Insured according to current requirements – VG

One person died and nine people remain missing on Friday night after a major landslide in Ask in Gjerdrum municipality on Wednesday morning.

Since Thursday, New Year’s Eve, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) has reviewed previous geological studies they have conducted in the area.

A total of 11 reports and technical notes have been produced in the period 2003-2007, including the planning and construction work for Nystulia, which has now been affected by the landslide.

The last technical note prepared in the period was produced in August 2007. Here NGI writes that the planning work for Nystulia has provided an overall improvement in the stability of the area, and NGI concludes that the area has satisfactory security.

– NGI provides advice, but the responsibility for carrying out the security measures does not lie with us. From what we can see from the review, this work has been done in accordance with the current requirements of the Planning and Construction Act and other guidelines. A more comprehensive review of the case could provide answers to this, says NGI CEO Lars Andresen.

– Not unusual

Marketing Director Guro Grøneng at NGI tells VG that they have not made any assessment of what caused the landslide.

He says they will contribute what they can to the police investigation.

– There has been fast clay in the area. It is a known case to everyone who has been involved in the construction case, Grøneng tells VG.

– Has it been safe to build houses here?

– It is not unusual to build on fast clay in Norway. But it is the case that you have special requirements, laws and regulations that you must take into account and that describe what kind of measures must be taken to obtain satisfactory security, he says.

Developer: Review Case

Nystulia’s residential area was expanded in 2008 and local developer Odd Sæther was behind it.

– I have nothing more to say, but we have worked according to the guidelines they have given us, says Sæther to VG.

– How could the landslide happen, if you have followed all the requirements and guidelines?

– NGI must respond to everything that has to do with geotechnics. I can’t say that right now. I hope an investigation is launched. Then I’ll line up and answer whatever it may be. I see that a person has been confirmed dead. Now I just hope there are more alive, he says.

High risk area

According to Aftenposten, the Norwegian Directorate of Water Resources and Energy (NVE) was scheduled to study 37 fast clay zones in Norway during the new year. The area affected by the landslides at Ask was one of them.

NVE assessments have recorded a ‘medium risk’ of landslides in the area close to the landslide in Gjerdrum, while a 2005 report describes the same area as a high risk area.

The fifteen-year-old report by NGI describes two of the areas near the landslide as high risk.

One of these zones is Hønsisletta, which includes the area where several houses collapsed on Wednesday. Risk is assessed on the basis of a combination of the probability of a landslide and the severity of the consequences that a landslide will have in the given area.

Think of objections

When the nursing home expanded into the Nystulia landslide area in 2016, NVE raised an objection that the zoning plan did not document the stability of the danger zone with rapid clay. The county governor also opposed the plans.

The Gjerdrum housing and treatment center was completed four years ago and is located near the landslide area.

Both NVE and the county governor withdrew their objections after the municipality and a consulting firm, Reinertsen AS, “resolved” the objection to the zoning plan.