I have been aware of happenings at Montanas de Caldera for some time. Back in 2009 I wrote a glowing article about the project, link. Some time after this was published the people I lauded in the article were all fired. In their stead the management contracted construction to another person, Roy Knight. There are a few posts about Roy on this site also, link.
I had one final meeting with Jane and John Richardson after that event and decided to walk away and not look back at them or their project.
Then came the case of the collapsing swimming pool when a pool built on the edge of a cliff fell into the Caldera River. link . The image below says that even if a bull dozer did end the house that house was unsafe for any use before any action was taken.
The event pictured above happened on 3 November 2010. It took almost a year until 26 Sept 2011 for Sinaproc, the civil protection agency to launch an inspection of the area. At that time they described what occurred and noted that no soil studies had been done prior to construction.
They recommended the houses on the rim not be occupied and that a study of the geology be done.
On October 4 2010 they wrote John Richardson :
“Esta institution ordena que los lotes que se ecuentran al borde del acantilado no deben ser ocupados debido a que pudieran suscitarse otros derrumbes en el drea.”
My translation is:
This institution mandates that lots on the cliff edge should not be occupied because there may arise additional landslides in the area.
They also recommended a soil study to determine the likely hood of another event.
On 15 November 2011 the Director of Sinaproc wrote the mayor requesting he implement the order not allowing occupancy of the houses on the cliff edge.
On 17 Nov 2011 the Mayor ordered the Corregador to take action on the SINAPROC request. That is where my copy of the public record stops.
I was going to copy and cite some quotes posted by residents of Montanas de Caldera which were posted on Boquete ning, but since they have been deleted by the poster I will only provide a link to download the twenty pages of the Public Record SINAPROC report I am quoting. This is a 20 meg PDF file so be patient if you choose to download it, LINK.
The known reality is many residents where never aware of the order and people are living in homes on the cliff edge as I write. By not informing residents lives were placed in danger. If after being informed someone assumes the risk that is their option, but failing to follow the order was at best willful negligence.
The second confirmed reality is that one night last week the Richardsons appeared to have packed up and left their project. According to people in the project they did not pay employees or utilities, they just left without notice.
As of my writing I have no idea where they are nor who will be filling their shoes on this massive project.
So they flew the coop by cover of night, eh? Leaving those residents uninformed as to their mortal danger was heinous indeed!
Folks,
This is nothing new and it’s been happening for years. You get some gringo construction company trying to build American standards in the Mountain’s of Panama and things sometime go terribly wrong.
It happen’s to the best of us.
NO houses should be built this close to a ravine…Over the past 40 years I have seen places fall into ravines…even a whoule subdivision outside Gothenburg ,Sweden fell into the river…
the taller the ravine the further away you need to be…there is a “slide curve” that soils engineers are aware of and will tell you where it exists , any piling you have under a house needs to get in under that slide curve…
Even in houston where I designed a house on a dry creek (would get water during rains) that was only 12 foot deep, we had 40 foot pilings closest then backing up to 10 ft pilings , a $160,000 worth of foundation.
Outside Seattle I designed a house on the side of a hill (Goat Hill in Kirkland )..where we had lots of steel pilings into the rock….
sand and rock “cliffs” (ravines ) as around Boquete are not stable…and should no be built upon this close…the ravine is aravine for a reason…it has subsided many times over the years and will contimue to do so….what makes them ‘stable’ looking is the growth on them , making them look like they have been there ‘forever’…but remember things grow FAST around Panama!
Thanks for posting these links. There was always something up, how the sales office was no where to be found. Has anyone ben hurt?
Any one that lives there and has any info contact me.