Week 13 - Asphalt works start
Finally, the paving operation was able to commence work this week, but first, we had to pass a production trial. This proved the mix design worked and complied with the specifications. Our on-site lab conducted quality tests, and all was well. Now that we had made some asphalt, we agreed to put it to good use when surfacing the track from the fire station to the runway.
Following the trial, we had two days of heavy rainfall, which affected the sand stockpile and hindered production. We elected to just mill and asphalt the widened turning areas at each end of the runway so that we weren't tampering with the normal runway surface in case of any production issues. Both turning areas got asphalted at the end of this week, so we are ready to launch into full runway resurfacing starting tomorrow.
We were delayed starting on Friday as an extra unscheduled flight was organised for an advance party preparing for the President of Taiwan's visit on 4 Dec. A Bombardier BD700 jet that seats 17 people arrived in the morning and took off in the afternoon.
Watch the takeoff and note the cloud of dust and debris.
As part of the discussions around the advance party and President's visit, I met with Taiwan's Ambassador, Mr Andrew Lin. We have agreed not to work on the day of the President's visit because the late afternoon departure will not allow us enough time to finish our work in time for the Fiji Airways scheduled flight the next morning.
Taiwan has a strong presence in Tuvalu with its embassy and technical mission locally known as the Taiwan Garden. A large covered area where they grow and sell fruit and vegetables.
Taiwan, along with South Korea and Japan, have made many meaningful donations to improve social outcomes, such as school buses, ambulances and solar street lighting. The new police boats were made in Taiwan. As we have the only machine capable of moving a 40' container, the Police asked for our help to transport their two new boats to a safe location next to the island's jail. The boats are on trailers, which are on 40' flat racks. The trailers do not have the wheels on them! They might need our help to unload the trailers, too.
These three Asian countries, along with New Zealand and the USA, all have lucrative fishing access to Tuvalu's vast Exclusive Economic Zone, over 900,000 square kilometres of ocean, and around 26 square kilometres of land. They mainly fish for skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye tuna. In 2008, they caught 35,500 tonnes.
Along with these countries' contributions to Tuvalu, there are many externally funded projects that all seem to have acronyms for names. Like our very own 2s rap project
The MICRO project
The FASNETT project
The IAREP project
On my way to the asphalt plant site a couple of weeks ago, I was curious to discover the cause of a lot of shouting. It turned out to be a semi-final match between local rugby clubs, Nukufetau and Vaitupu. I arrived just in time to see Nukufetau score a try and conversion.
Link to Tuvalu Rugby Facebook page
On a lighter note, I achieved a continuous streak of 150 consecutive completions of the New York Times Wordle puzzle.
Comments
Post a Comment