We've had to make up for the absence of Dignité updates (as it's finished construction) by expounding on the other four schools. Hope you don't mind, but there's a lot of activity going on...
A synopsis on school construction status follows, with exhaustive coverage of construction and communities available on the Students Rebuild Haiti blog.
École Elie Dubois - Status: 5% Construction Administration - Foundations for the cafeteria have been excavated and rebar is being placed leading up to the foundation and slab pour. Meanwhile, VivaRio's biodigester dome is being finished.
Design fellow Natalie Desrosiers and design associate Ben Gordon visit the construction crew to verify
foundation cages for the new cafeteria
VivaRio team finishing the dome to the biodigester
Now nearly-completed roof on the UNESCO buildings-note the ventilation channel along the ridge
Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger, Montrouis - Status: 83% Construction Administration - FoundationsThe second floor has topped out and steel and formwork are being prepared for the ring beam to top the walls and tie them all together. Steel trusses are also being welded for the roof–an exploration into our team specifying different materials from the wood trusses used in Dignité. The benefits include working with a more available construction material, and operational changes include tying metal plates into the ring beam pour for spot welding other welding happening on-site. Meanwhile, the first floor has been coated in the traditional Haitian cement-based crepissage plaster and paint is now being applied, and construction has begun on the handicap ramp, as well as metal-crafted doors and window screens.
Crepissage coating is being applied to the ground floor of Montrouis
Cardboard templates for metal doors
Fitting metal window shades, testing light levels
École Baptiste Bon Berger, Pele - Status: 15% Construction Administration - For the workers at Pele it's been a dramatic battle...against water. The Site is so close to sea level, freshly dug wall and building foundations quickly fill with groundwater. The crew has been retaliating with water pumps, allowing steel foundation cages and first pours to be been placed in the past couple weeks. The concrete has literally forced the water down the trench toward the water pumps. Team architect Burtland here leaves a rather cryptic comment: "It worked for the Romans."
Mixing the concrete
Trench chase
Meanwhile, rubble from the old school has been crushed to become a perfect sub-slab fill...and we wish we had more of it. The rubble from the old and damaged classroom block only offsets our fill needs by a fraction!
Digging out the classroom foundation...with heavy machinery
Impromptu test of the rubble crusher (it works)
Institut Foyer du Savoir - Status: 13% Construction Administration - FoundationsConstruction continues apace and, with the help of a flash schedule posted on site (and a Google calendar posted online), the contractors all agreed to get Phase One finished by February 6th!
Foundation steel in place for Home of Knowledge Phase 1 classrooms.
A "Monument to Scheduling" has been erected on site.
