ABSTRACT

Construction of an operating theatre at t. Montfort

Hospital with funding from the Japanese Embassy

A report by Innocencia Mbisa

Structural Engineer

CONSTRUCTION OF AN OPERATING THEATRE AT ST

MONTFORT HOSPITAL IN NCHALO, CHIKWAWA
DISTRICT
1st site visit by BGM International
CONSTRUCTION OF AN OPERATING THEATRE AT ST MONTFORT HOSPITAL NCHALO IN CHIKWAWA
DISTRICT

INTRODUCTION

The Japanese Embassy with St. Montfort Hospital Management as the client, is funding the construction
of an operating theater at the hospital site located in Nchalo, Chikwawa District. BGM International who
were contracted to oversee the construction of this project hired an engineer to provide technical
engineering expertise on the project to ensure that the works are done according to the designed
standards, in time and within the allocated budget so as to ensure value for money on the project.

This report will therefore highlight the outcome of the first site visit that took place on15th February
2020 by the engineer.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the site visit was to check the construction works and ensure that the works were being
executed according to the designed standards as specified in the design drawings.

BODY

During the site visit, the contractor had finished construction of the substructure of the building which
comprised of the foundation of the building up to ground floor slab level. The Contractor was working
on the superstructure part of the building and was at ring beam level.

SUBSTRUCTURE

Because the contractor had done the substructure part of the building already by the time of the first
site visit, verification of the work underneath the concrete slab was done using pictures that had been
taken by the personnel on site during the construction of the substructure. The substructure as shown
from the pictures, had all the required items as is required for a substructure which are:

 Strip foundation,
 hardcore,
 Sand blinding layer
 Damp Proof membrane (DPM) and
 A concrete ground floor slab reinforced with wire mesh.

Refer to Appendix 1 on pictures, figures 1, 2 and 3.

SUPERSTRUCTURE

We were able to verify this construction level of the building. The contractor had done the first course of
bricks above the ground floor slab in soldier pattern as had been specified in the design drawings as per
the design of the structure .The bricks that were being used for the construction of the superstructure
were good quality standard bricks and this made the building look good aesthetically.
Concrete Mix

The contractor indicated that he was using a concrete mix of 1:2: 4 which translates into: 1 bag of
cement, 2 parts of fine course material which in this case was sand and then 4 parts of coarse aggregate
material which is quarry stones. This ratio is okay and is a standard ratio of concrete mix that is
commonly used in the construction works. Hence it was okay for these works. However, the quarry
stone that was being used was the one being crushed manually which is normally bought from individual
sellers so much that it is difficult to attain a uniform size distribution of quarry stones as opposed to
buying the quarry stones from a supplier who mechanically processes the quarry stones so much that
you have uniform size of particle distribution in the quarry stone. The engineer would therefore
recommend getting quarry stones from a supplier with a crushing quarry stone plant which would
ensure uniform particle size distribution of the quarry stones which would give a much good quality
concrete mix than that made from manually crushed quarry stones. This can be implemented during the
construction of the ring beam.

Structural drawings

The contractor was only using architectural drawings in constructing the operating theatre and did not
have structural drawings on site which are normally used hand in hand with the architectural
drawings/plans during the implementation stage of a project and have details on the structural design
part of the structure such as the sizes of structural elements of the building like foundations, slabs,
beams, as well as details on the type, size, dimension as well as quantity of reinforcement in the
structure which normally the architectural plans/drawings do not show.

These structural drawings are derived at through calculations based on the loading of the structure and
their purpose is to ensure structural stability of the structure in terms of strength and durability by
ensuring that the structure does not collapse or fail during its design life span hence the need to have
them on site. Lack of structural drawings on site may result in the construction of a weak structure that
is structurally unstable and there is a risk that the structure might fail or collapse as a result of the
different loading and exposure conditions that the structure may be subjected to during its service life
which are usually taken care of in the structural design of the structure for durability of the structure.

So far the contractor has managed to incorporate the elements of a structural design at the substructure
level of the building which in most cases are considered to be general for these types of buildings but
again these might vary for a particular building. For the roofing part of the building, there is need for
structural drawings that would show the size of the ring beam for that structure as well as the type, size,
quantity and dimension of the reinforcement in the ring beam and also the type and member sizes of
the trusses in the building so as to ensure structural stability of the structure.

RECOMMENDATION

 A concrete mix of 1:2:4 to be used for the construction of the ring beam
 Mechanically processed quarry stones obtained from a supplier should be used for the
construction of the ring beam to ensure uniform distribution of particle sizes in the quarry stone
resulting in a good concrete mix.
 Structural drawings of the operating theatre should be made available on site, detailing the sizes
of the different structural elements of the building such as the size of and reinforcement in the
 ring beam as well as sizes of the different components of the roof structure so as to ensure
structural stability of the structure.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the progress of work on site was good and the contractor was executing the works as per the
design plan. Next intermediate site visit has been scheduled for the 3 rd week of March on Friday the 20th
of March 2020 to check on the works on ring beam and roofing of the structure.

APPENDIX 1 PICTURES
Fig. 1 shows reinforcement mesh wire laid on a DPM in readiness of the casting of the concrete
ground floor slab at Substructure level of the operating theatre

Fig 2 shows curing of the ground floor slab using sand material
Figure 3 shows the casted ground floor slab and the beginning of the construction of the
superstructure of the operating theatre

Figure 4 shows another picture on the construction of the superstructure level of the operating
theatre from the ground floor slab
Fig. 5 shows a front view of the operating theatre now at ring beam level
Fig. 6 shows a side view of the operating theatre now at ring beam level