TED - Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

NALs

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Jan 20, 2003
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mountainannie

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THANKS!!!

I would think that this issue would be of grave concern to Dominicans since Haitian construction workers are building the bulk of the buildings here in the DR...

Now I am not an engineer-- so I do not even understand the term "confined masonary"

but what are the policies and practices in place here in the DR that ensure that the same sort of tragedy is not going to happen when a quake hits this side?
 

cobraboy

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Thanks, NALS.

One of the first things I noticed after seeing pictures of the earthquake was almost a total lack of horizontal and vertical rebar, just the opposite of what you see here.
 

Chip

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Well first of all, the comparison to Chile's earthquake is not exactly correct because apparently the shallower the earthquake the more destructive it's forces are. No doubt Chile's construction methods are generally better but nonetheless the quake in Haiti was more destructive.

I won't disagree with the fact that Haiti's construction methods leave much to be desired. I had a discussion with an American missionary who has lived in Haiti for 40 years and he tells me they know how to construct well and use clean sand as opposed to salt contaminated sand from the beaches but nonetheless it is only common sense after seeing the destruction that many buildings design and construction were inferior.

As far as construction in the DR goes, there are plenty of qualified and unqualified engineers and workers here. For example, I have inspected a house that was supposedly designed by an engineer and yet it had a very shallow footing given the fact that a portion of the house was cantilevered over a hill and worse the rebar in the questionable section was not tied together. Therefore, for those concerned constructing a new home in the DR make sure the engineer has references. As far as buying a used house this could be more difficult to know if it was constructed well. Typically, an older home with a shallow footing or untied rebar will have settled and cracks may appear in the exterior wall. Of course these can be patched. A more invasive inspection technique would be to chip away at a corner of the building or support and see if the rebar is tied together.
 
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VECTUS

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This is being built by Haitian engineers and Haitians investors Bienvenue chez Oasis A lot of the homes that collapsed were never inspected by engineers. They were built by masonry that often cut corners by using less material to make extra cash.
 

mountainannie

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This is being built by Haitian engineers and Haitians investors Bienvenue chez Oasis A lot of the homes that collapsed were never inspected by engineers. They were built by masonry that often cut corners by using less material to make extra cash.

yeah.. i heard about this before the Quake

they were saying that it will also have a helicopter pad for transport

few of us are going to be able to afford to stay there...

gubbmint types and the NGOs

i will still stay at the decrepit Olaffson

because i like the company