In my research, the method I applied is replicative study in which example researches are observed under the same Rasmussen theoretical background. As already mentioned in Chapter 1.5, the way I collect data is mainly Internet search, university data base in China and TUDelft, Chinese newspapers and information from my relatives and friends. However difficulties and obstacles exist in this process, which limit my research result.
The main limitation is the insufficiency of my information source. I was planning to interview people working in metro industry in Shanghai, both workers and decision makers. First it turns out that it was not easy to get access to workers in metro construction as I was in Europe which made face to face interview impossible. Within my resource, I managed to get in touch with one of my distant relative who used to work in Shentong Metro at Department of Rail Transit Operation Management Center and was now retired. We communicated through online chat and emails. He gives me detailed information about organizational structure of Shentong Metro (as illustrated in Chapter 2), official reports of the two accidents, an article about lessons learnt from Line 10 accident published within Shentong Metro, and an introduction on emergency response system applied in Shanghai metro system. From his information I was able to structure the three hierarchical levels within Shentong Metro, matching Rasmussen’s theory. Also official reports and lesson learnt provide me with a perspective to look at the case from company angle. However he fails to provide me more detailed information on how monitoring is done and decision making is carried out in the construction process of the two lines just because he couldn’t. He explained it as bureaucratic settings in the company makes decision making opaque and various departments know very little about what the others are doing. This made me think about Rasmussen’s model
of socio-technical map. In a hierarchical system, every stakeholder knows who the big boss is, but doesn’t necessarily know what others in the same level are doing.
I also interviewed two of my friends who have been living in Shanghai for a long time. I asked them how they think about Shanghai metro. They are generally satisfied with the metro but express a certain extent of concern on the frequent accident rate in the last five years, and how government acts after each accident. They both think government is more profit-driven than environment protecting in developing more lines. I consider their opinions very useful when I analyze public participation in the project. It is noticeable that public is merely involved in the decision making process, which may cause misunderstanding between local government and public. A sound system of information sharing is in need for the present and future.
Apart from getting information from real people, I did a lot of online search and literature reading which contribute to the most data base of my research. In this way I get access to articles written by both Chinese and western journalists or reporters on these cases, editorials by experts and scholars, etc. In this way I was able to look at the problem from various perspectives.
Reflecting on my research method which is concluded above, some comments could be made. The insufficiency of resource could be improved if I had chance to go to Shanghai and conduct an onsite interview and if more inside information was obtained. Also a questionnaire for local people will add to my research. However, even if I was in China, these improvements would not be easy as far as I could imagine. An opportunity to go to construction site and get the real information is difficult as constitutional barriers exist: Whether workers will tell the true story is unknown. So collecting facts and causes is always a hard job. Looking at Netherlands, an independent transport safety committee is established to help investigate accidents with almost 100% transparency in information sharing. Dutch government doesn’t have the right to interfere in the investigating process and all parties should put their information into sunlight to help the committee in any stage of investigation.
At last, I have many thoughts after this significant research. Though still many problems exist, I have to say that it is a valuable experience for me to look at the how construction projects (especially metro projects) are carried out in China, from a project manager ’s perspective. I not only have gained deeper understanding for various processes in the project, but also realized institutional background and cultural characteristics are key deciding elements in a project. In China the government is the king, so many problems boom out because of this. Also I came to know a country’s “software ability” should match its “hardware ability”, which software means management and hardware means technology. I sincerely hope one day China’s metro development level can be on the top of the world’s best.
54
APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Metro accidents in major cities around the world in the last 15 years
CITY ACCIDENT TYPE DATE CONSEQUENCE TOTAL
Singapore
Road surfa ce collapse 20/4/2004 4 dead and 3 injured. Project delayed
5 Electri city failure 15/12/2011
No one injured. 127 thousand people affected; traffi c paral yzed for 5 hours ; the bigges t a ccident in 24 yea rs
Techni cal failure 17/12/2011 No one injured. Tra ffi c affected for 7 hours Concrete slab fall 11/3/2012 1 dead. fi rst casualty in Downtown Line
construction Cement roof collapse 18/7/2012 2 dead and 8 injured
London
Derailment and fi re 25/1/2003 32 injured; line closed for 3 months
7 Electri city failure 8/28/2003 250 thousand passengers trapped
Derailment of broken rail 17/10/2003 No one injured Derailment of poor design 19/10/2003 7 injured. Derailment of design and
operating faul ts
11/5/2004 No one injured
Derailment of negligence of workers
5/7/2007 No one dead and 21 injured
Runawa y maintenance locomoti ve
13/8/2010 No one dead or injured
NYC
Derailment 20/6/2000 89 injured
7 Fi re 16/8/2006 15 injured and 4000 eva cuated
Collision 24/4/2007 1 dead
Collision 29/4/2007 1 dead 1 injured Derailment 5/4/2008 No one dead or injured Derailment 13/2/2009 No one dead or injured Landslide 3/4/2012 1 dead 4 injured
Unknown 20/2/2013 1 worker trapped in the concrete
Washington
Collision 3/11/2004 20 injured
10 Collision 22/6/2009 9 dead and more than 70 injured
Collision 29/11/2009 2 injured
Derailment 7 times !
