Circular No. 02/2012/TT-BXD guiding certain contents regarding the maintenance of civil construction works, industrial construction works made of building materials, and urban technical infrastructure works.

CIRCULAR

Guidelines on certain aspects of maintenance for civil works,

worksconstruction materials industrial works and urban technical infrastructure works

____________________

Pursuant to the Construction Law No. 16/2003/QH11 dated November 26, 2003;

Pursuant to the Housing Law number 56/2005/QH11 November 29, 2005;

WHEREAS, Decree No. 17/2008/NĐ-CP dated February 4, 2008 of the Government stipulates the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Construction;

Pursuant to Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP dated December 6, 2010 of the Government on the maintenance of construction works (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP);

Pursuant to Decree No. 71/2010/ND-CP dated June 23, 2010 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Housing (hereinafter referred to as Decree No. 71/2010/ND-CP),

The Ministry of Construction hereby provides guidelines on certain aspects of maintenance for civil works, construction materials industrial works and urban technical infrastructure works as follows:

Article 1. Scope of regulation and đApplicability

1. This Circular guides Clause 26 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP regarding persons responsible for maintenance; construction works and parts of construction works that must be monitored during operation and use; consideration and decision-making on continued use of construction works beyond their design life; handling of construction works that have deteriorated in quality and do not ensure operational and usage safety; resolution of incidents during operation and use and inspection of maintenance work implementation.

This Circular applies to organizations and individuals related to the management, operation, and use of civil works (excluding historical and cultural heritage works), construction materials industrial works, and urban technical infrastructure works within the territory of Vietnam.

2. Maintenance work for other types of construction works shall be guided by the Ministries managing specialized construction works in accordance with Clause 1 of Article 26 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP.

Article 2. Provisions on persons responsible for maintenance

1. Responsibility for maintenance of construction works with one owner:

a) For state-owned works, the organization or individual entrusted by the State to manage and operate the works shall be responsible for maintaining the works;

b) For works owned by others, the owner of the works shall be responsible for maintaining the works.

Specifically, for urban technical infrastructure works, the project owner is responsible for maintaining the construction works until they are handed over to the state for management;

c) For works invested under the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) model, the legal representative of the project enterprise shall be responsible for maintaining the works during the specified business operation period as stipulated in the project contract; upon completion of the business operation period, the organization receiving the transfer from the Investor shall be responsible for continuing to maintain the works.

2. Responsibility for maintenance of construction works with multiple owners:

a) For residential buildings, the owners shall be responsible for maintaining their respective ownership portions and contributing funds for the maintenance of common ownership portions in accordance with Articles 48 and 51 of Decree No. 71/2010/ND-CP;

b) For other works (excluding residential buildings), the owner of the individual ownership portion of the works shall be responsible for maintaining their respective ownership portion and at the same time shall be responsible for maintaining the common ownership portion of the works. The division of responsibility for maintaining the common ownership portion of the works must be specifically agreed upon in writing or in the purchase or lease contract for assets by the owners or their authorized representatives.

3. The owner or person authorized in accordance with point b, Clause 1, Article 5 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP when entrusting another organization or individual to operate and use the works must agree with such organization or individual on the responsibility for maintaining the works.

4. For works whose owners have not been determined, the person currently operating and using the works shall be responsible for maintaining them.

Article 3. Engineering works and parts of engineering works that must be monitored during operation and use

1. During operation and use, engineering works specified in Appendix 1 of this Circular and engineering works showing signs of subsidence, cracking, tilting, and other abnormal signs that may cause collapse of the works must be monitored.

The parts of the works that need to be monitored are the main load-bearing structures of the works which, if damaged, could lead to the collapse of the works (for example: spatial roof trusses, main load-bearing frame systems of the works, stadium stands, chimneys, silos...).

2. Monitoring locations; monitoring parameters and limit values for these parameters (for example: tilting deformation, subsidence, cracking, sagging...); monitoring time; number of measurement cycles and other necessary contents shall be stipulated by the contractor designing and constructing the works.

3. General requirements for monitoring construction works during exploitation and use:

a) Monitoring must be carried out according to the monitoring plan established by the contractor and approved by the person responsible for maintaining the project;

b) The monitoring plan must specify the measurement methods, measuring devices, layout diagrams and construction of markers, organizational implementation, data processing methods, and other necessary contents;

c) The monitoring contractor must establish and report to the person responsible for maintenance about the monitoring results, including monitoring data which must be evaluated and compared with the limit values stipulated by the contractor designing and constructing the works, relevant standards.

In case the monitoring data reaches the limit values stipulated in Clause 2 of this Article or shows other abnormal signs, the person responsible for maintenance must organize an assessment of the safety of the works, safety of operation and use, and take timely measures to address them.

d) Organizations and individuals implementing monitoring activities must have the necessary conditions for construction activities equivalent to the conditions of organizations and individuals conducting surveying or quality inspection of construction works.

