I’s time to build the sidewalk joining the new primary school building to the auditorium, kitchen and bathrooms! We’ll build it up high enough so that it won’t be affected by local flooding, which leaves us with a stemwall design. Basically, we build a box with blocks off the front of the building, fill it with dirt, top it off with concrete, and in the end we have a sidewalk.

Our first step was cutting through the rock-like earth, and after that the next challenge was making sure that everything stayed level. Using boards and string, we made sure everything remained true. Once the blocks we installed, we ordered three trucks of dirt to fill it in. We spread it out, compacted it by hand and then watered it overnight to make sure the future sidewalk didn’t crack.

Once the dirt is good and hard, we’ll pour the cement. Purchasing concrete already mixed from a truck isn’t really an alternative, so that means mixing bags of cement with rock, sand, and water in the cement mixer and moving it with wheel barrows. Once installed, we’ll smooth it with a trowel and then float it with an aluminum bullfloat until it is perfect. We’ll let it dry for one day and cure for five, wetting it down twice a day to make sure it doesn’t dry to quickly.

And when class begins on February 21st, the students will have a well-made walkway to move about the campus of Centro Escolar LifeLink!

—Wayne Tingle – Director of Construction, LifeLink International