Macau Urban Renewal Limited (MUR) said in a statement on Friday that the rebar tilting incident that occurred on June 25 at Lot B for the temporary housing project on Areia Preta’s Lot P was reported to relevant entities by the contractor, while the company and third-party supervisors conducted an investigation into the cause of the incident.

MUR is a company owned by the Macau government.

The statement noted that the rebars’ upper layers started to tilt during the assembling and fixing of the reinforcement for the pile cap for the temporary housing project. The incident caused six workers to sustain scrapes, the statement pointed out, but there were no serious injuries while none needed to be hospitalised.

The statement underlined that MUR requested the contractor to suspend works at the area and reported the incident to the respective entities at once, with a thorough investigation into what caused the incident conducted in conjunction with third-party supervisors, the contractor and safety officer. They carried out on-site investigations, ad-hoc meetings to review operational procedures and identify potential hazards, and create corrective actions as well as to “standardise construction methodology” to stop the re-occurrence of similar incidents.

Workers were assigned to remove the tilted rebars after the cause was determined as precautionary measures for the then approaching typhoon to eliminate on-site potential hazards. The statement said that the company will make use of the experience and continue to enforce strict supervision of the contractor for corrective actions.

In line with the government’s pandemic prevention works and the weather conditions, the company requires staff entering Lot P to conduct rapid antigen tests (RATs), follow on-site measures and severe weather emergency response plans for the safety of the workers, according to the statement. 

This undated handout photo provided by Macau Urban Renewal Limited on Friday shows Lot P in Areia Preta.