Construction director faces criminal charges for Da Lat deadly landslide

Nguyen Uy Vu, 39, director of Le Nguyen Lam Dong Construction JSC, which designs and builds the embankment, and Duong Viet Phong, 41, supervisor of the project, are now under investigation for “violating construction rules causing serious consequences” under the Penal Code, a source told VnExpress Thursday.

Police in the Central Highlands city launched an investigation into the landslide early this month after a 50-meter-long section of an embankment on an alley of Hoang Hoa Tham Street collapsed on June 29.

The embankment belonged to the construction site of a retaining wall.

As a result, soil and rocks fell on top of a tent underneath where two construction workers, a married couple, were sleeping inside, and damaged several houses in the area.

The couple were later found dead, while five other people of one family were left with injuries after being rescued from the rubble.

The incident area spans 2,100 sq.m and is owned by four families, and the investor of the construction project is building a retaining wall, a structure found in places where extra support is needed to prevent the soil from moving further downhill.

The Department of Construction in Lam Dong Province said last Friday that the amount of soil used for building the retaining wall “was too large and lost the bearing capacity under the impacts of heavy rains lasting for several days in a row.”

The project’s investor was licensed by the city to build the embankment that stretches 381 m long and 13.4 m high. It was finished a year ago.

Nguyen Duong Trung Huu, head of Da Lat’s urban management department, has been suspended.