Jan. 2011

$915,000

Completed

Kabul

RC-Capital

Project Description

No project description provided.

Project Goals

PURPOSE: The purpose of this project is to study the Ministry of Education's existing school designs, and verify whether their designs meet international seismic standards applicable for Afghanistan. The project will also build engineering capacity within the MoE, improving their capability for design review, compliance with international standards, and oversight of construction. As a result, the project will ensure future schools built in Afghanistan are safe for possible future seismic events.

JUSTIFICATION: Education remains a top priority for reconstruction efforts throughout Afghanistan. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has a long-term plan to build 1,100 schools nationwide, and has a list of 100 locations that have an acute need for new buildings, and are a high priority to execute in CY11. 

The MoE Top 100 list shows, for each school, the number of students currently in attendance. These schools each have existing teachers and dozens (if not hundreds) of students. The students attend in 2 to 4 shifts each day, meeting either in someone's house, in a mosque, in a library, or in a field in the sun. In order to provide the students proper facilities in a timely manner, the MoE has asked USFOR-A for assistance.

MoE has posted designs on their web site, available in different sizes, so that donor organizations may review and construct a standardized design giving all new schools in the country a similar appearance, reinforcing the image of MoE ownership. However, use of these designs hasn't ensured that donors coordinate with the MoE, nor has it ensured compliance with applicable seismic safety standards. 

MoE and USFOR-A both recognize the risk of a major earthquake in Afghanistan. Furthermore, MoE has acknowledged a lack of engineering capacity to improve the safety of their designs or ensure proper oversight for construction. USFOR-A has coordinated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Afghan Engineer District North (AED-N), and the USACE Reachback Operations Center (UROC), to assist the MoE engineers with modifying their designs to meet the seismic standards of the International Building Code (IBC), 2006. Once the design project is complete, Afghan Engineer District South (AED-S) and AED-N will provide assistance to MoE engineers in overseeing the construction of schools in their areas of responsibility.

This initiative will reduce the chance that school projects will be constructed in a manner not meeting proper standards - saving the government time and money associated with reconstruction or cost overruns due to poor planning. It will also reduce the chance that a major earthquake will cause catastrophic failure of a school building, resulting in the injury or possible deaths of children.

Because the final product will be based on their current plans, and will retain the original layout and appearance, the modified designs will have a family resemblance to the existing schools built from the MoE plans. This will reinforce the image of MoE ownership, and strengthen their position as a part of Afghanistan's legitimate government.

COORDINATION: The project has been coordinated with the MoE, USACE AED-N, UROC, and MED. USAID is no longer building schools in Afghanistan.

GOODS AND SERVICES: Per the Statement of Work, USACE will provide all labor, materials, and equipment necessary to analyze the MoE designs, and if necessary, make design modifications to bring them into compliance with IBC 2006 seismic standards. The schools to be studied will include at least 5 designs, having 16, 20, 24, 30, and 40 classrooms.

PERFORMANCE METRICS: We will measure successes based the number of school designs brought up to IBC 2006 seismic standards, and the number of schools built using the improved designs. Periodically, USFOR-A personnel will meet with the MoE chief of staff and MoE head of Infrastructure Department, and inquire as to their satisfaction with the coordination and the progress of the design work.

IMPACT IF NOT FUNDED: Without a design meeting internationally-recognized seismic standards, future school construction may be denied funding as USFOR-A and other donors are less and less willing to accept the risk of mass casualties in their funded projects.

Results

the designs are archived for future use on the SIPR shared drive and share point.

Updates

MIPR number added by USFOR-A J9.

Project changed to In Progess by USFOR-A J9. 

The following fields were added by USFOR-A. Please check accuracy.

Field CERP Project Funds in Transition CERP Report is required and cannot be blank

Field CERP Project Local Citizens Working in Transition CERP Report is required and cannot be blank

Field CERP Project Local Citizens Benefiting in Transition CERP Report is required and cannot be blank

Field CERP Project Transfer Date to Afghanistan Government in Transition CERP Report is required and cannot be blank

Please make correct updates to CIDNE. 

USACE returned the completed school designs 19-Oct-11 on a CD. The information was archived on the SIPR shared drive and the sharepoint.