In recent days, southern regions such as Hubei and Hunan have experienced extreme weather including low-temperature rain, snow, and freezing disasters, and the roofs of many buildings—such as simple sheds, agricultural greenhouses, farmers' markets, and sports venues—have collapsed. To remind property owners to take risk-prevention measures, raise safety awareness in building use, and reduce the safety risks of large-span steel-structure buildings under extreme weather, a special symposium on preventing and responding to low-temperature rain, snow, and freezing disasters affecting large-span steel-structure and other buildings was held in Beijing on February 22. At the meeting, relevant experts in the housing and urban-rural development field, drawing on their own work practice, offered specific opinions and suggestions on design, construction, use, maintenance, and management.
Some experts noted that large-span steel structures built strictly in accordance with the construction process can have their safety guaranteed under specified load conditions and with appropriate maintenance measures. However, under extreme weather, particular attention should be paid to the safety of light steel-structure roofs with spans of 18 to 40 meters, because such buildings involve many people, have large roof spans, relatively light dead loads, and low design loads, and are prone to brittle failure under low temperatures and excessive local loads. They suggested promptly reducing loads, investigating hidden dangers, lowering accident risks, making every effort in prevention and response work, ensuring the safety of building structures, and safeguarding the vital interests of the people.
In the face of heavy snowfall, rapidly reducing the snow load brought by snowfall is undoubtedly the fastest and most feasible measure to eliminate hidden dangers and dangerous situations. Some experts said that in regions such as the Jianghuai area, winter humidity and moisture levels are greater than in northern regions; after snowfall, snow rapidly undergoes alternating melting and freezing and then accumulates again, making building snow loads more dangerous than in northern regions. Experts suggested that, on the premise of ensuring the safety of workers, ice and snow should be removed promptly to avoid excessive snow accumulation or repeated layering of melted snow into ice. Special attention should be paid to easily snow-accumulating parts such as eaves and gutters, with emphasis on eliminating locally concentrated snow loads. At the same time, ice and snow removal work should be scientific, orderly, and balanced to avoid asymmetric snow accumulation; attention should also be paid to preventing falls from heights, injuries caused by sliding snow, and injuries caused by falling ice.
Other experts proposed that strengthening building inspections is crucial. When weather warnings are issued, structural inspections should be carried out promptly, with particular attention to whether there is serious corrosion of members and whether roof supports are loose or deformed; if such conditions exist, the buildings should be temporarily closed during extreme weather. Experts said these problems should be dealt with promptly before extreme weather occurs, and after extreme weather, follow-up visits and investigations of large-span steel-structure buildings should be strengthened to discover and eliminate possible hidden dangers and problems; where conditions permit, comprehensive structural inspections should be organized regularly.
At present, China has a large stock of existing buildings, and many buildings, including large-span steel-structure buildings, have reached the stage of repair and maintenance. Coupled with prominent extreme weather, in response to the above situation, users should focus on building safety. Experts believe that the key to reducing risks and hidden dangers is to strengthen the safety awareness of building users. Property owners should strengthen daily maintenance and regular inspections of buildings, formulate relevant systems, and determine inspection and maintenance cycles according to the types of building components and parts, so as to ensure that the building as a whole remains in normal operation year-round. Daily maintenance inspections should cover not only the actions of owners and property management units but also regular follow-up visits to design units. Through design follow-up visits, safety inspections, and other methods, hidden dangers and problems should be discovered and eliminated in a timely manner. For large-span buildings where abnormal noises and obvious deformation are found, use should be stopped immediately, people inside and around the building should be evacuated, closed-off measures should be taken, and safety warnings should be strengthened to ensure that "people do not enter dangerous buildings, and dangerous buildings do not admit people," and the housing management department should be reported to as soon as possible.
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