Khmer New Year

celebration of the khmer new year in long beach, ca

As the Khmer New Year celebrations reaches its end, the construction crew returns to the site to continue with the concrete work. From the latest progress reports, both wingwalls are complete, and formwork is being prepared on the dissipation blocks. At the same time, Chanda has been preparing for the fabrication of the steel gateway.

One Down ...

Chanda and the crew completed the first wing wall pour last week ...


and they have moved right onto forming the next one.


The structure is starting to take shape!

Steve Forbes - Man of the Year

Steve Forbes is like a superstar. With a name like that floating around at an EWB conference, you're guaranteed to attract a group of students and professionals wanting to have a chat with you, asking for advice, opinion, and even time to sit in on one of their meetings.

It thus comes to no surprise that he was honored this year's "FOUNDERS AWARD" for "...embracing the visibility and advancing the mission of EWB-USA..."

The unsuspecting Steve Forbes humbly accepted his award to a standing ovation of 700 people.

Congrats Steve!

EWB National Conference Seattle

l to r: Steve Forbes, Sammy, Bryse, wiL

Bryse and I attended the EWB National Conference held in Seattle on behalf of our NYC chapter to present the water dam project. We meet up with Steve Forbes and Sammy, a student from Ghana, here to represent one of the international chapters (EWB-Ghana) and participate on the International EWB Panel Discussions

Progress Update

The foundation is complete, the sidewalls are being formed and should be poured in the next few days. Things are moving right along!

The Foundation Slab is DONE!

Chanda and his crew finished the foundation slab! The volume of concrete already poured is about 50% of the total water gate concrete volume and they finished a month ahead of schedule!

EWB...Beyond Borders

photos by rotciv97

Matt Barber, from the Usalama Project, and I presented to the Municipal Engineers of New York (MENY) on Wednesday evening. Our topic was "Engineers Without Borders 'Keeping it Simple' – Using Engineering Fundamentals to Build Big in the Developing World". The presentation went quite well, and many expressed interests not only in the projects, but in EWB-NY as a chapter.

Mixing Concrete

Since our test cylinders arrived yesterday, we have spent some time on site working to cast samples of Chanda's concrete recipe. One of the challenges we faced was taking the recipe - written in kilograms of cement, gravel, sand, and water per cubic meter of concrete, and pretty much useless without a very expensive scale that can measure up to a metric ton - and converting it to units that would be more user-friendly for the workers who will be mixing the endless batches of concrete for our project. In this case, we used the measured density of all four ingredients to convert kilograms (mass) to buckets (volume) and marked out one of the buckets for measuring each material. After a short explanation of our "measuring bucket", the laborers were able to quickly assemble a batch of concrete at exactly the correct proportions.
Currently, workers are busy finishing excavations and bending rebar, and in the next few days they will start installing forms and bars, with the goal of pouring the first of the foundations by the end of the week. Stay tuned...

Mudmat!

Hey Everybody, it's Jess here. I'm keeping up to date with Matt's progress photos (I used one of your pics in my post, Matt!), I have to say it's so great to see the site developing the way it is. After all the hard work, frustrations, and tough decisions that were made, especially in January, seeing the project take shape is very satisfying. Matt, I have to be honest, I envy you right now! I definitely wish I was there to see things happening in person.

I showed a few of my coworkers at Skanska the construction progress photos the other day. All were very impressed at the work that is being done, and those that were familiar with the project history (specifically, Shelly) were especially complimentary that our entire team was able to overcome the roadblocks we were faced with and make it into the construction stage. So, I will pass those compliments along to everybody that has been involved in this project.

It was great to be able to share the story of the project through the pictures, and this just opened up great discussions about the EWB organization in general. People were interested in what we do, and how to get involved. I think that there are huge resources of people in our NY area that could be of great assistance in this project, and future projects - both young engineers, and older more experienced engineers. Many just haven't heard of EWB, or don't know how to get involved - now that I have had my own personal experience being involved, and having visited the site, I want to use this to educate people and get them excited and involved.

I'll keep everybody posted on how these efforts go... Until then, keep the progress photos coming! Good luck over there, keep safe & productive!

