March 2009

$4,174,941

Completed

Laghman

RC-East

Project Description

Provide all labor, materials, and equipment to construct/repair 11.9km road from Qalatak to Shamakat

Project Goals

This project will improve/build an 11.9 km asphalt road in the Alishang District linking Shamakat to Qalatak to Mehtar Lam. This road will provide increased access to healthcare, farming markets, and job opportunities for approximately 2500 families located along the roads route. The local area is mainly a farming area that sells their products at the Alishang District and Mehtarlam city. The road will provide a safe and reliable means of transporting agriculture products to the main markets in the Mehtar Lam. This road project will also help give the local population another skilled trade that they could use in the future. A solid reliable roadway into the Shamakat valley will allow the government to extend it reaches into western Laghman Province, an area which has had limited government presence. This urgent humanitarian need will be the catalyst in an economic turn-around of the valley while extending governance and healthcare to the region.\

 Desired Project Effects: Provide safe and reliable access into the Shamakat valley. Extend governance and access to healthcare into western Laghman Province. This project will employ about 500 local personnel for 5 months. With this road, over 2500 families will have quicker and more reliable access to the Mehtar Lam, which will boost the economy within Laghman. Upon completion of the road, better access to the job market in Mehtar Lam will be available which will increase the number of employed people in the region. \

 Measurable Effects: Increased support for GIRoA. Increased economic activity, up to 20% icrease over 1 year span. Higher job employment, reduction in unemployment by 10%.\ Comments: PM: Lt David Thomander

Requested by the Governor of Laghman during the PDC meeting.

Results

Results unknown.

Updates

Sep 25 2009 Full Notice to Proceed has not been issued. The remaining 1 km of road design must be accepted by the PRT. Nov 7 2009 Notice to proceed has been issued. Work continues to progress on schedule.\

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QA Report from 22 Oct QA Site Visit\

PRT Engineers:\

1Lt Seth Lorimer\

Civ. Bob McBain\

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\\ The PRT Engineers conducted a quality assurance mission on the Shamakat Valley Road along with a CA mission KLE with the Elders at the Shamakat Village.\

This mission was routed up from the south on ASR Pittsburgh and was the third attempt to access this project: the first mission attempt was from the north via the Alishang Road to the Islamabad Bridge which failed due to a washout on the north approach on the ASR and the second attempt failed due to a vehicle breakdown. \

\\ The turn for this project is in the village of Qalatak off of the ASR at \

42S XD 03232 43247. This turn starts with the initial uphill grade on this road project. The first culvert excavation is located at MGRS 42S XD 03093 43294 with the excavation on the left side. After passing this location the road widens out and is fairly smooth to drive on but dusty at this time. \

 Dec 12 2009 Construction is ongoing. There have been multiple security issues leading to the death of two contractor security workers as well as AAF. The work continues despite the security issues. The design for the bridge was rejected with comments and will be resubmitted. The wash design has been approved and will start tomorrow. The road alignment has required some graves to be moved and activities are ongoing. The contractor has been the most orginized and provided the best quality of construction to date and would be highly recommended on future projects of this size. Feb 21 2010 See media for update. Mar 20 2010 -\\ The contractor provided a weekly report on paper and on CD. \

-\\ The PRT spent much of the hour meeting discussing the invoice submitted by the contractor. The PRT has already paid the contractor 33 percent of the contract price but after reviewing this invoice for the next payment, determined that the contractor is around 33 percent complete with the project. The invoice and corrections to the invoice are shown below on the attached sheet. The corrections to the contractors invoice include:\

o\\ Demobilization: there should be no charges for this.\

o\\ Structural Work: Contractor is claiming 100% cmpletion, but they have not completed much of the bridge work and bridge was not even included on the structure list.\

o\\ Aggregate Base Course: Contractor is claiming 100% cmpletion, but they have not started placing and compacting base course. They only have crushed the stones for base course.\

o\\ Prime Coat: Contractor is claiming 6% cmpletion, but they have not started prime coat application.\

o\\ Traffic control: Contractor is claiming 100% bt this should be based on time line for work complete, which is around 40%.\o\\ Road signage: Contractor is claiming 100% bt contractor has not started installing road signs.\

-\\ The PRT discussed if the issue with the farmers and land owners on the conflict just west of the proposed bridge has been resolved. The contractor stated they understood the Government officials told the land owners that they could get compensated by the contractor/PRT. The contractor project manager discussed this with the government officials to get clarification on this. \

The contractor discussed with S2 on some information he obtained.\

 Apr 19 2010 See attached media. May 16 2010 Pipe Culverts: The PRT inspected several pipe culverts located by the bridge structure. These pipe culvert structures are located around Station 9 000. Some of these pipe culverts included culvert protection as shown on Photo 1. Rebar was set in the concrete and the culvert protection device was welded to the rebar at four different locations. Either the frame or a piece of rebar was welded to the rebar extruding from the concrete. The integrity of this connection is not permanent and could easily be broken. Photo 2 shows a pipe culvert with the four rebars that will attach to the culvert protection. The PRT told the contractor that these protective devices should be rotated 90 degrees so water could flow easier through these protective devices. Photo 3 shows the area downstream of the storm culvert and there should be some rip-rap in these areas to prevent erosion from the point discharge created by the culverts. Photo 4 shows fill being added adjacent to a culvert that was washed out from a recent storm. The PRT told the contractor that they should use stone pitching in these areas as a permanent solution since the soils will erode again if fill is placed in these areas.\

