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Issue #1 | February 2011
I
t is Ghassan Obeid’s first day. His task is to test and fill all
the cavities between the rocks in the ground.The task itself
is hardly daunting. He’s done it many times before. “I know
how to do the job well,” he said proudly as he mops his forehead,
“though I don’t know what they are building here.”
His foreman, Nimr Hassan, informs him. “It’s a school,” he said.
“They will construct three buildings here.”
Obeid doesn’t look very interested. He will be long gone before the
construction even begins. His main focus is to fill those cavities
and finish the job. And so he returns to his task unaware that he
is helping to build IC’s longtime dream: the new – yet unnamed –
elementary school.
A few meters away, in his office at Thomson Hall, Director of
Facilities, Youssef Abi Abdallah, is highly aware of the dream and
carefully looks over the plans.
“We are now in the excavation phase,” he explained over the loud
drilling noise seeping through his office despite the closed win-
dows. “We still have two months to go.”
Fortunately, excavations have been going more or less smoothly.
“We didn’t encounter anything we couldn’t overcome,’ said Abi
Abdallah. “A large part of the ground was rockier than we thought,
for example, but we dealt with that.”
Although exciting, an archeological find (a possibility in a city con-
tinuously inhabited for more than 5,000 years) would have caused
a significant setback.
And thanks to a 2.5m plywood fence separating the construction
site from the campus, no incidents occurred.
Abi Abdallah smiles easily. “Everything,” he said, “is going as
planned.”
At a cost of $1m, 50,000 m3 of soil has been excavated from the
7,000 m2 site.The excavation crew has reached the 6 to 8 meter lim-
it in depth – well above the sea line level. “This avoids many prob-
lems with water seeping through later on,” explained Abi Abdallah.
The foundation of the overpass (road leading to Cornish) near the
site has been well protected by digging deep holes in the rocky
ground, inserting heavy steel rods into them and pouring concrete
into them (‘piles’).The foundations of the surrounding buildings
have been protected by “shotcrete” (steel mesh against the soil jet
sprayed with concrete to stabilize the soil).
The last and current phase of the excavations is strengthening the
soil by filling in the cavities.
Meanwhile, negotiations with at least four contractors are under-
way. And then, finally – construction can begin.
For Abi Abdallah – it’s relief as he can now focus on implementing
the building design, for parents – it’s a thrill as they watch their
children’s school being erected and for foreman Hassan – it’s a sigh
as he can pack and finally return to his wife and five children wait-
ing for him in the Bekaa.
Next: CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
Partnership Together Update