Jess

Bussmann is back in 'bodia

Matt Bussmann just arrived back in Cambodia almost a full year after the last site assessment. We are pretty lucky that he did. Chanda is gearing up for pouring concrete and Matt has quite a bit of concrete inspection experience.

a concrete chute

surveying for the top of base slab elevation

Road Trip to PP

Before signing the contract with Chanda for the concrete water gate we had to meet quite a few times. However, Chanda lives in Phnom Penh and our project is just outside of Siem Reap. Chanda came to visit us in SR a few times so we decided it would be a good idea for us to go to PP and meet with him. We also decided it would be a good idea to load up the truck and drive our selves. The two cities are connected by Highway 6 which is one of the better roads in Cambodia but is basically a two lane deathtrap used by cars, pedestrians, motos, students on bicycles, dogs, cows, water buffalo, chickens, etc. If you take a bus between the cities it takes 6 hours, by taxi it's only 4. We figured we would be able to make great time, however, after 5 and a 1/2 hours of white knuckles on the steering wheel we finally arrived in PP exhausted and went straight to our meeting with Chanda.

On the way back we were better prepared. We didn't have a meeting waiting for us so we took our time, brought a bunch of snacks and had a really fun road trip.

Weekly Site Meetings

Every Thursday we meet on site to review open issues. A typical meeting discussion includes things like construction productivity, budget and spending, community issues, and future work planning. Here are some regular attendees:

Chai (Project Assistant) and Ceda (Community Development Assistant)

Narith (Construction Manager)

Bouny (Project Coordinator)

one of Bac Krons dogs (potentially lunch)

Kong Chanda

Our original plan for the implementation of this project was to start the embankment work then begin the concrete water gate and have two separate crews working simultaneously. However, when we began gearing up for the concrete work it became increasingly apparent that our crew did not have the so-mat-a-pe-up (capacity) to handle it. An example of this being the rebar cutter shown above. When purchased, the crew incorrectly believed it could cut up to a size D24 rebar. So we tapped into the ex-pat network and found three concrete contractors in Siem Reap to provide bids. But they were all high and not having any personal experience with any of them we were a bit hesitant to start anything with someone new. So in December we called Kong Chanda.


Chanda worked for HT about a year and a half ago and worked with our first site assessment team. wiL, Ryan and Alexi had nothing but great things to say about him and we were very concerned when he left the project for work in Phonon Penh. When we originally contacted him in December it was just for his opinion on our situation; high bids from unknown contractors. But after that first phone conversation Chanda called back 5 minutes later to tell us he would be in Siem Reap the next day to meet with us and see the site. As a side note: when Chanda saw the rebar cutter he correctly told us it could not cut anything bigger than a D16 rebar.


After that site visit in December we decided that hiring Chanda and his company to build the concrete water gate would be our best chance of finishing. Almost all business contacts we had made so far simply looked at us foreigners as a dollar sign despite the explanation of our project objective. Chanda was the first person to have a genuine interest in the project and helping the people of Balang. So we began trying to create this new project team. Chanda, very patiently, provided many different bids, schedules and met with us several times in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh over the next two months. Finally, after lots of very hard work by Chanda, HT and EWB-NY, we were able to agree on a contract price, sign the contract and Chanda has begun working. Chanda’s contract scope includes the complete concrete water gate and soil backfill around the structure. Essentially, everything left to make this reservoir functional.

The Earth Work Is Complete!

The earth work is complete! We finished the all of the major earth moving necessary for the embankment repair and the equipment has been removed from the site. Above is the main embankment ...


the North embankment ...


and the South embankment.
We still have a lot of work, most critical right now is grassing the entire embankment before the rainy season begins. We will also need to install a rip rap band at the future water level, install monitoring wells and potentially a toe drain on the down stream side. But this is a major milestone completed a month before originally scheduled!

superbowl decision

Superbowl Sunday, and as most Americans started their day today with anxious excitement to watch the game, the EWB Cambodia team started with a conference call to discuss final decisions on selecting which design to move forward with; the labyrinth design, or the straight weir design previously submitted to TAC. We have spent the last few weeks optimizing the labyrinth design to bring the cost down to fit the budget, but as time became a critical factor, the group was under pressure to finalize on one design to focus on.
Both designs have their pros and cons, and the group discussed at great length all of their concerns for each design. We concluded by agreeing to each write an individual final statement to submit to Steve Forbes, as he had previously agreed to be moderator should a decision not be reached within the group.

