Structural engineers have assessed and confirmed that Lotis Towers is safe contrary to earlier media reports.
Minor cracks were last week detected at the 14-storey structure located along Mackinon Street in Nakasero.
Eng. Kenneth Magembe from Armstrong Consulting engineers says among the 21 columns, one column on the 6th floor has minor cracks and in the basement.
Armstrong Consulting Engineers were the structure consultants of the project. Magambe said after a thorough assessment, him and his team confirmed that the cracks were on the surface, not in the core of structure.
“We assessed the entire building and we found out that it is a single column on the 6th floor and three others in the basement,” he said.
“We are fixing them, then after we shall do a fresh assessment to make sure the structure is compliant.”
He said the cracks may have been caused by the plaster which didn’t dry well.
Magambe said the contractor was already on site propping up the columns.
“We have already struck the formwork. This new column will be stronger than the old one,” one of the engineers said.
It has been clarified that the cracks as seen in photos widely circulated on social media were normal hammer tests by lab technicians from Ministry of Works to figure out the cause of the plaster cracks on one of the reinforced columns.
“As is the normal routine, MOWTS technicians did some rebound hammer tests just to figure out the cause of the plaster cracks. They also broke the concrete to reach the rebars as seen in the pictures circulating on social media,” a statement from the property managers said.
“No Cause for alarm. The internal core of the columns is still intact and that’s why it was able to stand the test of time,” Magambe said.
He faulted National Building Review Board (NBRB) for rushing to the social media without doing a clear assessment of the structure.
“Much as they are the regulators, they should have first found out what went wrong and a clear structural analysis done,” he said.
This website has further learnt that the wild and nonsense allegations as works of a competitor.
With advent of COVID-19 and the struggling economy, the competition for tenants in Kampala is very stiff, according to realtors.
They said the competitors of Lotis Towers which houses many companies like Cairo Bank and government offices could trying to take advantage of the incident to takeaway tenants.
Lotis Towers, since 2018 has been offering the most affluent office space in the Central business district of Kampala.
The emergency of the likes of Kingdom Kampala has not affected the affluency of the tower.