Ceverine Lessons Learned AFH / YCF March 12, 2011
Present:
Yves Francois, YCF
Darren Gill, Architecture for Humanity
Eric Cesal, Architecture for Humanity
Stacey McMahan, Architecture for Humanity
Hard Costs:
Labor:
Transportation:
Supply chain:
Materials:
Training:
Documentation/reporting:
Contingencies:
Financing:
Site Inspection March 3, 2011
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Tommy Stewart (TS) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
Leger / Save the Children (SAVE)
AfH, EF and SAVE visited the site to inspect final completion. There are some very minor touch ups to be carried out as requested by SAVE and AFH. Punch List #3 has been issued to EF. All school buildings are in full operation.
Minor Work:
These minor points should be complete within 2 days. Refer to punch list#3.
Additional Work:
Project Closeout and Payments:
It is hoped that all of the above items will be resolved at a meeting to be held Friday March 5 within SAVE
Any Other Business:
Project Update February 20, 2011
AFH has not been to Maissade to inspect work this week but the understanding is the job is complete. However, there are several outstanding issues:
Site Inspection:
Contract Closeout and Payments:
Site Inspection February 9-10, 2011
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
AfH was asked by EF to inspect the site on the understanding that all work (except windows) was complete. Unfortunately, work on the finishes has been slow the last 2 weeks and is not at final completion. This is of serious concern. The work rate on site must improve to finish this project within the next week.
Health/Safety:
New School Building:
Extg School Building:
Kitchen Building:
Latrine Building:
Site:
Schedule:
Other Business:
Site Inspection January 26-27, 2011
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Gerry Reilly (GR) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
Health/Safety:
New School Building:
Extg School Building:
Kitchen Building:
Latrine Building:
Site:
Material Procurement/Inventory:
Schedule:
Other Business:
.JPG)
Site Inspection January 12-15, 2011
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
Health/Safety:
New School Building:
Extg School Building:
Kitchen Building:
Latrine Building:
Site:
Material Procurement/Inventory:
Schedule:
Other Business:
Action Items:
Site Inspection January 10-11, 2011
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
Health/Safety:
New School Building:
Extg School Building:
Kitchen Building:
Latrine Building:
Site:
Material Procurement/Inventory:
Schedule:
Other Business:
Action Items:
Site Inspection December 14-16, 2010
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Frederick / Ecofra
Health/Safety:
New School:
Site:
Material Procurement/Inventory:
Schedule:
Other Business:
Action Items:
Site Inspection December 1-3, 2010
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Gerry Reilly (GR) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
Health/Safety:
Site [New School]:
Site [Extg School]:
Site [Kitchen/Latrine]:
Material Procurement/Inventory:
Schedule:
Other Business:
Action Items:
Site Inspection November 24, 2010
Personnel:
Darren Gill (DG) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Gerry Reilly (GR) / Architecture for Humanity (AfH)
Junior Aristilde (JA) / Ecofra (EF)
Health/Safety:
Site [New School]:
Site [Extg School]:
Material Procurement/Inventory:
Schedule:
Other Business:
Action Items:
Architecture for Humanity recently broke ground on the Ceverine school in Maissade, Haiti. The school presents many challenges common in Haiti: an extremely remote, rural site, as well as a lack of basic services such as water and electricity.
Architecture for Humanity faced the additional challenge of addressing an existing school block which had been constructed poorly. The existing school block had been built on a raft foundation on a steep slope and had begun to slide. The kitchen was a small cramped shed made of wood, creating a fire hazard. The latrine was merely a pit with a concrete shell over it.
The Architecture for Humanity team engaged the services of a local contractor and set to work to not only repair the existing damage but to expand the school with two additional classrooms, a new kitchen and composting latrine. The team was assisted by a team of U.S. volunteers including Tommy Stewart, the American Institute of Architects and the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Construction is proceeding using a large team of laborers from the Maissade community and we expect to be completed in early October.
The first images of the project under construction, as recorded by AfH volunteer architect Ronan Burke, are featured on the Ceverine OAN page.