Trip to Cambodia (a short version)

Hey bloggers! It's Jess, and I am on day...9 of my trip out to Siem Reap. I don't have too much time to write now, and I only wanted to get my first post up on the blog before I ran out of time here. But I would like to say that this trip has been incredible so far. Everything I can think of to write at this moment is falling short of accurately describing the experience, which I imagine that the rest of you guys who have been out here on a site visit can attest to also. Everyone is really puttnig a big effort in right now, trying to close the gap between our budget and our costs.

I have taken a lotttt of pictures that i will post on the website as soon as I get them downloaded (or uploaded, i guess).

More from me in the near future....

Jess

The Helicopter Ride

Before leaving Siem Reap Steve Forbes insisted on taking a helicopter ride to the site to get some aerial photography. The helicopter was just brought to town by a company that uses it to fly tourists around Angkor Wat but our pilot, Matt, was happy to take a detour from his normal loop and help us find Trau Kod.


It took us less than 10 minutes to fly to the site and Steve, Bouny and I didn't stop taking photos until we landed. It was really amazing. This was the first time we could see the entire project at once; other than the blurry satellite photos we have been using from google earth.


When we got back I sent a text to Chai asking him if he saw us flying above. He wrote back: "I only saw steve clearly.did u land off? A lots of people ask me did u operate or pilot instruct u some and Y not land off at site? Oh,i think u had big..fun.!"

Mr. Trau Kod

Recently, our friend Boc Kron built Mr. Trau Kod (shown above) to protect the reservoir and embankment. It was explained to me that Cambodian people believe there are spirits for all elements such as earth, wind, clouds, etc. and Mr. Trau Kod was built to represent the spirit of the reservoir. This spirit is meant to protect the area and seek revenge on anyone that would harm the reservoir. I think we will still need to implement our inspection and maintenance program after the project is completed but it's comforting to know we have Mr. Trau Kod on our side.

Filling the Breach

This week the site crew began filling the embankment breach. This is the location where the river eroded the existing embankment away and destroyed the old reservoir. As you can see in the photo above, the river is still running through the space so we are filling it with soil and spreading it with the bulldozer to create a solid platform for our heaver equipment to work.


Once this platform is complete we can cut the key into the base and begin filling and compacting the new soil.

Stella!!!

l to r: Narith, 'Stella', and Steve Forbes. at this moment, Stella buckles under the pressure.

we spent an afternoon fabricating a 12’ long, 2” diameter split spoon tube out of a pvc pipe cut longitudinally in half, then banded together with steel bands. the split spoon would core a sample of the soil by being probed into the ground using the bucket of the excavator to drive it down. we were uncertain if the pipe would be strong enough to probe through the unknown soil conditions, so we simply just had to take the risk. we invested a lot of sweat equity, and passion, into the creation, and joked that if the pipe were to simply burst into pieces during use, we would cry, “Stella….!!!!”, to express the pain of our loss.
Well, unfortunately, we hit a tough clay layer where Stella started to buckle under pressure. We weren’t able to probe any further than 0.25m when we started to hear a lot of cracking in the pipe. But, the good news is, the clay layer was a good discovery, as we had assumed worst soil conditions during design. We verified the clay layer by using the excavator to dig a ~10’ deep test pit, upon which we discovered a 1m layer of clay at the surface. Stella was demoted to being used as a measuring stick when taking photos of these test pits.

….Stella!!!!

Raw Steel

photos by mulaohu

8 tons of raw steel....and that doesn't include the pickup truck. These #20 (#6 US) rebar was delivered to the site yesterday. we spent over $6k for this purchase alone.

Embankment Excavation

l to r: bryse and bouny

it took about a week and a half to excavate a portion of the main embankment for the proposed watergate location. the excavation is approx. 20m wide, and 3.5m high.
this location was chosen because the soil conditions at the existing breach (not pictured) is unknown, and consolidation and stabilization of that soil would require surcharging over an extended period of time. instead of building the watergate at that breach, a new location was proposed with the assumption that the soil which it is founded on will already be well consolidated over a number of years by the existing embankment.

The Sheepsfoot Roller

Part of our design was to specify the use of a sheepsfoot roller for the soil compaction on the embankment. Narith assured us that it would not be a problem to obtain one here in Siem Reap. However, when we made the deal with the equipment owner they mentioned that their one sheepsfoot roller was already rented but they could provide us with a sheepsfoot tow.


