Settle for More!

In nearly every developing country location, plants evaluated by EPR have exhibited very poor performance of soil compaction, especially related to area paving.

At one facility, a more extensive review was conducted because significant settling was evident in dozens of areas. In the first photo, not only is the area paving soil consolidating, so is the soil below the pipe support foundation, which rendered the support ineffectual.  Some of the other pictures show images taken from a borescope beneath a slab where the soil had consolidated in the 12 months after the slab was poured. The findings included exposed rebar, construction debris, form work, voids, unconsolidated concrete, and improper slab thickness/finish. In all, technically nothing about the installation was acceptable.

In the last photo, a small crew can be observed preparing soil for finish grade.  It exhibits well the nature of the problem.  Simply, the crew did not have the tools or knowledge to perform the work correctly. QC was also not likely to be involved to verify soil density.  However, it's a safe bet the QC paperwork would have been properly filled-in and signed-off.

In the future, perhaps only a few years after warranty expiration, the owner will need to contend with maintenance and replacement of many slabs that should never need attention.