The Government is still moving ahead with the construction of the Couva Children’s Hospital despite concerns from seismologists and structural engineers. Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal yesterday confirmed that the hospital will not be relocated from its present location.
Last week the T&T Guardian reported exclusively that seismic and structural experts have called for all work at the hospital’s present site, off the Preysal Flyover, to be aborted since it is being built near the Central Range earthquake fault line. They warned that the fault line is in danger of being hit by a major earthquake of 7.5 magnitude or above. T&T has recorded near 20 minor earthquakes for the year.
Moonilal said, “Once we are cleared with the geotechnical studies (that) have been done, whatever problem they may have there with fault line or anything of that sort, we have taken all necessary precautions to ensure that the building will be steady as can be. In the circumstances, we are happy with that.” Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan is to meet with stakeholders, including seismic and structural engineers this week to discuss their concerns.
Construction of the hospital began in March. It is being built by Shanghai Construction Group under the supervision of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) as a design-finance-construct model with funds provided in a concessionary US$150 million loan from China. Moonilal said he has confidence in Shanghai Construction, which has built hospitals and other buildings “all over the world.”
“We are assured that they have taken all of the precautions and will be planning and building to ensure that it could withstand any impact from a large-scale earthquake,” he said. Dr Joan Lutchman, a seismologist at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Seismic Research Centre, contacted for a response to the minister’s statement, said, “Those discussions would not have taken place at ministerial level. Let us wait and allow the minister to hold discussions.”
Moonilal said the issue came to Udecott’s attention a few weeks ago and a statement was issued that all the appropriate geotechnical studies were done to ensure that “the hospital is well placed and the technical work has been done to avoid any risk from an earthquake or any other natural disaster.” He said a school and other government installations are located near the site.
“We are convinced that the technical work has been done by the construction company and by Udecott. We do not see a problem there,” he declared. The minister said if an earthquake was to take place all buildings would be threatened, whether in Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, or “wherever depending on the magnitude of any earthquake.”
“That fault line has been there some years now, not just today and what do we do when you find places like that? You cannot move industrial establishments because of that. You factor that into your engineering and planning and design so you can withstand the impact and the threat of any natural disaster,” he contended. Moonilal said countries like China and Japan have zones that are earthquake -prone.
“But that does not mean that you cannot construct a hospital there, because if you do that there are some states in the world that will never have a hospital, or a school, or a university because they are earthquake prone. So yes, recognising there is a fault line there is one thing, but you have to factor that into your construction and your technical work, particularly your geotechnical/scientific work,” he said.
Chairman of the National Building Code Committee, Shyankaran Lalla, said his committee was “happy to read that the Couva hospital is designed to meet international standards and building codes.”
However, he added, “This does not negate the concern by seismologists and members of the geosciences engineering fraternity that the hospital is located within ten kilometres of the Central Range/Warm Springs (CR/WS) fault system which poses a very high seismic risk to buildings and infrastructure located in its vicinity.” Structural engineers are now calling for details on the geotechnical survey, which include the name of the firm, the findings and recommendations of the survey.
Another question being raised by the engineers is if the Probabilistic Report on the Point Fortin Highway was taken into consideration when the geological firm made the recommendations and whether the UWI Seismic Research Centre was consulted by the geotechnical firm.