The sheepsfoot tow was definitely inferior to a full sheepsfoot roller and on top of that, the flat drum roller they sent out to pull this thing was older than me and broke down after a week.


Finally, after some tough negotiations, we were able to get a Self-Propelled Tamping Roller and this thing is a beast. You can feel the earth shake when it rolls by. This is a relatively rare piece of equipment so if it breaks down we could be in big trouble but for now it looks like we are in pretty good shape.

Forbes Rides Again

Our mentor and friend Steve Forbes has come back to Cambodia to help wiL and me out with the start of concrete construction. Steve was the first EWB representative to visit the site and has continued to stay involved with the project by providing advice and much needed reality checks throughout the design process.

Embankment Excavation

Excavation of the existing embankment for the watergate began about one week ago. Much progress has been made since. The crest elevation is currently at ~6.4m, and excavation will continue down to ~2.0m. As shown above, the watertable is at ~3.4m, thus, dewatering will need to be performed to have a dry working area.

the ride home

A long day in the field is often complimented with a picturesque sun setting over the rice fields, accompanying the ride back home.

CPAC Ready Mix

l to r: scared wiL, content chai, happy bryse

Bryse, Chai, and I paid a visit to the concrete mixing plant (CPAC) in Siem Reap (there’s only one plant in this town) to see what facilities were available. Their testing room was quite impressive, they had three compression machines; one for low range testing (such as smaller concrete samples, or compacted soil samples), a high range 350kips machine for the standard 6"x12" cylinders, and a small scale two point loading machine to test unreinforced beams.

Perhaps by saying impressive, I really mean to say I’ve wrongfully assumed such a facility would not have been available here in Siem Reap, or at least would not have been fully equipped with comparable standardized machinery. But I stand corrected, and once again, am proven wrong for underestimating what this town can provide. During the prime stages of the project, we’ve considered perhaps sending samples to Phnom Penh, or teaming with local engineering universities, to provide for concrete sample testing. But the solution was right around the bend, only 5km away, in this CPAC mixing plant.

Moving Met Sin

Met Sin, shown above, has been living on or close to the Trau Kod embankment for his entire life. Unfortunately, it was not safe for Met Sin and his wife to stay in their current location. It would be unsafe for them to stay during the embankment repair operations and later to be living and farming on the embankment.

Human Translation had been working with the District Government, the local community, and the Met Sin to resolve this issue. The District Government obtained a letter with Met Sin's thumb print stating that he agreed to move, the local Village Chiefs agreed to collect rice from the villagers benefiting from this project to donate as compensation, and HT has continued to communicate with him to make sure he understood our plan and he felt he was being treated fair.

Once we all agreed upon a moving date we built a new platform out of soil using our excavator, dump truck and bulldozer then used our local laborers to dismantle, move and rebuild his house. It has been a long process and frustrating at times but it HT has been patient and plans to continue communication with Met Sin throughout construction and in the future.

ECOSORN Meeting

Tobias, Will and I met with Ab Koster of the ECOSORN Project yesterday. Ab has been working here in Cambodia for over ten years on civil infrastructure projects and we affectionately refer to him as "The James Bond of Cambodian infrastructure" because of his cool European style and composure. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss some of our ideas for the Water User Group (WUG) with someone that has had a lot of experience. Although the discussion was pretty overwhelming, it was extremely valuable to hear some of Ab's ideas for creating a WUG such as:
1. Use an existing community system rather than trying to create a new one
2. Work with strong local leaders that you trust
3. Try to avoid involving cash transactions
4. Keep it simple

Soil Moisture Content

It took about a week and a half to prepare the site for construction but the embankment repair work has resumed. This photo is of our compactor with the sheepsfoot roller towed behind. Our design specifies a soil type and tight range for moisture content for the new fill material. However, with the rainy season just ending the water table elevation is still very high and we are still getting rained on a few times a week so obtaining the correct moisture content has been difficult. But Narith has been able to stay ahead of construction by excavating and spreading the soil to dry before it is compacted.

Balang Commune Rice Yield

One of our goals is to measure the impact of our project over the next few years. We hope that this project will provide many indirect benefits to the community but the main direct benefit we are working towards is an increase in the rice crop yield. It took a few weeks but the Prasat Bakakong District government was able to provide us with the Balang Commune rice yields for the past few years. As you can see from the graph above, the rice yield for Balang is below average for Cambodia and Cambodia is quite a bit below average for Asia.