Engineers syndicate blames municipality for crack in vital Amman street

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is "fully responsible" for the crack in Abdullah Ghosheh Street, Jordan Engineers Association President (JEA) Majid Tabba charged Sunday.

Drilling at a construction site where a commercial complex is being built caused the crack, according to GAM, which sent an official letter to the owner of the site, including engineering reports regarding the method and duration needed to fix the crack.

A JEA statement quoted Tabba as saying that the blueprints of the project that caused the crack were not referred to the JEA for accreditation as per procedure.

The under-construction building in question, he said, is a 12-storey commercial complex.

Amman Central Traffic Department Director Col. Bassem Kharabsheh told The Jordan Times on Saturday that traffic direction will be reversed on the unaffected side of the street, heading towards the airport road, to accommodate traffic coming from that road.

Raed Haddadin, director of the building control department at GAM, said in a statement that the construction site obtained all the required approvals, noting that road closures are around 150 metres long, with the damage estimated to extend for around 80 metres.

Tabba blamed GAM for "failure in monitoring construction schemes" as stipulated in its regulations and the law on building, according to the JEA statement.