Article 4. Consideration and decision on continued use of works that have exceeded their design life

1. Works that have exceeded their design life are those that have been operated and used for a period longer than the design life of the works. The design life of the works is determined according to the provisions of the design dossier.

In cases where the design dossier of the works is lost or does not specify the design life, the life of the works will be determined according to relevant technical regulations and standards or based on the life already determined for similar works of the same type and grade.

2. When works exceed their design life, the person responsible for maintaining the works must perform the following tasks:

a) Organize inspections, tests, and evaluations of the current quality of the work.

b) Repair the works if there is damage to ensure functionality and safe use before considering and deciding on continued use of the works;

c) Independently decide to continue using Class III and Class IV works without causing disasters when accidents occur, in accordance with the law on construction quality management;

d) Report to the competent state agency as stipulated in Clause 6 of this Article regarding the content as stipulated in Clause 3 of this Article for works from Grade II upwards, and works that may cause disasters when accidents occur, as prescribed by laws on construction project quality management.

3. Content of the report by the person responsible for maintenance:

a) Project quality assessment results;

b) Proposal on handling the works in one of the situations: continue using the works or change the purpose of use, repair the works if necessary; limited use of part of the works; restrict use of the works or cease use of the works entirely.

4. The competent state agency as stipulated in Clause 6 of this Article is responsible for responding in writing to the proposal of the person responsible for maintenance on handling works that have exceeded their design life. If the competent state agency does not approve the proposal of the person responsible for maintenance, it must clearly state the reasons for non-approval.

5. Handling of old residential buildings' works that have exceeded their design life shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of laws on renovating old residential buildings.

6. The competent state management agency considers and approves continued use of works that have exceeded their design life:

a) The Ministry of Construction for special-grade and Grade I works;

b) Provincial People's Committees for the remaining works.

7. The person responsible for maintenance sends directly or by post two sets of files as stipulated in Clause 3 of this Article to the competent state agency as stipulated in Clause 6 of this Article to be considered and handled for works that have exceeded their design life.

The time for consideration and handling by the competent state agency shall not exceed thirty working days from the date of receipt of complete valid files for special-grade and Grade I works, and not more than twenty working days for the remaining works.

Article 5. Handling of construction works and parts thereof that do not ensure safety for operation and use

1. Construction works and parts thereof that do not ensure safety for operation and use are hazardous works and parts with a risk of collapse, manifested through signs such as cracks, sagging, subsidence, tilting up to the limit value as prescribed by relevant technical standards and regulations.

2. When discovering construction works that do not ensure safety for operation and use, the person responsible for maintenance shall be responsible for implementing the provisions stipulated in Clause 1, Article 18 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP.

3. The competent state agency as prescribed in Point b, Clause 1, Article 18 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP must implement the provisions stipulated in Clause 3, Article 18 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP for construction works that do not ensure safety for operation and use.

4. In cases where construction works may collapse immediately, the person responsible for maintenance must urgently evacuate all people from this work and nearby works affected, report to the People's Committee of the commune or the People's Committee of the district to receive support in implementing safety measures.

The People's Committee of the commune or the People's Committee of the district, upon discovering or being reported about the situation of construction works that may collapse immediately, must organize the implementation of safety measures such as stopping the use of the work, evacuating people and property, sealing off the work and other necessary measures.

5. The owners and users of nearby construction works must have the responsibility to implement safety measures as prescribed in Clause 4 of this Article when requested.

6. Construction works damaged by typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, and other impacts must be evaluated for quality before deciding to continue using and operating them.

7. Handling of dangerous old residential building works shall be carried out in accordance with the laws on renovating old residential buildings.

8. In cases where accidents occur during the operation and use of construction works, handling of such accidents shall be carried out in accordance with the laws on construction project quality management.

Article 6. Inspection of the Implementation of Maintenance of Construction Works

The State management agency for construction inspects the implementation of maintenance of construction works with the following contents:

1. The establishment and approval of the maintenance procedures of the construction works as prescribed by Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP.

2. Compliance with the maintenance regulations of the construction works by the owner or the authorized person as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 17 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP.

3. Reporting on the implementation of maintenance of the construction works by the owner or the authorized person as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 17 of Decree No. 114/2010/ND-CP;

4. Implementation of the provisions stipulated in Article 4 of this Circular in cases where the construction works have reached their design life.

5. Implementation of monitoring of construction works and parts thereof that are required to be monitored as prescribed in Article 3 of this Circular.

Article 7. Implementation Provisions

1. This Circular takes effect from August 1, 2012.

2. The Minister, Heads of Ministries equivalent to Ministries, agencies under the Government, Chairmen of Provincial People's Committees, and organizations and individuals concerned are responsible for implementing this Circular.

3. During the implementation process, if there are difficulties, organizations and individuals are advised to promptly reflect to the Ministry of Construction for consideration and resolution.