1. Haiti’s Concrete Production Crisis
There have been many large concrete projects
throughout the years.
The Hoover Dam was finished in 1935 and required 3.24
million cubic meters of concrete. The expansion of the
Panama Canal will use 4.4 million cubic meters of
concrete. And the Grand Coulee Dam used 9.2 million
cubic meters of concrete.
It is no wonder that concrete ranks #2 on the list of the
most consumed products on earth. Concrete is the most
appropriate material for producing solid foundations in
homes, buildings, public facilities and for most major
structures around the world.
Concrete will play a major role in the rebuilding efforts in Haiti. But they have a
problem… They currently don’t have the capacity to meet the demands of a large
concrete project like rebuilding a country.
The rubble piles in Haiti give us a hint as to
how large this concrete project has
become. It is undeniable that the majority
of the estimated 17 to 20 million cubic
meters of rubble contain mostly cement-
based materials. This is twice the material
than it took to build the Grand Coulee
Dam.
Replacing this crumbled concrete will
require millions of cubic meters of newly produced concrete. These rubble piles
also include millions of concrete blocks, tiles and pavers replacement of which
will only add to the production crisis.
Here are some of the numbers:
• Temporary structures of T-Shelters will require at least 275,000 cubic
meters of concrete for their simple foundations.
• The targeted number of permanent home foundations will require another
1.4 million cubic meters.
• Replacing 20,000 to 30,000 commercial buildings with large material
needs will further explode the demand for concrete
• 90% of all Government buildings need rebuilding or major repair.

2. • Add Schools, hospitals, churches, the airport, the shipping port and the
resorts. Some of these projects will require hundreds of thousands of
cubic meters of concrete.
• Miles of security walls fell down that surrounded communities, campuses,
and compounds. These will use millions of concrete blocks.
• Upgrading or integrating Bridges, Dams, Water and Sewer facilities will
also consume great quantities of concrete.
It is not unreasonable to suggest that the concrete production demand in Haiti
will exceed the volume of the Grand Coulee Dam in the next 5-years. Let’s
assume that that the final number is 4.5-million cubic meters over the next 5-
years, or 900,000 M³ per year. The question becomes: How does a country as
poor as Haiti produce that much concrete?
Before we tackle this problem, let’s examine the bright side of this issue…
1. Haiti has a resilient and willing workforce, who has the cultural skills to
produce and work with cement-based building materials. The
employment component of this issue may only require some better
training and tools so that the quality of the work will improve. It is
interesting to note that the concrete industry in the United States
regularly employs over two million workers, so this sector should allow
many Haitian’s to have steady employment.
2. Haiti has the financial support from US and other countries with the
commitment to assist the country in rebuilding. The main question will be
if this money can really build back the concrete infrastructure of Haiti in a
way that it will not crumble down again. The best use of this funding will
be to enhance the Haitian concrete supply chain now.
With these two positives working together, the work of replacing Haiti’s concrete
can be accomplished. But it will take some real effort and coordination to make it
happen.
Haiti’s current concrete production
capacity is extremely low. Before the
quake there were three operating
concrete ready-mix plants and now there
are only two. Efforts are underway to
upgrade and expand the transit-mix
capabilities of Haiti. There are some US
companies investing in increasing the
capacity of Haiti’s transit-mix operations.
Transit-mix Truck in Haiti

3. But adding more production capacity is just one of the issues with the concrete
supply chain. There is the problem of concrete delivery trucks. The largest
concrete supplier has 10 trucks that can only deliver about 7 cubic meters per
load. When you consider the poor road systems outside of Port au Prince, it is
not hard to imagine major delivery issues. Rebuilding the rural communities will
be nearly impossible with a centralized truck delivery format.
Haiti has historically lived with minimal concrete production support and has used
on-site cement mixing processes. Most of these mixing methods have involved
shovels mixing concrete on the ground, or the use of very small contractor
mixers. But the volumes needed to build a new Haiti will quickly overwhelm the
small mixing processes.
Mixing on the ground with shovels may
have been one of the major contributors
to the failure of so many buildings, so this
practice should be stopped if the goal is
to build back better.
Regardless the damage done by shovel
mixing, there remains a bottle neck in the
concrete production capabilities in the
rural areas of the country.
It is clear that shovels and just ten ready-
mix trucks will never meet the demand for millions of cubic meters of concrete
production. And stretching this existing system of production would certainly lead
to poor quality control in the construction materials. It will be irresponsible of
everyone involved to not plan for a better method.
Rebuilding Haiti will involve thousands of construction sites working
simultaneously in order to meet the goals of the government and all of the non-
government organizations. The best solution is based upon decentralizing the
concrete production system that is now centralized in Port-au-Prince.
Decentralizing will require that systems of appropriate scale be provided. It
makes no sense to place a large transit-mix facility in a small community. Truck-
based ready-mix is impractical for smaller towns where roads make access
difficult. The truck systems will be needed to supply the huge infrastructure
projects and large buildings in the cities.
CementTrust™ suggests that a scaled version of the concrete production model
of the industrialized nations be implemented in Haiti. Instead of a transit-mix
provider in each community, a smaller and simpler technology should be used.
Instead of huge cement silos and towering conveyor systems to support trucks,
small human-batched mixers that are robust and efficient on smaller job sites
should be used.

4. The decentralized networks of small ready-mix
operators will bring a mixer and a trained crew to the
jobsite to produce the concrete needed for the
project. The business is owned by a local
entrepreneur who hires from the community and
builds a trust in the quality of the product that is
produced. They replace the shovels on the ground
with measured batches and mechanically produced
mixes that can be tested and quality controlled.
The CementTrust™ concrete production network will train and certify each mixer
operator in the proper selection of sand and gravel to produce a strong result on
a consistent basis. The network will provide regular spot testing of the quality of
the concrete to insure that foundations, walls and columns are provided with the
right compressive strengths.
Decentralizing the concrete supply chain will greatly expand the business
opportunities and potential for employment in all corners of the country.
Concrete production requires support from material delivery to engineering to
masonry contracting.
Rebuilding Haiti will require a focus like what was used to build the Hoover Dam,
but with a plan that is spread widely around an entire island. We must start now
to lay the ground work for a successful concrete supply chain.