Or Kim Peow Contractors awarded S$43.8 million after arbitration proceedings over 2017 PIE viaduct collapse

SINGAPORE — Builder Or Kim Peow Contractors has been awarded about S$43.8 million following arbitration proceedings against CPG Consultants over a Pan Island Expressway (PIE) viaduct that collapsed midway through construction in 2017.

The incomplete viaduct collapsed in the early hours of Jul 14, 2017, with 11 workers on top of it, injuring 10 of them and killing one.

CPG was engaged by the company to provide design services for the viaduct.

The outcome of the arbitration proceedings came via an announcement by OKP Holdings, the holding company of Or Kim Peow Contractors, on the Singapore Exchange on Monday (March 6).

Or Kim Peow and its project director and engineer were convicted in court over the incident.

The company was found guilty of failing to take necessary measures to ensure the safety of workers.

Project director Yee Chee Keong and engineer Wong Kiew Hai were convicted of recklessly endangering the workers' safety by not calling for work to be stopped when they discovered cracks, and for obstructing justice by deleting incriminating WhatsApp messages.

The accredited checker for the viaduct pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to check the detailed structural plans and design calculations of the viaduct building work in accordance with regulations. He was jailed for six months.

Robert Arianto Tjandra, an engineer from CPG Consultants, was sentenced to 86 weeks' jail and fined S$10,000 in 2019 after he failed to report design flaws and cracks that appeared during the building of the viaduct.

He was appointed as the qualified person to prepare the plans of the building works for the project.

Or Kim Peow's contract with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to build the viaduct was terminated and handed to another company.

The viaduct, now named the Tampines Viaduct, opened on Feb 19, after a three-year delay.