All fall down

ju10prd

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Sociedad de Ingenier?a S?smica denuncia 37 de 43 hospitales colapsar?an de ocurrir un terremoto

Well it appears from the above interview by The President of the Seismic Engineering Society that in the event of a significant earthquake hospitals and schools will suffer significant damage as indeed will many other buildings.

Comes as no surprise to me having been trained in structural design and having managed the construction of a number of very large buildings and projects designed to seismic codes in several earthquake prone countries.

The structural code here was upgraded a few years back in late 2012 after review of the Haiti quake.

I have witnessed the woeful standard of concrete construction in the campo and smaller towns including some new schools and public buildings and can concur with this report concerning a total lack of supervision.

This is sad because there are good engineers in this country and some good quality construction is taking place,but it is the public sector and those that supposedly ensure compliance with codes and building standards that negate two fold all the positive points.

To suggest that some of the new schools that have been built recently were not to the new seismic codes beggars belief, but quite possible in that the designs were probably done some time back and never reviewed because of the incompetence of public works officials.

A large budget needs to be found to put things right and a shake up Public Works is in order.
 

bob saunders

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One of the new schools built in Jarabacoa had a roof collapse , fortunately during the phase before occupation. Like contractors everywhere, corners will be cut if possible.
 

william webster

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I have a friend , in RD, who is employing several young Dominican engineers.

My friend has been building hotels, and various other type bldgs. around the world for over 30 yrs.

He can't say enough about the young engineers he has.... excellent, he says.

As for cement, he says its the best cement he's come across.
Mind you , they had samples produced... like 10 samples ... to the project's specs..... and they check the quality on every delivery...... no tricks allowed.

.This is a foreign controlled project.... Tens of millions of dollars (not pesos)

It will be written up as an architectural and engineering breakthrougjh.... he says.
 

ju10prd

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I have a friend , in RD, who is employing several young Dominican engineers.

My friend has been building hotels, and various other type bldgs. around the world for over 30 yrs.

He can't say enough about the young engineers he has.... excellent, he says.

As for cement, he says its the best cement he's come across.
Mind you , they had samples produced... like 10 samples ... to the project's specs..... and they check the quality on every delivery...... no tricks allowed.

.This is a foreign controlled project.... Tens of millions of dollars (not pesos)

It will be written up as an architectural and engineering breakthrougjh.... he says.

Yes Dominican cement is good and one can get good graded aggregates here too. And the engineers are good along with architects. And the standards of precast concrete have been very good here for years (Bison of UK started this many many years ago). The quality of the civil engineering structures appears good too.

But reinforced concrete is a complex product and needs good quality control to achieve it's design strength. Correctly batched QA controlled aggregates in the correct quantity, correct weight of cement and the correct amount of total water since strength is very much dependent on water/cement ratio. And to add to that the concrete must be compacted thoroughly with the correctly installed reinforcing bars in a structure to perform as designed. The ready mix companies are no doubt achieving those production standards and good site supervision can achieve the rest. But too many more modest buildings and almost all domestic dwelling outside the city centres and resorts are not hitting required standards by a long way due in large part to poor public works building control and contractor supervision.
 

william webster

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It won't be long now before this all will be public info...

I am sure you'll be impressed....
I looked but couldn't find a picture to do it justice....

It is good construction in ANY country.... my expert friends tell me.......... what do I know??
 

ju10prd

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It won't be long now before this all will be public info...

I am sure you'll be impressed....
I looked but couldn't find a picture to do it justice....

It is good construction in ANY country.... my expert friends tell me.......... what do I know??

Please pass on the information.......I am linked into a forum on Caribbean construction and would be pleased to share with them
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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I'm not trained in nothing and could havre told you. One of these days Santiago or SD will all fall down. Unless in the case of SD the big hurricane comes first and flattens the place.
 

dv8

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Well it appears from the above interview by The President of the Seismic Engineering Society that in the event of a significant earthquake hospitals and schools will suffer significant damage as indeed will many other buildings.

natural selection, so to speak. the weak will go first.
 

bermyboy

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JU10 I am somewhat of a concrete fanatic as well I am actually a shotcrete nozzleman mostly robot amazing stuff faster cheaper and just as stron gif not stronger than regular pour and form would like to see it used more all over the world besides mines and Tunnels.
 

ju10prd

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JU10 I am somewhat of a concrete fanatic as well I am actually a shotcrete nozzleman mostly robot amazing stuff faster cheaper and just as stron gif not stronger than regular pour and form would like to see it used more all over the world besides mines and Tunnels.

Freeform swimming pools??
 

bermyboy

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Tunnels for me buddy of mine doen the swimming pool in Sea Horse Ranch very nice he also done all the tunnels on the first stage of the Metro he is the one who got me into shotcrete. I have been fortunate to work on some really big projects around the world so far .
 

bermyboy

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Dec 13, 2007
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Comparing the schools and hospitals to the civil construction is dificult all big civil contruction jobs I have been on have inspectors from other countries there to check your every step if it is wrong take it all apart do it again. Th schools and Hospitals I have seen built are not the same way or I doubt even inspected so of course they will be of lesser quality.
 

william webster

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Shotcrete

Bermy, I will have a project for you if/when I sell my house.

New property has a great site for a free form pool...... it'll be fun.