July 2008

$4,433,000

Completed

Kunar

RC-East

Project Description

Asmar to Dangam District Center with 60m Bridge DBST Road 14km

Project Goals

Reason for Project: 14km of DBST Road from 4.2km point to Dangam District Center with 60m Bridge ties District Center to Kunar Provincial Capital. This road will reach the half way point of the Dangam Pass road, which will link Karachi Pakistan to Kunar Afghanistan international trade route. This road will help link Dangam valley to commerce and health care. 

Desired Project Effects: Connecting Dangam District Center to Kunar Provincial Capital will improve governance and stability. Access to Kunar goods will help the economy grow. Access to health care will help the Dangam valley eradicate the reported cases of Polio, and reduce infant mortality.

Measurable Effects: 14km of DBST Road from 4.2km point to Dangam District Center with 60m Bridge ties District Center to Kunar Provincial Capital. Transit time from Dangam District Center to Asmar District Center will be reduced from 1hr to 15minutes. Area GDP will improve by 10%. Polio will be eradicated in the valley. Infant mortality will be reduced by 50%. omments: PM: CM1 David Rogers

Results

Results unknown.

Updates

May 17 2009 Lots of work going on and making progress in several areas. Photos show that some retaining wall work may need re-work, if dry-stacked. Otherwise, work quality seems good. Surveying complete and road widening up to near Dangam (8.5km) Structures started - reported 22% complete. Jul 28 2009 Last QA May 17. 09 Sep 18 2009 Couldn't get a RAF proposed for a longer bridge and extra sidework before the FY - Will be working late Sept for next FY review

RM Tracking Number: Unknown

Estimated/ Actual Jobs Created: Unknown

S44 Cleared Amount: Unknown

Percent Spent: Data field unoperable Nov 30 2009 No Updates Jan 21 2010 ***PLEASE SEE UPLOADED PP which contains over 50 pictures of the road and their associated grid locations, along with comments wbout the road's progress ***

Subject: Asmar to Dangum Road 

1) Location of Project: Start Grid 42S YD 20800 74800 End Grid 42S YD 25000 78000

2) Price of Project: $4,433,000

3) Contractor : Patriot Builder's Group

4) Contact award Date: 02-SEP-2008

5) Percent Complete: 55%

6) Estimated completion date: Contract May 2009 / Actual Estimated Sept 2010 / 455 overdue

7) Workers on site: approximately 20 with 0 KCC Grads

8) General Note: This purpose of this site visit was to conduct a QC inspection. Although the quality of the work is acceptable, there does not appear to be a significant amount of progress made since the last inspection. We turned around at the 11+400 mark in the road and it appears that the road still hasn't had any work done on it past that point which is the same endpoint as when we last visited the road in November. There were several trucks laden with gravel and other material on the road, and several areas of the road had piles of material stockpiled for future work. There was one compaction roller on the road as well. The only road workers spotted were working on three retaining walls between the 4+00 and the 9+00 marks in the road. He has also not started the work on the bridge that is required to span the wash from the roadside to the District center side. 

 

Recommendations: This road is desperately behind schedule and not making significant progress. The contractor has requested more money, but isn't making as serious an effort as necessary to make this project successful. We will re-engage the contractor and ask what the hold up to road progress is. We will also press the contractor to start work on the bridge foundations while the water level is still very low.

 Mar 9 2010 Working to resolve 300m of approach road to Dangam DC.

Working to resolve 3km of base work which is not on their SOW.

 Mar 24 2010 No significant progress made on the road. The bridge to the district center is under construction.Contractor has placed the steel for one column and dug the holes for 2 others. He has encountered a problom with the high water table seeping into his column form area. Managing the problom with pumps, Progress is not impressive but looks to be of good quality. Apr 28 2010 A QA was conducted on 4 April 2010. This site visit was to monitor the construction progress of the Asmar to Dangham Road. This project consists of approximately 14 km of DBST road capable of handling a "jingle truck" load capacity. Road widening (7m) and a bridge connecting the road to the nearby district center are additional stipulations within the contract. This project has a long history of being behind schedule and lacking significant work progression in the past few months. 

There was no substantial road work being done at the time of the site visit, but there were several areas that showed evidence of ongoing work. The portions of the roadway that have DBST applied are already showing signs of wear and potholes. These sections are located within the first 5 km of the project. Additionally, there are an excessive amount of speed bumps throughout the entire project. The majority of the road (~11 km) is 50% or less complete.

 

BRIDGE

The length of the bridge has been a debated topic, but work has commenced under the original stipulations of the contract (60m). The bridge is located at grid location 42S YD 21024 74822. This 60m bridge will consist of two abutments, one pier, and 2 bridge deck spans. The contractor has an impressive group of supervision overseeing the construction. Their supervision staff is comprised of 3 different foremen, all of which are experts in their respective category of construction. The head foreman was very knowledgeable in all aspects of constructions. They are currently working on the first bridge abutment, with two sections of concrete already poured. The contractor is pouring the abutment in ~1.5m lifts, with the next pour intended to commence on 07-April. In preparation for that, the steel rebar and formwork for that section was being prepared. There was heavy excavating machinery on site, which was being used to begin the digging process for the center pier of the bridge. It should be noted that contractor was not only performing the work correctly, but had a strategic plan of action for the completion of this abutment and the entire bridge.

The QA report was provided to the contractor who provided feedback on several of the minor issues noted during the road assessment. The contractor stated that road construction was stopped in August 2009 due to a large number of insurgent attacks making the staff reluctant to work on road for fear of harassment. Local villagers have also hindered progress in attempts to personally benefit from the project and the contractor is working hard to resolve these issues. 

