![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/184\/2023\/10\/23C1-2515.jpg\")
<\/p>\nExisting State of School<\/p>\n
Existing State of School<\/span><\/p>\n This project is located in the San Juan de Pastocalle parish, in the Cotopaxi province, in Ecuador. The community comprises of mostly lower-income individuals who primarily work in the agricultural sector. In 2017, a social survey was conducted, and it was concluded that the local schools were facing a major issue as the demand for education was much greater than what the existing schools were able to supply. At this point, the Methodist Church began to devote more efforts to helping the school expand its capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, the partially complete eight-classroom building is not being used and completion of this project will allow the local school system\u2019s capacity to be expanded by 30% allowing for additional educational opportunities. The hope is that with the addition of the El Sembrador School students in the Pastocalle community will not only be able to get a basic education but also finish high school.<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, a school building exists in downtown Pastocalle serving grades K-7, however, there are numerous issues associated with it. The building is in poor condition and before COVID-19, it was overcrowded. This building does not have sufficient space for the school system to expand to 12th grade which is the long-term goal.<\/span><\/p>\n During the past five years foundations, columns, beams, and a roof were constructed by volunteers from the United States and locals from Ecuador, however, the school in its current state is structurally deficient.\u00a0 A sampling of the issues includes burying the foundations shallower than the plans called for, using concrete of low compressive strength, using less rebar than the plans called for, and not properly sizing the steel roof joists to where they overhang the concrete columns.<\/span><\/p>\n In the winter of 2023, the EWB-RHIT team traveled to site to complete an assessment trip, where they completed <\/span>a structural analysis\/measurements of the existing structure with nondestructive methods including, but not limited to, a rebound hammer, Eddy Current, and UPV scanning. Additionally, concrete coring of the structure was done and a geotechnical investigation was conducted consisting of three boring holes.\u00a0 A site survey was conducted, several meetings with various local project stakeholders were held, and the availability of local labor and resources was analyzed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since returning from the trip, EWB-RHIT has been interpolating and analyzing the data collected on the trip trying to understand the capacity of the foundations, concrete members, and steel members. \u00a0 The team has also been analyzing various options to improve the structural capacity of the building and to construct a retaining wall as part of the alternative analysis phase of the project.\u00a0 The team ultimately decided on a concrete cast-in-place retaining wall design.<\/span><\/p>\n After wrapping up the alternative analysis phase of the project, the team moved to the detailed design phase of the project. During this phase, EWB-RHIT designed the concrete retaining wall to determine required lengths of stem, toe, and heel; as well as concrete thickness and rebar placement. Additionally, we designed cast-in-place concrete shear walls to resist seismic loads. Walls that do not need to resist seismic loads are being built with concrete blocks, and these will be grouted and filled with rebar.<\/span><\/p>\n The current goal is to wrap up the design phase of the project and begin construction in early 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Existing State of School Existing State of School This project is located in the San Juan de Pastocalle parish, in the Cotopaxi province, in Ecuador. The community comprises of mostly lower-income individuals who primarily work in the agricultural sector. In 2017, a social survey was conducted, and it was concluded that the local schools were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16713,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2993","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16713"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2993"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4479,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2993\/revisions\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.rose-hulman.edu\/ewb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}