Warsaw. Cracking walls in the block at Piaskowa. The prosecutor's office discontinued the investigation. What did the experts establish?

Cracking walls in the block at Piaskowa 9

Source: Mateusz Mżyk / tvnwarszawa.pl

The prosecutor's office has been discontinued three times the investigation into the municipal block on Piaskowa. The expert could not be clearly assessed whether the damage to the walls and structures could lead to a construction disaster. So far, the building has not been responsible for the fact that the building was deteriorating. According to officials, the reason is design errors.

On Thursday, we informed that in the municipal block at Piaskowa 9 in Wola, despite the renovation works, cracks and scratches on the walls are still appearing. In the summer of 2018, the Poviat Building Supervision Inspector issued an expertise on the poor technical condition of the building. He ordered immediate renovation, which was necessary to check out tenants from three frames. There were a total of over 350 people in total, living in 147 premises. Repair work lasted until August 2020.

The building was put into service in 2009 and immediately began to deteriorate. Wolsian officials claimed that the technical expertise showed that design errors were made. Therefore, the mayor of Wola Krzysztof Strzałkowski submitted a notification to the prosecutor's office of suspected unintentional bringing direct danger in the form of a collapse of the block. Similar notification was also prepared by the Wolski Zakład Zeczenia Zalowieczesieków.

The prosecutor's office discontinued the investigation three times

On their basis, the District Prosecutor's Office Warsaw -Olyborz initiated an investigation in September 2018. After a year, the case was taken over to continue conducting by the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw. In May 2020, the proceedings were discontinued due to the lack of a criminal offense. Both the will and ZGN appealed to investigators. In June 2021, the District Court for Warsaw-Wola agreed with their arguments and annulled the decision to discontinue the investigation.

The case was examined by the prosecutor's office for the next two years. Again, this did not bring grounds to charged anyone. The proceedings were discontinued in September 2023. This time ZGN appealed to this decision. In April 2024, they were considered by the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, repealing the decision.

The following months of the investigation did not bring new results. In December 2024, the case was discontinued for the third time.

A spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba explains that the decision to discontinue the proceedings in suspected unintentionally bringing direct danger in the form of collapse of the building was issued because the features of a prohibited act were not found again.

Investigators additionally examined the issue of unintentional failure to fulfill their duties by public officials participating in the design, investment and construction process and the cause of property damage of PLN 4.4 million. In this respect, the discontinuation of the proceedings resulted from the fact that the criminal record was limited. The aforementioned stage of the investment was taking place from August 2006 to December 11, 2009.

Cracking walls in the block at Piaskowa 9

The experts had a problem with an unambiguous risk assessment

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office points out that an expert for construction was initially appointed in the case, while later – according to the court's guidelines – a building opinion was given by a team of experts.

– As indicated in the opinion of experts from the Institute of Construction Analysis in Poznań, the lack of measurements during the first nine years of use of the object prevents the unambiguous answer about the possibility of a construction disaster – explains prosecutor Skiba.

He adds that the case file confirms that the construction of the building was destroyed and its condition deteriorated, and in 2020 repair work was completed. – In the opinion of experts, it can only be presumed that in the absence of repair work there could be a construction disaster – he indicates.

The decision on the third discontinuation of the proceedings is not yet final. The Plenipotentiary ZGN filed a complaint again. It has not yet been considered.

Building at Piaskowa 9