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Road: The PRT found large stones in the sub base and told the contractor they should do a better job at eliminating these large stones before compacting the soil. Photo 5 shows the sub base inspected by the PRT and Photo 6 shows the size of stones found in the sub base.\

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Bridge: The PRT stopped at the bridge to inspect the work. There was no work going on during the time of the inspection but the contractor has poured both footers and has completed one bridge abutment. Photo 7 shows the progress of work at the site. The contractor had a difficult time removing the hard rock for one of the abutments but has placed the footer and is working on the columns (Photo 8).\

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Causeway: The PRT inspected the causeway that is shown on Photo 9. There was a recent flood that washed out part of the wall and this is shown on Photos 10 and 11. The contractor stated they will reconstruct this wall, provide stone pitching between the causeway and this wall, and install gabions downstream of the wall. There was an area of mixing mortar on the ground and this is shown on Photo 12. The contractor later stated that they only did this for a short time as the mixer was not working. The contractor stopped this work and they are now mixing the mortar with a mixer.\

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Asphalt Plant: The PRT inspected the asphalt plant which is located next to the contractor''s base camp. The asphalt plant is a new plant as shown on Photo 13. This plant had not started operation as this time and the contractor stated they would be starting their asphalt plant very soon. The PRT inspected each pile of aggregate as the contractor will be using four different sized aggregates for their mix. Photo 14 shows one of the aggregate piles. The PRT removed some aggregate off the top and showed the contractor that the aggregate is damp (Photo 15) and should be dried prior to placing the aggregate in the cold bins. The PRT explained what they should do to dry the aggregate before placing the aggregate in the cold bins. Photo 16 shows the stone dust aggregate and the PRT told the contractor they should cover this to keep this pile dry.\

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See Attached media. May 29 2010 The contractor informed the PRT that work has been very slow this week due to the rain that has been falling in Shamakat Valley. They have had some flood waters flowing through the bridge site and causeway area of the project. There a very large boulders that have passed the bridge site, however there has not been any damage to this very important structure. The contractor is currently working at constructing some protection walls and check dams at the bridge location. One of these walls will reach from one footing across to the other footing and will be 3.5 meters high; the check dam below this 3.5 meter high check dam will be 2 meters high with stone pitching between them.

 The paving of asphalt has been very limited due to rain; at this time they currently have full width binder course from the 3 640 to the 4 580. The contractor informed the PRT that he is covering his all his aggregate piles to keep them dry. The contractor was informed that it is very important to keep these aggregates dry as if they are not dry when they attempt to use them they kiln will not be able to heat the aggregate adequately prior to mixing with the bitumen.

The PRT Engineers conducted a quality assurance visit to the Shamakat Valley Road project to inspect the construction of the Bridge and other structures near the end point of the road. The team stopped at the contractor''s base camp when we reached the project to coordinate this visit with Eng. Hadiaga Mujadedi. 

Bridge: The workers were tying rebar on the east side of the bridge abutment and setting up the hoist for lifting the concrete for this pour. There was stone masonry work in progress on the footing area on the west side of this structure. The contractor''s workers were mentored on the stone size that is required for stone masonry; the workers had placed a few small stones in the wall and were instructed to remove these stones. The foremen at this site acknowledged that the minimum stone size is 20cm and instructed the workers to not use the small stones. The mortar that was being used was good quality mortar. (Photo 1-4)

Irrigation Problem: Capt Stapler talked with a Mullah at the Bridge site concerning local farmers concerned about having irrigation water restored to their farmland. The land near this site has had irrigation water in the past and the farmers are concerned about having it restored to their land. The contractor has offered to supply a water pump if needed during the construction process if needed. (Photo 5-11)

Culverts: There were two culverts above the Bridge that were inspected today; the stone masonry was good quality. One culvert had a screen on the upstream side but none on the downstream end. The wadi that feeds into this culvert is very steep; the water that has flowed through this culvert on recent storms has deposited a lot of sediment into the inside and entry to this structure. The next culvert down road of has been built into the rack formation and has sediment accumulated on the upstream side as well. (Photo 12-15) 

Paving: The contractor has placed prime coat on the roadway above the bridge however it will be very difficult to move the paving past the bridge point at this time. The paving process at the 6 680 was just being finished as we arrived at that location. The paving machine was loaded on to a transport vehicle and being moved back to the Base Camp location to start the paving of asphalt from the 0 660. The binder course quality at the 6 680 was good and compaction was underway with the PTR. (Photo 16-18)

Asphalt Plant: The asphalt plant was in operation when the team returned to the Base Camp area. The plant is a new plant that is automated with a control booth that monitors all the mix ratio and temperatures of the bitumen and kiln. The four bins containing the aggregates feeds through a screen and up the conveyor into the kiln, bitumen is added to the heated aggregate which is then used for the binder course for this project. The Crusher plant is located at this location also and has a supply of hard rock that will be crushed.

