More information about 'Northwest General Hospital: Degraded before being put into use'

(Baonghean.vn) – Verifying at the scene the information "Northwest General Hospital: Degraded before being put into use" and through checking the design documents appraised and approved by competent authorities, it was confirmed that this was a misunderstanding.

Northwest Regional General Hospital Project.

The information "Northwest General Hospital: Degraded before being put into use" has the following content: The Northwestern General Hospital Project is a key project in the Western development strategy of Nghe An province in the period 2010-2020. The project was invested according to Decision 2402/QD-UBND-CN dated June 20, 2008 with a scale of 250 beds and a total investment of nearly 200 billion VND from government bond capital; state budget and other legal capital sources. According to the plan, in 2013, the project was put into use. However, up to this point, the Northwestern Regional General Hospital Project has not been completed and put into use. Meanwhile, the project is showing signs of damage and degradation.

Along with this content are some photos showing that the Northwest Regional General Hospital has some cracks running along the walls of the building.

After the above information, we received many feedbacks from engineers who are working on the project.

Design of the Inpatient Clinic and Treatment Facility – Technical and Professional

According to engineer Nguyen Tien Ngoc - project management consultant, recent information in the press about cracks in the project, claiming that the project "has deteriorated before use" is a misunderstanding.

The contents show the deterioration occurring at the Inpatient Examination and Treatment Center - professional techniques (belonging to package No. 2).

According to the design documents, the Inpatient Examination and Treatment Building - Technical and Professional includes 5 independent units. Between the units, there are 3cm wide settlement joints to avoid uneven settlement between the units causing cracks; at the same time, the building also has more than 20 expansion joints to reduce the impact caused by the expansion of materials due to environmental impacts.

Expansion joints are shown in the design drawings.

Between the subsidence and expansion joints, the construction unit, Company 36.65 (General Company 36 - Ministry of National Defense), used foam panels to separate them. During the construction process, in some wall sections with subsidence and expansion joints, workers plastered with mortar. Due to the impact of weather, the mortar at these locations shrank, creating cracks running straight along the joints.

Between the units, at the subsidence gap, the construction unit installed separating foam panels (in the photo is engineer Nguyen Anh Dung)

The Northwest Regional General Hospital project is managed by the Management Board of Civil Construction and Urban Infrastructure Engineering Projects (Department of Construction).

Due to mortar shrinkage, straight cracks were created along the subsidence gap (in the photo, engineer Nguyen Tien Ngoc is explaining the incident).

Engineer Nguyen Tien Ngoc affirmed: “According to construction regulations, a building block with a length of over 24m must have such a settlement gap; in addition, expansion joints must be arranged. Package No. 2 of the Northwest Regional General Hospital project includes 5 independent units, arranged with 4 settlement gaps and dozens of expansion joints. This is clearly shown in the technical design documents. Currently, the project is under construction, in some locations, the settlement and expansion joints due to mortar shrinkage have cracks, creating a visual impression that they are cracks.

Chief engineer Nguyen Anh Dung said that when completed, the mortar will be removed and aluminum strips will be installed in the settlement and expansion joints.

For these settlement and expansion joints, before handing over, the supervising consultant will require the construction unit to cut and separate the plastered mortar, then use aluminum strips to cover them to create aesthetics for the project...

According to the site commander, engineer Nguyen Anh Dung, the contractor completely agrees with the settlement and expansion joint treatment plan as proposed by the consulting supervisor.

The two black streaks running along the wall are where the construction unit installed the electrical lines and lightning rods; the black streaks on the roof are expansion joints.

Engineer Nguyen Anh Dung added that the black streak running from the floor to the roof also causes misunderstandings that this is a crack, but in fact this is the location where we broke the mortar to install electrical lines and lightning rods.

"General Company 36 is aware of the quality issue of each project. We carry out construction in accordance with the design that has been appraised and approved by competent authorities; ensuring construction in accordance with current standards and regulations...", engineer Nguyen Anh Dung affirmed.

Nguyen Binh