
Building collapse, forensic assessment, foundation failure, geotechnical investigation, pile capacity
References
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How to cite this paper
@article{1725009,
author = {Oluwatobi Babatunde, Folake O. Akintayo, Opeyemi Isreal Adetunji, Olayinka Emmanuel Awoyale},
title = {Comparative Forensic Assessment of Building Collapse and Foundation Failure in Lagos State, Nigeria: Identifying Dominant Foundation-Related Factors Through a Multi-Case Study},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {5},
pages = {2347-2362},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1725009.pdf},
abstract = {Building collapse and foundation distress remain important engineering concerns in Lagos State, where variable subsurface conditions and weaknesses in investigation, design, construction and control may interact. This study assessed foundation-related factors documented in building-collapse and foundation-failure incidents and identified recurring concerns from available forensic evidence. A qualitative–quantitative comparative case-study approach was adopted using three detailed forensic investigation reports and seven preliminary collapse reports. Evidence was extracted and classified through thematic content analysis, cross-case comparison, and frequency and percentage analysis. The detailed cases revealed concerns involving compressible peat and clay deposits, spatial variability of soil conditions, inadequate or variable pile termination depths, pile integrity defects, close pile spacing, insufficient pile capacity or pile numbers, and excessive settlement. Two of the three detailed cases (66.7%) contained clear evidence of foundation or pile-capacity inadequacy; the third also contained foundation-related concerns, although its immediate collapse mechanism was identified as flexural failure of inadequately reinforced structural vertical members. In the seven preliminary reports, absence of documented soil-investigation information and excessive loading were each recorded in three cases (42.9%), while reported or suspected foundation inadequacy occurred in two cases (28.6%). These frequencies describe only the selected reports and do not estimate prevalence across Lagos State. The preliminary reports did not provide sufficient technical evidence to confirm a specific geotechnical failure mechanism. The study concludes that foundation performance should be assessed in relation to site-specific ground conditions, verified pile capacity and founding depth, settlement response, and the loads transmitted by the superstructure. It contributes a comparative synthesis that distinguishes documented foundation concerns from unverified explanations and from the immediate structural mechanism of collapse.},
keywords = {Building collapse, forensic assessment, foundation failure, geotechnical investigation, pile capacity},
month = {November},
}