HK
Derailment 5 times 1995-2007 No one dead or injured
Around 10
Several cases 1/2004 Unknown
Electri city failure 3/5/2012 About 1000 passengers a ffected Electri city failure 23/7/2012 About 1000 passengers a ffected
New Delhi
Concrete block fell because of techni cal failure
28/8/2007 1 dead
6 Wa ter tank collapsed 21/1/2008 1 dead
Appendix 2: Metro accidents in major cities in China from 2007 to 2013
Fl yover collapsed 19/10/2008 2 dead 16 injured Gi rder fell 12/7/2009 5 dead 20 injured Derailment 13/9/2009 No one dead or injured
Paris
Fi re 6/8/2005 19 injured
4
Fi re 29/7/2009 35 injured
Derailment 30/8/2010 24 injured
Unknown 9/1/2012 Hundreds passengers trapped in tunnel for more than 3 hours
CITY ACCIDENT TYPE DATE CONSEQUENCE TOTAL
Beijing
Collapse 3/29/2007 6 person killed
8 Ma chine falling 7/21/2009 5 workers severel y injured
Support sys tem
falling 7/14/2010 2 person killed, 8 severel y injured Mechanical faul t 4/26/2011 1 person killed, 2 severel y injured Collapse 6/01/2011 1 person killed
Ma chine falling 2/23/2012 Nea rby traffi c interrupted for 8 hours Collapse 3/26/2012 1 person killed
Collapse 5/22/2012 1 person killed
Dalian Collapse 2011 3 person killed 6
Shenzhen
Collapse 4/01/2008 3 person killed, 2 severel y injured
10 Fi re 3/09/2009 10 households eva cua ted, over 330
households nega ti vel y affected Gas poisoni ng 7/06/2009 2 person killed
Collapse 7/19/2009 1 person killed, 1 injured Collapse 9/04/2009 1 person killed
Collapse 10/13/2009 1 person killed Collapse 10/26/2009 1 person killed Mechanical faul t 2/09/2010 2 person killed
Mechanical faul t 4/04/2011 1 person killed, 2 injured Gas poisoni ng 5/09/2011 2 person killed, 4 injured
Xi’an Fi re 5/26/2009 1 person severel y injured 2
Collapse 8/02/2009 2 person killed
Nanjing
Collapse 2/5/2007 Over 5000 househol ds eva cua ted; one building nea rby damaged by explosion
4 Landslide 5/28/2007 1 person seriousl y injured
Collapse 5/27/2009 A power distribution subs tation destroyed Collapse 8/8/2012 No person injured or killed
Hangzhou
Collapse 11/15/2008 21 person killed, 19 injured
3 Landslide 11/25/2010 1 person killed, 1 severel y injured
56
Appendix 3: The winning bid (contractors) of Shanghai metro Line 10 (civil
construction)
Section
No. Bidding Winner
Price
(million yuan) Starting Date
Construction Days
1 Shanghai Cons truction Group (SCG)
General Co. 517.38 2005-12-20 757
2 Shanghai Urban Cons truction Group Co 368.45 2005-12-28 558 3 Shanghai Cons truction Group (SCG)
General Co. 331.20 2006-2-28 1146
4 Tengda Cons tructi on Group Co. Ltd 235.9 2006-8-8 699
5 Hongrun Cons tructi on Group Co. Ltd 309.89 2006-7-20 680 6 Shanghai Urban Cons truction Group Co 662.28 2006-7-20 778 7 Shanghai Cons truction Group (SCG)
General Co. 588.21 2006-7-20 806
8 Shanghai Urban Cons truction Group Co 58.20 2006-10-1 541 9 Shanghai Urban Cons truction Group Co. 635.88 2006-8-10 831 10
11 Hongrun Cons tructi on Group Co. Ltd 2006-7-1 678
Harbin
Collapse 10/06/2010 9 person severel y injured
4 Collapse 9/21/2011 No person injured or killed
Collapse 6/13/2012 80,000 l ocals suffer from interruption of wa ter suppl y
Collapse 8/28/2012 No person injured or killed
Qingdao Collapse 7/17/2011 No person injured or killed 1
Chengdu Mechanical faul t 11/08/2009 1 person killed 1
Fuzhou Ma chine overturned 11/14/2011 1 person slightl y injured 1
Zhengzhou Ma chine falling 2/18/2012 1 person severel y injured 1
Dongguan Ma chine falling 8/20/2012 Nea rby traffi c interrupted for 2 hours 1
Wuhan Collapse 8/7/2012 1 person killed 1
Shanghai
Collapse 5/28/2007 1 person severel y injured
8 Mechanical faul t
1/08/2009 1 person killed
Fi re 1 killed, 6 severel y injured
Electri city failure 7/15/2009 No person injured or killed Electri city failure 12/22/2009 No person injured or killed Supporting s ys tem
falling 8/18/2011 2 person killed, 4 injured Supporting s ys tem
falling 9/27/2011 271 injured and 21 severel y injured Mechanical faul t 12/31/2012 18 person killed, 5 injured
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