 

 Jun 15 2010 PRT inspected fire damage that recently occurred on the Shamakat Road Project asphalt plant. The damage to the asphalt plant was primarily contained to the bitumen warming container and destroyed numerous barrels of bitumen. During the night of the fire (29 May 2010) there were a few injuries to personnel while trying to extinguish the fire. These injuries range from burns to a broken wrist/arm. PRT personnel were notified of the fire the morning after it occurred and the PRT immediately made contact with the contractor to ensure all personnel were not seriously injured. Below photos were taking of the damaged areas.

See attached media. Jul 6 2010 The PRT Engineers conducted a mounted quality assurance visit to The Shamakat Valley Road project. The contractor has applied prime coat from the village of Qalatak which is at the 0 000 up to the 0 660 where they originally began the binder course paving near their base camp. The prime coat application was adequately applied and the penetration was good. (Photo 1 2) The contractor escorted the PRT up the Shamakat Valley road to the Bridge which is located at the 9 885 km area on this project. (Photo 3 20) When the team arrived at the bridge area the paving of the binder course was in progress; the paving process was observed and the process was going well. The temperature of the asphalt at this location was taken; it was 150 degrees and is a very good temperature for this application at the road site. QAR Naeem in formed the PRT Engineers that the contractor stops the paving process around 2:00 PM as the this prevents damage to the new binder course during the high temperature during the afternoon. This mission was cut short due to an attack on an outpost that had been established to over watch the convoy and inspection. The convoy returned safely to the FOB Mehtarlam after the security team was able to return to the vehicles.

Media will be updated later due to CIDNE issues. Aug 9 2010 Eng Agha called early this morning and requested a meeting with the PRT Engineers as security has become a major issue this week for the Shamakat Valley Road. Shaman Mohammed whom is the deputy director was at the Camp Site and called a meeting with the security staff last Thursday while Eng. Agha was not available. At this meeting he informed the security guards that they would not be employed by the company after Saturday 7-Aug-2010. Eng. Agha was informed of this decision when he returned to the Base Camp; the security guards informed Eng. Agha that they would still provide him security even if they did not receive payment as long as Agha was working on this project. Eng. Agha informed the security staff that he still would keep them employed and would contact the director of the company and ensure that the security staff would continue to earn their salaries. The security staff has been leaving their outposts at night to provide added security for the Base Camp due to added threats being communicated to the local villagers and Elders that the Taliban were going to kidnap him. One of the security guards that were previously employed for this project is feeding information to the insurgents (Taliban). 

See attached media for full meeting minutes. Sep 9 2010 PRT conducted a partial dismounted patrol/rolling inspection of Shamakat Road. Inspection started at bridge location and ended at the beginning of asphalt 42S XD03220 43260. PRT made numerous stops along road primarily concentrating on areas that were affected by recent flooding. 

Bridge: Bridge slab formwork/scaffolding in place but damaged during recent flooding. Scaffolding and forms were still intact after recent flooding but will need to be adjusted when work resumes. Rebar is in place and looks good. There were some areas that were not tied at intersections but there are no real concerns/issues with rebar. PRT feels once forms are adjusted then concrete can be placed.

Flood damage: Flood damage was concentrated around the shoulders of road and by slab culverts. Contractor attempted to address this concern by constructing "hasty" stonewalls approx one-half meter tall in an attempt to prevent shoulder erosion. Some of the areas where the stonewalls were constructed had been undermined. Slab culvert closest to bridge has been undermined. There is also some damage to the asphalt were erosion has occurred during recent flooding. Numerous slab culverts were half filled with sediment and one culvert was exposed on shoulder. Stone pitching was cracked and starting to slide down hill due to erosion

Causeway: About of the causeway was undermined and almost the entire length of the apron was destroyed

Slab culvert: First slab culvert on Shamakat road appeared structurally intact. Shoulder directly above culvert on the north side may have shoulder erosion issues due to no head wall.

See attached media. Oct 6 2010 Purpose: Pre-final Inspection Discrepancy Findings 

Discussion: PRT conducted a partial dismounted inspection of Shamakat Road. Inspection started near the bridge location and ended at the culvert near the beginning of the pavement. The following items were noted as deficiencies and need to be corrected before the PRT will accept the project as completed.

Items to be addressed before project acceptance:

- Bridge exposed rebar is cut and covered with plaster. (Example photos 1-2)

- All construction debris is cleaned off of the site (Example photo 3)

- All bollards are secured (Example photo 4)

The bridge is complete and the shuttering has been removed. The bridge deck is being kept wet to continue curing. The bridge drains were covered with sand to keep the water on the deck. The only problems noted with the bridge were some pieces of rebar and tie wire extending out of the concrete at all four corners of the bridge. These need to be trimmed and covered.

11 Oct 11: Called in contractor for warranty items on 3 October. Issues were brought to PRT by GIRoA. PRT looking at pursuing some issues which may be able to be covered under warranty. Contractor is also putting together issues he feels he is responsible for. Meeting Minutes Uploaded.

See attached media for full QA report.