Monday, September 13, 2010

Tubular work

Photo showing how tubular scaffolding work was carried out in UK


























Repairing work in Oxford University

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Survey Instrument

What type of survey instrument is the best?

In one of the project in Penang, I was informed by the Procurement Officer that the Senior Project Manager objected the purchase of a Auto plummet. When I asked her why he rejected the purchase, she told me that the instrument that I requested was not good and unsuitable for our job. Well, I got a shock and decided to question the purchasing officer on how tall a building has the Senior constructed,. A few day later she called me over the phone and mentioned the figure, 20 storey building.
Well, I told her that I have constructed the highest so far was a 33 storey. Not to be rude, I told her to check with the General Manager who at that time has built the highest in Penang, the 65 storey Komtar. and to request him to get the boss approval on the purchase of that instrument.

The following day she called and said that the boss has approved the purchase of that instrument. In our construction life, sometime we were lucky to have the opportunity to use good and sophisticated survey instrument and normally this will be subjected to the type of project we will be involved.

Type of instruments

Normal survey instrument : Auto level from brand like Wild, Topcon, Nikon and etc
Auto plummet : brand like Wild. so far the best for it has the Leica lens.
Total station : brand like Nikon, Wild, Topcon.
and recently ,most of the instrument are of Laser type now.

Are you a Surveyor?
Well, I am not but so happen I loved this subject, survey. When I was taking my external exam, I was offered to choose one paper out of six subjects and I sat for this 4 hours paper in MU ( University Malaya). But then this does not mean that I am good in survey . All of us in the construction sector will understand that having paper qualification does not help at all. As my present boss has mentioned to me in the car in Medan, all the new staff must be trained in the survey work. this is very truth.

Practical training.

I was very lucky for during my college training with Mitsui Jurutama JV project , I was involved with a flyover project and everyday I would be a chain man for my surveyor. Setting out all the field points so that we could determine the alignment of the flyover and also to lead the construction team in the daily works. Eventually, I managed to gain the confidence of my surveyor and he decided to teach me the instrumental work. The more you practice the better you are and eventually I managed to gain alot of confidence in my surveyor work.

On one fine day, I was approached by the consultant surveyor and he asked me to attend a Astronomy field survey. I attended the lesson but could not understand the theory side. He even copied a book on this topic for me which I kept it in my house till today. During this road works I managed to understand the important of Survey alignment and leveling.

How it help in all my future works.

With that basic knowledge , I started to set out for my first project in Iran, the 400kVa Substation.. but with the help of another Civil Engineer from MU. He is very hot temper but some how we just click and by the time he left for Singapore , I was already carrying out my field work for this whole project and not to forget under a very good Project Manager who guided me in work, study and even encouraging all the foreign skilled workers to teach me Mandarin.
After returning back to Penang, I set out the whole Equatorial hotel in my first job . That is my best achievement. Not to forget all the Building work together and also the Boss of EQ who taught me the application of survey in relation to Hotel construction.

Sometime when we thought that we were good in the survey work, we will be surprised that even a carpenter could be good in it too. "Do not judge a layman by it cover"



to be continue ..............tomorrow with some photo .

Monday, October 5, 2009

Reading Construction Plan

First drawing: The Architectural

Who do you do when you are assigned a Project?

Finding the site

1. Get hold of the Layout Plan where you can see the location the Project with relation to the surrounding existing area. Normally identify the main road that lead you to this project if you are in the urban area.
2. If you happen to search for a Project in the rural area, every detail leading to this area are very important for there will be less landmark to guide you .
3. Having a Surveyor Demarcation Plan that show will be of great help.
4. Other than this get a compass along and presently Iphone 3GS has the application that works. Please take note that in every layout plan, direction of the North will be indicated
5.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Construction Blog



What is "Kee Cho"

This is a Hokkien dialect meaning build houses.
As a young boy, my father bought a house in our village, the present one that I am staying, and on his way back from the orchard he would pass by the construction site and would informed us that our new house is under construction and they, the contractor, has started the "Teh Ki" (foundation in hokkien dialect").

Just for information, he witnessed the overall construction of the house.
He would talk to constructor and eventually informing us when they going to lay the electric cable and that my sister should quickly check the addition points needed for the kitchen, etc,
Till to date, there is no major defect of this house except for the rain gutters, bulbs, paint that corroded due to wear and tear.



Why this blog
?

Throughout my life, I have always been taught by many Project Managers at site. To me, I am very lucky for there are many construction staff out there that learn the hard way to really understand what is construction. Before proceeding further, I would like to thank all of them.
From Jurutama (M): IR Lee Wan Hoi, Mr. Lee See Been
From Jurong Engineering Pte Ltd (S):Mr. Sundram (Mechanical), Mr Lau King Siu (Civil and structure), Goh Yau Hong, (Mechanical)
From Lim Kah Ngam (M): Dato' Lim , Ir Ong Lye Seng
and many more construction staff who inspire me to write this blog and not to forget one of the maintanence team that took over the completed building , Mr Beh ( ex headmaster ) and finally most important the many construction teams that help to complete the individual projects in 36 years of my life

What will be in this blog?

Definitely everything on construction but then technology keep on improving hence to many experience constructors out there kindly give your comments to improve all the readers knowledge.
Throughout my life, the projects that I have gone through were

1. Highway : Overpass
2. Chemical Plant
3. Substation
4. Oil and Gas
5. Fertilizer plant
6. Hotels
7. High rise buildings
8. Low rise buildings
9. Printing press factory
10. Hill slope projects.

and existing project that I will be constructing .