November 19, 2012

Planning for École Lakay rebuild progresses

VINCE VERSACE

managing editor

The project management team responsible for directing the construction of École Lakay in Haiti is expected to visit Haiti next month to finalize integral project details, the Canadian Construction Association’s directors recently heard.

It has been two years since a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti and destroyed École Lakay, a trades school located in Le Soleil, Haiti. In early 2010, the CCA, L’Association de la construction du Quebec (ACQ) and the British Columbia Construction Association teamed up to rebuild a trades school in Haiti.

By April 2010 ACQ, accompanied by Builders without Borders, visited Haiti to identify a potential school rebuild project, resulting in the selection of École Lakay.

By March 2011, the CCA and its partners had raised $634,000 to meet an original funding goal to rebuild the school. Closer due diligence and a re-scoping of the project meant more funds were needed to complete the project.

A new plan called for the school to be relocated to an adjacent site and to be larger in order to serve 150 students instead of 80. Originally, the project was to be a 950-square-metre school rebuild and now it is a 2,200-square-metre complex.

The construction trades expected to be taught at the school are masonry, welding, carpentry, plumbing, electrical and refrigeration, once the school is built.

Total cash donations by June 2012 stood at $930,000 for the project that now has a $1.3 million cost which includes cash, resource and materials, of which steel is a major component. Donations in-kind have played a major part in recent fundraising activities.

At CCA’s recent board meeting in Montreal a report on the school rebuild project noted that the project management team is “finalizing some last details relating to the scope of work, steel erection and site preparation.”

The expected trip to Haiti in December would include meetings to be held with the Rinaldi Foundation, Technique + Construction (the preferred contractor) and the site supervisor to “formalize the project price and to prepare the contract documents for signature between the parties,” noted the report on the project.

According to the report, the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction has confirmed the supply of the structural and reinforcing steel and it expected that the material will be on its way to Haiti by mid-November.

A fundraising initiative by the ACQ, at its recent annual conference, resulted in $80,000 being raised as the association matched, dollar for dollar, pledges made by its members during its closing gala.

For more information about the project visit
www.cca-acc.com.

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