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Groundbreaking Marks Beginning of Haiti Construction Program

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110511-12
5/11/2011

By NAVFAC Southeast Public Affairs Office

Les Cayes, HAITI (NNS) -- U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) broke ground May 9, in Les Cayes, Haiti, to mark the beginning of construction of 58 projects that are part of the SOUTHCOM Humanitarian Assistance Program (HAP).

The projects are located throughout Haiti to assist the country in preparing for any future natural disasters.

The ceremony took place at the site of two contracts. The first consists of a 4,000-sq. ft. emergency operations center (EOC) and a 4,800-sq. ft. disaster relief warehouse (DRW) that will provide the Regional Department of Civil Protection the ability to coordinate and effectively respond to emergencies and provide necessary relief to the Haitian people. The lead contractor is GDG Benton & Construction from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The second contract is a community cluster which consists of an eight-classroom school, community center, medical clinic and water well. The community cluster provides much needed facilities to the local population and will also function as evacuation centers in the case of hurricanes or other natural disasters. The lead contractor is Palgag Building Technologies from Kibutz Gaash, Israel.

"Through the construction of these emergency operations centers and disaster relief warehouses, the U.S. Government seeks to strengthen the capacity of the Haitian Government to protect its people, and in doing so, reduce Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters," said U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth H. Merten.

The projects total $2.9 million and are scheduled to be completed in November and September 2011, respectively.

In addition to Merten, participants in the groundbreaking ceremony included Antoine Bien Aime, Minister of Interior, Government of Haiti; Kevenor Estinvil, departmental delegate, Government of Haiti; Cmdr. John Reed, senior defense official, U.S. Embassy; Yvon Cherry, mayor of Les Cayes; Lt. Cmdr. Luis Holkon, Resident Officer in Charge of Construction (ROICC) Haiti, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast; Yoav Zilber, regional manager, Palgag Building Technologies, Ltd.; and Sony Gay, vice president, GDG Benton & Construction, S.A.

Overall, the $31 million SOUTHCOM HAP will construct an EOC and DRW in each of the ten Haitian departments (analogous to States); ten fire stations; and eight community clusters throughout Haiti. Construction of the Haiti HAP projects are expected to continue until the end of fiscal year 2012.

ROICC Haiti was established by NAVFAC Southeast in November 2010, as a forward-deployed field office to administer the Haiti HAP construction. They currently manage eight multi-project contracts in Haiti, with an additional ten contracts to be awarded prior to September 2011. Besides ROICC Haiti, a team of project managers, architects/engineers, contract specialists and others support the Haiti HAP projects back at NAVFAC's Facilities Engineering Command in Jacksonville, Fla.