BY NED GAGAHE
UNSTABLE power supply and unfavorable weather conditions are amongst tough challenges faced during construction of the Comprehensive Medical Center at National Referral Hospital’s eastern end.
Despite these challenges, Chief Engineer of the project Mr. Liang has expressed confidence that his team will deliver the project on time and in high quality.
Speaking to local Journalists that since the project kicked off in December last year, they faced challenges such as unstable power supply, intense exposure to heat by Chinese workers, unfavorable weather condition.
Mr. Liang said the weather conditions was a huge challenge especially for the Chinese workers, however, they have managed to come up with solutions that addressed these challenges one of which is the utilizing the Christmas and New Year’s period when weather was favorable to schedule their work efficiently.
The project is expected to be completed by early 2025.
Chief Engineer Liang adds that in order to ensure they meet the targeted deadline; they have to work day and night given the construction period 16-months to complete the project.
Liang also expressed optimism with the current labour force of approximately 130 workers actively involved in the construction, he hopes that they will approach the finishing line by festive season.
He also revealed that the project employed around 70 Solomon Islanders working alongside their Chinese counterparts.
When asked whether the project would need more local workers, he said that will depend on the demand and should it require more locals going forward, they will hire more but currently only 70 workers who are part of the total workforce.
Known as the ‘Comprehensive Medical Center’ the project is fully funded by Chinese Government worth $90 million dollars, it is poised to become a milestone in the medical fields of the Solomon Islands, contributing to the improvement of public health standards.
The project is managed by a joint team from CSADI (on-site management team) and Jiangsu Jiangdu Construction Group. (construction technology team).
“The main building has four floors above the ground. The functions of the ground floor include consulting rooms, pharmacy, inpatient dispensing area, health workers lunge, and patient waiting area. The functions of first floor includes wards, health workers lounge, and health workers working zone.
“The functions of second floor include CT laboratory, health workers lounge, health workers working zone, and remote conference center. The functions of third floor include operation area, ICU, health workers lounge, etc. There is an ICU on the opposite side of the operation room, with a total of 3 beds.
“The outdoor power room includes domestic water pump room, fire pump room, LV distribution room, outdoor diesel generator, outdoor fire water tank, etc., which ensure the normal operation of the hospital system.” A statement from the Chinese Embassy said.
