Concrete Roof Work, Painting, and Andres!

After an extended time of carpentry and rebar work, our concrete supplier has completed another 28% of the building leading to having 60% of the building under-roof. We will keep it watered for the next 10 days or so allowing the concrete to cure as well as possible under the hot Dominican sun.

The batch plant where the concrete ingredients
are measured and loaded into the mixing trucks.

The workers leveling the freshly-laid concrete.

Not in my boot! ... Not really, but the amount of concrete
coming out of the pumper tube is a bunch!

The boom of the concrete pumper looking towards
 the famous tree in the southwest corner.

Our temporary hose bibs set up to keep water on the
new concrete, and a finisher polishing the new concrete.

The "locker room" for the concrete workers who
came down from Santiago, a 5 hour drive.

As the sun set on Thursday, the workers were still working
toward getting the roof completed.

This week my hometown team from Second Presbyterian church and helped get some primer on the walls. It was really neat to have Andres, a local painter who sells painting in the Guest House (and who has helped paint the existing clinic over the years since it's completion) show up Tuesday and has been getting a bunch of work done rolling primer on the walls. 

Andres is excited to be volunteering his time
helping get the first section of the building painted. 

Stacy Potter and Blake Anderson helping get the window
openings primed and ready for new windows to be installed.

Thats all for now ... 

Thanks for your prayers and support for this hospital construction project.

  

Mid-July 2017 - much progress!

It is going to be a great week at the project!

Dropped Ceilings

A special thanks to Scott Bauer and Wrightway Interiors Systems in Peoria, IL. For allowing Mike Miquiston & Derek Allison to spent 4 working days with us and getting the dropped ceiling installed in the entire first section!

Their stilts and laser were big hits here in the DR!

Concrete Work

This week we plan to get over 260 cubic meters of concrete placed on the form work that is getting final preparations – this concrete will be the roof slab over intensive care, maternity, overnight rooms, and more -  a total of 1,103 square meters (11,872 square feet)!  This will be equivalent to the combined first two areas where we have completed this type of concrete work. With the completion of this area, we will have 54% of our roof area completed.

Randy and DJ installing perimeter plastic

Larry installing plugs in the roof drain pipes

Almost ready for this large amount of concrete

Special anchors for the Operating Light and Gas Pendant

Electrical and Medical Gases

Conduit pipes to run wires and piping between rooms

Our electrical crew is hard at work preparing for the concrete by installing countless numbers of conduits so that we will be able to easily run wires and gas pipe from room to room through the concrete walls and beams.

Conduit to run wiring from the roof into the room

Plumbing

The plumber is preparing to connect our water lines to the main 2” supply line that he will be installing soon. We want to get these first two sections of the building pressurized so we can confirm that there are no leaks before we begin placing a base layer of concrete on the floors. The cistern floor has been poured so the rebar and carpenters will begin getting the walls ready for concrete.

and ... Painting!

The team from my church (Second Presbyterian) in Roanoke, Virginia is doing some final prep work and getting paint on the walls in our first section of the building! We hope to show you some colors in a few days!

Katherine and Ann Ashley

Ali and Lexi ... and jefe Jim in the background

Thanks for your prayers for SRI, for the project, 

for workers and for our volunteers!

A 4th of July update & !feliz cumpleaños!

Happy 4th of July from the DR!

Most of the SRI staff enjoyed a picnic at the reservoir yesterday afternoon.

 

  








Work continues and is slowly evolving into finish-type work which is very exciting.

Section #1 - Consultation/Exam/Specialty

We hope to get 28% of the roof concrete placed the week of the 17th which will get us to having 54% of the roof area completed.

Section 4 is being formed for the concrete roof which is almost 12,000 square feet

Opening for translucent vault.

Looking down the joint between section #4 and
 #3 which has higher walls - the roof will kick up
at this point to displace water away from the joint that will
located along this wall.

The lobby of the post-surgical area and opening
for the large vault.

Amin and his electrical workers are getting the conduit installed in section #1 and #2 and will then install conduit in the floors. This will all be wired and temporary power connected to these areas.

The electricians are getting their conduit in place.in section #1.

This consult room has the electrical conduits in place
and the ceiling is ready for a dropped ceiling to be installed

Cristian will be getting the water lines connected to the main line and get it pressurized so that we can be sure all of these below-floor lines are holding pressure. 


Tano and his carpenters having been working to get the 4th section formed, this area is twice as big as the first two roof areas we have completed. 

This area is framed and ready for the plywood, the white
pipes are electrical conduits that run
to switches, etc in the walls below.

Looking Southwest toward the large tree,
the opening in this section is where the second-largest
translucent vault will be located that covers
the lobby of the post-surgical area - see next photo.

We are skipping what we call the 3rd section for now because this section has higher walls and will require different bracing, ladders, etc. 

Detail of the rebar that will make up the beam that
defines the opening for the vault.

Johnny and his rebar guys are working right behind the carpenters gettign all of the rebar needed for the 4th section's roof. He has also prepped the cistern floor with the appropriate rebar. It is a bit discouraging that some of the cistern will need to be removed and re-set due to an incredibly hard rain that caused one side of the excavation to partially collapse and bury some of the installed rebar. 


As far as finishing materials, we are finalizing styles, colors etc so that we can begin getting these items installed on the first two sections. 

Sandro & Victor (engineers), Dr Canario,
Yamil (architect), Ken, Frank (behind the camera) 

Dr Canario and Yamil (architect) attended our site meeting last weekend and many of these items were discussed and then selected. It is nice to be at the point of picking finish items and paint colors!

The lobby 

The project is becoming an example of different phases of construction, with the east end at the point of finish work and the west end having only the block walls in place. 

Here are some more pictures showing what going on:

The small switch building which will house the
electrical transfer and main panels.

Our wonderful perimeter wall on the south side of the property
 built by the volunteer construction teams, they are now beginning to
work up the left / east side. 

Looking from the lobby into the administrative area

The eastern-most wall of the building with a sample window in place.  

The lobby of the consult section, ready to be finished
with paint, flooring and the translucent vault

Our capital campaign continues to need to raise sufficient funds to complete the building. 

Please consider helping us reach our goal of $4.5M, currently we have raised over $3.2M. 

And Finally, as I was finishing up this post close to lunchtime today, all the workers showed up, Frank presented a cake and everyone sang feliz cumpleanos to me! 

I then cut the cake using a hacksaw blade, but switched to a machete which was much better!

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