Complete Ceverine school drawing set from 5 Aug uploaded to site, including rendered perspective and jpg versions of drawings
Date: July 8, 2010
Start Time: 6:00AM
End Time: 6:00pm
Attendees:
Eric Cesal, Regional Program Manager – Architecture for Humanity
Yves Francois, Design Director – Architecture for Humanity
Shamira Haider, SC & DRR Senior Advisor – Save the Children
Location: Outside Maissade (19.17368,-72.182207)
Overview
Architecture for Humanity was asked to visit and evaluate a school run by Save the Children in Severin, on the outskirts of Maissade. The school has been under construction for several years and is not yet complete. The following report will detail observations and contains a cursory scope of work we believe would be necessary to successfully complete the project.
Successful completion, as defined by Save the Children, is the remediation of any damage on the existing classroom block and provision of two additional classrooms and new latrines.
The school provides education to 257 students. Approximately 4 classes of 60 students. Student body is drawn from the surrounding area. School director avers that some students walk up to 2 hours each way to get to school.
There is no electricity on site. No generator was observed. Water is obtained from a dammed creek approximately 10 minutes walking to the Southeast. A small kitchen adjoins the school but is of different construction. It is rough hewn wood lattice work, does not appear to be stable and presents a fire safety hazard.
Classes are currently in recess, which provides an excellent opportunity to execute the remaining work. School supplies and books, are managed by Save the Children.
Being quite rural, no site security is provided or needed.
Physical Description:
The original structure is one-story CMU construction with cement finish, with a poorly wood-framed roof covered in corrugated metal roofing. It rests on a foundation that appears to be concrete with large voids of rock, but no destructive investigation was conducted. The main long house consists of five classrooms arranged linearly. Two additional outbuildings are on site: one latrine building and one wood shack that functions as wood storage and kitchen.
Although relatively new construction, the building is already showing signs of damage. The school has been located on the downhill slope of a short but steep incline, and draining water has been pounding on the South side of the structure since its construction. Additionally, the interior concrete floor slabs are spawled, presumably due to standing water on the building’s interior. The interior floor slab is neither level nor even, and water was seen ponding in several classrooms. (See Figure 5)
The pressure from downhill drainage appears to have moved the building slightly. The foundation has settled down hill. The resulting movement has led to significant cracking in the front entry stairs, which will need to be replaced. (See Fig. 4)
Existing windows are metal grate and may need to be reset. Existing doors are steel and appear in good shape. Walls show minor cracking, especially around the corners of the windows. These cracks do not appear severe enough to constitute structural damage of concern. However, they should be repaired along with other work.
The existing roof is rough hewn wood members. All connections appear to be toenailed or absent all together. No tie downs or hurricane clips were observed. In multiple locations, roof members were sistered together with shorter members. Several roof beams were observed sagging significantly. The roof sheathing appears to be light gauge corrugated metal roofing pinned down with non-galvanized nails. Roof is rusting. (See Figures 7,8)
The site itself appears well maintained. Soil is moist and appears to be well drained. A large shade tree exists in front of the school. It is not clear whether the root ball from the existing tree is exerting pressure on the cracked stairs. Site descends roughly 10’ from South to North but incline is not constant. The portion the south side of the existing building is quite steep, while the rest of the site is less of an incline. (see Figure 9)
Recommendations:
Repair:
Existing concrete steps need to be demolished and replaced.
Roof needs to be replaced in its entirety with continuous members, heavier gauge roofing and a rain collection system.
A drainage canal needs to be installed on the South side of the building. The drainage installation should be composed of drainage tile, or fill, or some such mechanism. It should also function as a ‘cricket’ to drain water to the East and West of the building.
Minor concrete repairs will be necessary on the walls of the building.
Specifically, around the window corners.
Concrete floors need to be chipped out and refinished. Floors should be made smooth and level.
New Work:
Two new classrooms can be provided on the west side of the existing structure. A new off-grid latrine system should also be provided. Since there is no water service to the site, this would likely be a composting toilet or use grey water from the rain catchement system.
Erection of these two classrooms would be relatively simple and quick, however, mobilization, material delivery and work force housing will be challenged by the remoteness of the site.
Some minor work should also be done to regrade the site to positively affect drainage away from the building.
All work is to be done by hand and hand power tools. No heavy equipment will be necessary.
