Construction

This building is being built across the street from the Holt facility and our hotel. Work had slowed due to the rainy season (as had all construction related projects), but the techniques were interesting to watch. A few concrete shafts with rebar within them will form the skeleton of the structure, but the majority of the building is concrete block with a concrete skim covering all of the surfaces. Almost all of the labor is done by hand. It was routine to pass a modern diesel dump truck by the side of the road with a dozen men shoveling dirt into it. The 21st century meets the 19th.

The most impressive part of the construction project was the scaffolding- it's all wood, long skinny tree trunks lashed together. We passed a few scaffolding "stores" with thousands of trees of varying lengths stacked, waiting for their next project. Workers will climb the scaffolds, tools in hand, and work on the task of the day, ignoring the flex and wobble in the wood. OSHA would not approve.

Every block had at least one project like this is some stage of completion, often with the ground floor open for business while the floors above were being built.

Thanks to Andrew Janssen for the picture.

Peter