CONCLUSION

Persuasive arguments on the most likely failure scenario.

It is concluded that the excessive wind speed resulted in the collapse of the lightning
arrestor pole of Menara UMNO, Penang on 2013. Construction of Menara UMNO, Penang was
started around 1995 consists of 21-storey building with lightning arrestor pole at the top of the
building. Tahir Wong Sdn. Bhd. was awarded and given responsibility to design the lightning
arrestor building. The owner of the building was not responsible in the designing and construction
phase as all the cost will be paid by the owner. Due to the fact, designing works were handled by
the consultant company while the construction phase was conducted by the contractor. On July
2013, a thunderstorm hits Penang at 7 pm resulting the lighting arrestor pole as well as the fin
wall crashed down from the 21-storey building of Menara UMNO on the seven vehicles near the
building leaving two persons death and eight others injured. The Macalister road had closed for
a while due to inspection had been conducted. The thunderstorm resulting on sudden extreme
wind speed happening during that time. Due to the fact, the lightning arrestor pole as well as the
fin wall cannot endure the high wind speed resulting the failure of the structure. In the design of
the structure the engineer had designed based on the wind speed during at that time based on
the wind speed of Penang Island. The forensic engineer had some investigation in order to obtain
the person in charge for the responsibility of the collapse of Menara UMNO lightning arrestor pole.

Persuasive arguments on failure responsibility or liability.

The owner of the building which is JKKP had accused the consultant that works on the
design to take fully responsible on the failure of the lightning arrestor poles of Menara UMNO as
the owner did not participated on the designing phase. Besides that, the engineer that had given
responsibility to design the lightning arrestor pole as well as the fin wall did not have any
experience in designing the cantilever structure on top of a high building. The submitting engineer
of Tahir Wong Sdn. Bhd. has to take the responsibility of the failure of the lightning arrestor pole
as well due to that he is the one who appointed the engineer to design despite he knows that the
engineer did not have experience in designing such type of structure. Furthermore, the submitting
engineer is the one who approved the design drawing of the lightning arrestor pole as well as the
fin wall of Menara UNMO. The consultant company had been punished to take full responsibility
of the failure of the lightning arrestor pole as well as the fin wall due to design weakness of the
structure failed to cater the load during thunderstorm. In addition to that, capability to think
beforehand of consequences and to make better reliable designs should be developed.
Technical assessments on project viability after the facts.

The failure of the lightning arrestor poles as well as fin wall of Menara UMNO can be
prevented as this case is built by not fully depended on computer analysis to assess the safety of
their design and follow the proper building standards. The design was extremely at risk as it is
construct on the top of 21-storey building. Therefore, the engineer must understand the theoretical
calculations of wind speed and the associated limitations. As the engineer that appointed to
design the structure has no experience in designing such type of structure and without any proper
consultation by senior engineer or any experience person. Even though the engineer has design
the structure according to the wind speed of Penang Island at that moment, the engineer should
considered the maximum wind speed to design the structure as to secure the safeties of the
lightning arrestor pole and fin wall of Menara UMNO. This failure of lightning arrestor pole and fin
wall provides a lesson for engineer during the design and construction of high risk structure that
has to deal with wind speed.
RECOMMENDATION
Decision On Propose Design

The engineer that lack of experience that have given responsibility to design any of structure for
construction should seek for help of any senior engineer as well as the experience person that
have undergo in designing such as structure.

Method Of Designing

As an engineer which the person that propose the design for the structure, have to ensure that
the structure designed must be high in safety and good in quality to cater any excessive loads
and sudden change in any force.

Inspection Of The Construction

Any structure will have potential of collapse even though it has good design plan due to the no
inspection of the structure make regularly. Due to the fact, any structure will facing rust or
reduce in quality due the long life span. Inspection of the construction is a procedure in order to
make sure the actual design same with the propose design. The person who in charge for the
inspection must ensure the construction is similar and according to the plan.