Date: October 20, 2010
To: Save the Children
Re: Ceverine project, Lessons Learned Report
The project has encountered significant delays against what was understood from the beginning to be a highly aggressive schedule in a difficult environment. It behooves all to reflect and categorize the origin of these delays, even in advance of project completion, as a learning tool for future work and collaboration. Delays can be broken down into several major categories.
They are addressed as follows:
Weather:
The project has lost [X] many days to rain delays. Because of the geographic location of the project, rain affects the work in two ways. First, in the commonly understood way of preventing certain activities while rain is actually occurring. No concrete can be mixed or poured, and rain can interfere with block and carpentry and other activities. Second, because a large river separates the project from the office/guesthouse, work must be put on hold because the site becomes inaccessible as the river rises.
Solution:
There is regrettably no way to prevent the weather from affecting the project, especially in Haiti, other than building expected rain delays into the project schedule. It is our recommendation that on any future work, rain delays be factored into the schedule on the basis of historically predicted rainfalls in Haiti, plus some margin of safety such as 10 or 20%. Additionally, geography should be investigated and extra rain days should be provided for if access to site will be restricted in a rain event.
Supervision/Quality of local labor:
the Project team overestimated the workmanship quality of local labor and did not initially provide enough on-site supervision to manage the local crew. Several mistakes in construction were not caught in time and resulted in the work having to be ripped out and redone. Local labor poured foundations at a slant, ignored drawings and generally used the construction methods that they were used to using, most of which are considered substandard by international standards.
Solution:
It is our recommendation that on any future project in a remote site, a contractually protected period of 1 to 2 weeks be built into the schedule at project onset to provide training in applicable construction methods. No work should progress in this time. This time should be fully dedicated to making sure that local crews can perform at required level. One to two experienced supervisors cannot adequately survey 30 laborers if each laborer is acting independently. This training must be hands on and culturally sensitive.
Quality of existing Construction:
the existing building at Maissade was found to not have a foundation and to have been built on a slope, effectively turning the building into a giant sled. This was not observable prior to excavation. Additionally, the building was found to not have lintels above the doors and windows.
Solution:
On any existing structure, destructive demolition should be provided for by separate contract prior to beginning serious design work or construction documentation. Haitian construction has several specific qualities that make it difficult to diagnose poor construction without such destructive demolition: frequently, substandard construction is concealed with concrete parge, grout and paint. Save and its partners should block out time and expense prior to committing to any school repairs or upgrades.
Communication:
several errors were caused by miscommunication or delayed communication. While project communication is always essential, it becomes more so on remote sites. At times, several parties were directing messages across non-typical channels which resulted in crossed signals. Additional difficulties were created because of cellphone and data connectivity issues.
Solution:
A prebid meeting should document flows of communication not just between Save and its partners, but between all field personnel. Additionally, Save and its partners should separately provide their field personnel with wireless devices with data and photo capabilities. The ability to rapidly and conveniently send pictures and documents back and forth allows field personnel to verify construction problems with home-office supervisors, architects, engineers and other technical personnel.
Remoteness of the Site/Transportation/Logistics:
At project inception, it was agreed that because the site was so remote, it would make sense to move all materials out to the site at project inception so that the project would not be hampered by material delays and shortages. This rapidly became untenable because of the inability to find secure storage space on site. The contractor erected a temporary shed to house materials, but it is not large enough to house all project materials. To have built a structure adequate in size, much more capital and space would have had to have been provided. Additionally, the site would have had to have been secured with armed guards to avoid theft. At some point, the cost of providing temporary warehouse space exceeds the value gained by convenience. Another unforeseen problem involved the unwillingness of some private trucking companies to move materials to the site, at any price. Truckers were unwilling to risk damaging or disabling their fleet on rugged country roads, or lose trucks in the river.
Solution:
A cost benefit analysis should be undertaken at project inception to weigh the costs of onsite storage versus multiple-trip transportation. In certain cases, it may indeed make sense to build temporary facilities necessary to house all project materials at project inception, as well as provide necessary security and staff. However, in other cases, it may be more cost-effective to conduct multiple trips. As part of the cost-benefit analysis, consideration should be given to the cost of probable delays associated with multiple material deliveries.
End of Report
Eric Cesal, Program Manager
Architecture for Humanity, Haiti