Haiti’s Rock and Soil Engineering Challenges and Potential Solutions
Barney Paul Popkin, Consultant Abstract The Republic of Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is a low-income developing
country, a failed tropical state sharing a large island on a West Indian island arc. It suffers from a very low gross domestic product/person of $695/year, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, poor governance, corruption, and transparency issues. Haiti is burdened by high winds and humidity, hurricanes, floods and droughts, active faults and earthquakes, steep slopes, deforestation, inappropriate farming, mountain erosion and hillside creep, liquefaction, landslides and debris flows, expansive and swelling soils, sinkholes, and seawater intru- sion. Approximately 90% of Haiti’s 11.3 million people live and work within its high-risk, natural disaster areas.
These challenges may be mitigated by proper and enforced impact analysis, zoning, land-use restrictions, and sound architectural and engineering codes and designs.
In addition, geotechnical measurements are the foundation for rock and soil engineering interpretations, decisions, designs, engineering, construction, structure operations and maintenance, and facility monitoring and evaluation. Uncertainties in sampling, testing, and measurement, and their assumptions are important to understand and account for safety, security, and sustainability.
There must always be attention to sampling, testing, measurement, variability, mitigation, failure, and litiga- tion. Interesting challenges include sampling regimes, testing methods, probability analysis, risk assessment, ground stabilization, soil drainage management, and regulatory requirements.
Introduction and Background Issues My experience in more than a dozen tropical and tectoni- cally unstable countries underlies this analysis. In addition, my conversations with scores of geological and geotechnical professionals, and my uncle Ralph Popkins’ innovations in soil and materials testing were useful (EEECO).
The Republic of Haiti is located in the Caribbean Sea at 19° N, 72° W. It’s tectonically unstable, within the earthquake-, hurricane-, high-wind, and flood- prone area of the western third of the tropical island of Hispaniola. The country covers approximately 11,000 square miles (slightly smaller than Maryland), with a declining population due to emigration. Approximately 90% of Haiti’s people live and work within high-risk, natural disaster areas. Haiti has a warm, humid tropical climate characterized by diurnal temperature varia- tions that are greater than the annual variations; tempera-
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tures are modified by elevation. Average temperatures range from the high 70s F (about 25 °C) in January and February to the mid-80s F (about 30 °C) in July and August (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020).
Haiti has suffered from devastating cyclones, hurricanes, tropical storms, torrential rains, floods, and earthquakes. Its hurricane season lasts from June to the end of November, while its earthquakes may occur any time. Its hurricane winds his- torically vary up to 168 miles per hour (73 pounds per square inch or the load of a three-level building), and its earthquakes up to magnitude 7.0. Both have caused disastrous damage and loss of life (Wikipedia, 2019).
Figure 1 is a location map of Haiti in the Caribbean Sea. Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince is approximately 217 miles southeast of Guantánamo in southeast Cuba.
www.aipg.org
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