A new school building in East-Souburg in Zeeland, which was discovered to have been built the wrong way round, is being rebuilt. “The school will be properly erected as soon as possible, everything will be disassembled and the foundation will be adjusted,” says director Ruud Hoogesteger of primary school Tweemaster-Kameleon. Broadcasting Zeeland know.
The mistake was made last month discoversafter which construction was halted. The foundation and skeleton of the building turned out to be rotated 180 degrees with respect to the construction drawings. School staff noted that certain elements, including a staircase, did not match the drawings.
“It’s pretty bizarre that we noticed it ourselves,” Hoogesteger said at the time. “You should see that on the construction site, with those drawings.”
Recalculated and drawn
How it could have gone wrong is still unclear. According to the municipality of Vlissingen, which includes Oost-Souburg, everything is currently being recalculated by the contractor. Everything is also redrawn. The municipality must then approve those plans and drawings and then a new planning must be drawn up. The municipality of Vlissingen is still investigating who is responsible for the error.
It is not yet known how long the rebuild will take. The students of the school are currently having lessons in temporary accommodation, but according to school director Hoogesteger there are two problems there: there is noise pollution and it is extremely hot.
“We were able to do something about the noise and we bought a mobile air conditioner,” he says. “But it’s not ideal. We don’t want to be in this any longer.”
long run-up
The new construction of the Tweemaster Chameleon has had a long run. The discussion about the new building has been going on for about twenty years. There have been lengthy debates on the subject in the city council. Various locations were discussed, but there was always too little space for a broad primary school with associated facilities.
Ultimately, it was decided to demolish the old building and build a new one on the same site. “I made a solemn promise that the construction of the school on that site would continue,” said alderman Rens Reijnierse when the error was discovered. “A few weeks ago I thought I could say: now nothing will go wrong, but apparently it can always go wrong.”
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