Also the contracted cited the delay in the construction of the bridge due to the issue over the length of the bridge, 60m to 90m. The previous PRT agreed that a 60m bridge would be constructed and began work in Jan 2010. The DBST work was stopped in Sep 2009 due to the cold season, but that has resumed. The contractor claims that cutting/widening is complete up to 15km and has agreed to fix the potholes.

A meeting was held 4/27/2010 with the contractor. The PM wanted to discuss the possibility of modifying the SOW to reduce the km of DBST required and replace it with the work required to construct the link road to the district center. The approach/link road requires a significant amount of structure work including a gabion wall to prevent erosion issues caused by the 60m bridge. After talking with the contractor it was determined that this potential modification was not cost effective. The PRT will need to solicit a contract to get the link/approach road to the DC constructed.

Also the payment schedule was discussed. The ocntract was overpaid from the start, but in order to continue work at a good pace it was agreed a 5% invoice would be submitted and that once significant progress was made, another 5% invoice could be submitted for payment. Jun 5 2010 No signifigant progress was made sinced the last update but a payment of 5% was made. The contractor had requested they be paid 10% but it was not clear that they were owed that much. We gave them 5% with the stipulation that they come back in a month showing signicant progress we would payout the ramaining 5%. Jul 1 2010 Met with the contractor and cleared a few different issues as listed below:

- Various points in the road the contractor was met with local opposition in regards to wedening the road. We advised the contractor to move forward with constructtion and to not worry about getting the exact width. We woul be satisfied with some progress rather than none.

- The contractor stated that DBST would begin shortly and that by the end of 14 days they would have completed over 2 Kilometers worth.

- Currently the contractor believes that he initially did repairs to the road that were not funded in the contract. I have to date found no documentation allowing for these repairs to be done. As of now there will be no effort made to seek additional funding for work not authorized by the PRT.

- The contractor was notified that he would only be respnsible for meeting the bridge to the far side of the river and to complete an approach road of no more 100m in length. Aug 10 2010 Project was greatly affected by recent flooding. We are currently working a new contract to have portions of the road repaired in order to continue work.As of now work has been stopped due to the road being impassable. Oct 4 2010 Meeting was held with the contractot to discuss flood damage and problems with the local residents concerning road width. Concessions were made in the intrest of progress in rgards to the width of the road in various places. The new width will be 4 meters wherever land owners refused to allow work to progress. Very little progress has been made in the last month due to the Holy month of Ramadan. Nov 17 2010 Contractor submitted invoice for 5% payment (80%) complete. Since the contractor has been reportedly paid too far ahead in the past and the PRT is currently unable to perform an on site QA for security reasons, verification for completed work claimed by contractor is needed. PRT Requested photos every 500 meters with grid coordinates, starting at the beginning of the road project to the working site. Also, photos showing tape measuring samples of road width, descriptions of bridge photos for clarification and a copy of the latest test results as per the SOW. The contractor complied promptly and with assistance from USACE engineers, reasonable verification was possible that they are actually at 80% complete and to submit recommendation for 5% payment. Dec 3 2010 PRT is still unable to visit work site for security reasons. A flyover was denied for the second time for the same reasons. Photographs show damage from the flood of 2010 that damaged a section of this road at 42SYD1694877722 (3+525km station). 

-2011JAN13 Recent Flyover confirms CTR reports of work progress. Meeting is schedueld with CTR & CA on the 15th. Good progress is being made but PRT is still denied on the ground access to this area for a QA inspection.

-2011APR27- Flyover inspection verrified that the contractor is working on the last kilometer of road but is not completed and that the construction of the 60m bridge girders is underway. Very little progress has occured due to the winter weather and security. The PRT is still denied access on the ground to do QA inspections due to security. See contractor supplied reports for more information. This project has not been recommended for cancelation because it is close to completion and the contractor despite adversities is making some progress.

2011JUL01 There has been more damage done at the 3+525 staion mark where the road has been washing out since the summer flood of 2010. The issue of warranty liablity has again been raised this time by the provincial governor. Attached is a memo clarifying this issue. To summerize the road up to the 4+200 station mark was built by a previous contract and Patriot Builders only paved an existing road up to the 4+200 station.

20AUG2011: Uploaded Project Management Tool per FRAGO 156. LCDR Tengesdal

01NOV2011: Uploaded contractor photos and progress report. All six bridge beams are complete and girders are being launched. Overall progress of bridge is 60%. Total project completion status is 96%. LCDR Tengesdal

08FEB2012: Uploaded cotractor reports. Bridge decking is complete and the only remianing work is the curb and guardrails on the bridge. The work has been slow as a result of recent rain and snow. SWC Logue

28MAR2012: A meeting was held between the COR (SWC Louge with LTJG Herm) and Contractor on 06MAR12 to discuss completion and demobilzation. The contra ct has since demobilized from the work site and a trip is being planned to visit the site for final inspection and acceptance. LTJG Herm

14APR2012: A site visit was conducted by LTJG Webb during the first week of April. The QA/QC report with his findings from this visit has been uploaded to the media files. The Contractor has submitted his final invoice (5%) to the PRT. The invoice will be processed and close out for this project will begin. LTJG Herm

28APR2012: Contractor's invoice amount and amount remaining on the contract do not match up, so the invoice was bumped back. We are trying to track down a clearing report showing the exact payments that were made to get the contractor to adjust his invoice accordingly since the clearing report the contractor is tracking also does not match. LTJG Herm

01JUN2012: Currently completing close out paperwork for this project. Awaiting confirmation that the final payment has been made. Also, making arrangements to conduct 60 sustainment visit. LTJG Herm

03JUL2012: Cleared ODS has been received and uploaded and closeout documents are being processed. The project is complete and transferred. LTJG Herm

06JUL2012: Closure ADR and Commander's Closure Memo uploaded. LTJG Herm