The CARICOM headquarters building, months behind schedule, could now be further delayed as concerns about security and access by the disabled surface again.

CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington and Chairman of the Secretariat's Budget Committee Jamaica's Ambassador to CARICOM Lorne McDonough raised the concerns when they visited the building at Liliendaal on Monday.

Carrington said that these concerns have been raised before with the Guyana government. However, the government has not instructed the contractors Nabi & Sons to make any changes to the plan, according to Asleem Shermohamed, the company's managing director. "We can only do what we are instructed to do by the client, the Guyana government."

However, both Carrington and McDonough expressed their happiness with the building as Carrington says that "whatever the deficiencies we will be umpteen times better off than we are now." The completion of the building will see the Secretariat staff now scattered in several buildings around the city located in one building.

Carrington told Current Affairs that he is not satisfied that no one could enter the building without passing through the metal detectors. He said that with Heads of States in the building it is absolutely necessary that the security is adequate to ensure that no one can enter the building with anything they should not have on their person. However, he observed that the problem is not structural but one of choice and should not be entirely difficult to address.

More difficult to address is the absence of any provision to allow the disable to access the building and in particular the second floor. McDonough who is also Jamaica's High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, pointed out the absence of ramps to allow access to the building by persons in wheel- chairs. Carrington told Current Affairs that there is no provision for an elevator that would allow a person in a wheel-chair to get to the second floor for a meeting. Also, the absence of the elevator also raised concerns about the movement of documents and the heavy desks to the second floor. Carrington said that the building was not designed to accommodate an elevator and this would be difficult to address. He stressed that such a facility was essential.

A concern at the moment is the lack of adequate conference facilities in the new building. Carrington said that government officials had assured him that an international conference facility would have been built almost simultaneously with the Secretariat building. The conference centre would host not only CARICOM meetings but also other regional and international conferences, with its proximity to the Ogle airport a major attraction for holding them here.

He said that the secretariat building is almost completed but there is no indication as to when work on the conference centre would commence. The building design does not provide for conference facilities.

The contract for the international conference centre was signed several months ago but the preliminary drawings have only recently come to hand. As a consequence, informed sources have told Current Affairs that commencement of construction work is months away.

Another aspect of the development of the area besides the conference centre is a private housing development which is also nowhere near beginning. At this time Current Affairs does not know whether or not a private developer has been identified to undertake this project.

Walter Willis, Technical Adviser to the Ministry of Public Works told Stabroek News that he has learnt of the concerns and that they are difficult but not impossible to address. He said that he would raise the issue with the Oversight Committee which the Cabinet has set up to oversee the project.

Meanwhile, last week Prime Minister Samuel Hinds moved to quell concerns about the design and construction of the $1.65 billion headquarters building for which funds were provided by the Japanese government to the Government of Guyana.

Colin Laird, a British architect who resides in Barbados had won the design competition held more than two and a half decades ago. However, Current Affairs has been so far unable to ascertain if Laird has been involved with the project in any way. Vikab, an engineering firm registered in Trinidad and Tobago, is the design and supervising consultants.

Some members of the engineering

community had raised concerns about the integrity of the floors and the strength of the beams, the exits for evacuation of the building in the event of a fire and the reported failure of the canopy at the entrance of the building.

In an exclusive interview with Current Affairs, Willis asserted there was no cause for concern about the design and safety of the building.

About the reported failure of the canopy, Willis categorically denied that there had been a failure of the canopy which had been constructed in sections and work was still in progress completing it. "I observed during my frequent visits to the site no failure of the canopy".

There are unconfirmed reports that a section of the canopy had cracked and a corrective steel "H" column had been incorporated in the design.

Willis is the representative of the Ministry of Works on the Oversight Committee appointed by Cabinet to track the progress of the construction of the building and all other issues financial and technical as it relates to implementation of the project. He is its technical point man. Clyde Roopchand, the Chief Planning Officer, Ministry of Finance chairs the committee. A representative of the CARICOM Secretariat also sits on the committee.

Commenting on the concerns raised about the beams and the manner in which they are connected, Willis explained that before the construction of the superstructure commenced there had been detailed checks of the steel frame both by the contractors, and the steel fabricators to ensure that all the design specifications were met.

He disclosed that his Ministry had concerns about the foundation for the building and that these were resolved to its satisfaction after the contractor, Nabi and Sons hired a consultant to conduct a series of pile tests. The building rests on some 900 piles each between 65-70 feet long and with a diameter between 14-16 inches. Willis said that Vikab verified that the piles met the specifications and that an engineer from the Ministry of Works took the blow counts during the pile driving exercise.

Willis also answered comments about the use of piles while building on the University of Guyana campus, such that housing the Faculty of Technology did not rest on piles even though the soil was similar to the site on which the Secretariat building was being built.

He explained that the use of piles is justified by the need to ensure there was no likelihood of settlement in the long term. Also, he said that the building was an important project for the Guyana government and it had to be there for a very long time.

Willis, an engineering graduate of UG, said that the Technology building is a steel framed edifice and its floors were not made of concrete. The Secretariat building, though it has a steel frame is constructed differently. However, he observed that had the designers of the building wanted to be adventurous the foundation would have been similar to that of the Faculty of Technology.

About the integrity of the floor, Willis asserted that there has been no overdue settlement of the floor and it had been designed to accommodate a 40 per cent increase in deadweight and a 60 per cent increase in live weight.

He explained that a load test on the floor was conducted using 210 X 180 pounds concrete blocks to test the load bearing capacity of the first floor and that the deflection was just 11 millimetres, which is well within the limit of the allowable deflection code. The test is still in progress to see if there would be any further deflection.

About the strength of the beams, Willis pointed out that beam-to-beam connection consists of a combination of "fin and end plates" and is a conventional connection as detailed in the steel designer's manual which is in accordance with BS 449 and BS5050. He said that "it can be made from a tee of a Universal Beam or fabricated as was done by the steel fabricators, [VSH Talmage], retained by the contractors [Nabi].

"The fin plate is connected to the web of the main supporting beam and the [end] plate is welded to it and to the top and bottom flanges of the supporting beam, " Willis said.

He asserted in response to concerns that the main supporting beams appeared to be undersized, "the designers have their supporting calculations which were reviewed before and during the construction stage and found to be adequate."

He said that the beams, welds and connections were well designed, fabricated and constructed and that he would welcome the calculations which prompted the concerns.

In a letter to GAPEVINE, the newsletter of the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers, Malcolm Alli, a structural engineer, pointed out, "the connection of the secondary beams in the grid to the main supporting steel beam consists of welding a steel plate at the edges to and bottom of the main beam flanges to which the secondary is then bolted."

According to Alli, "the standard practice in the industry is to support the main beam directly to the web of the main beam thereby eliminating torsion in the main beam that will now unnecessarily be induced by this type of connection." He said too "I am also of the opinion that the main supporting steel beams appear to be undersized."

Addressing concerns about the safety of the building in the event of a fire, Willis pointed out that the steel beams were wrapped in a protective concrete skin that would allow sufficient time for the building to be evacuated safely.

He explained though that following visits by representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat, some minor changes had been requested with regard to the layout of the offices and attention has now to be paid to the siting of exits as a result of the changes.

Alli in his letter had called for consideration to be given to providing at least "one hour fire protection" in the event that it was not possible to install sprinklers in the ceiling due to the uncertainty about water supply.

Willis also pointed out that the steel form deck itself provides "a half hour fire protection" and that the ceiling itself is fire retardant," and said that he is confident that "the level of fire protection being offered for the building which is one floor above ground level is more than adequate."