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TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE

PHILIPPINES
938 Aurora Boulevard, Cubao, Quezon City

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND


ARCHITECTURE

Civil Engineering Department

CE 501
Plant Visits and Seminars for CE

PREPARED BY:
DOMINGO, DANIEL L

Assignment No. 6 (Journal)


CE51S3
S.Y. 2020-2021 – 2nd Semester

SUBMITTED TO:
ENGR. RHONNIE ESTORES

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Instructor

TABLE OF CONTENTS
STRUCTURAL 3
ASSIGNMENT #1 Palm Jumeirah 3
STRUCTURAL WEBINAR 5

GEOTECH 6
ASSIGNMENT # 2 6
GEOTECH WEBINAR 7

HIGHWAY / TRAFFIC / TRANSPORTATION 8


ASSIGNMENT # 3 Qinghai-Tibet Heavy Rail Line 8
Highway/Traffic/Transportation (Webinar) 10
Reflective Essay (Highway/Traffic/Transportation Engineering) 11

WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING 12


ASSIGNMENT # 4 12
Water resources (Webinar) 13

CONSTRUCTION 14
ASSIGNMENT # 5 14
CONSTRUCTION WEBINAR 15
ASSIGNMENT # 7 16

REFLECTIVE ESSAY 19

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STRUCTURAL

ASSIGNMENT #1 Palm Jumeirah

Palm Jumeirah is Dubai's self-styled "eighth wonder of the world," extending


5km into the Arabian Gulf and shaped like a date palm. However the
over-the-top emirate is not only blowing its own trumpet; one of the most
audacious infrastructure ventures ever undertaken is this man-made island.
In 2001, the $12 billion project began, and six years later, the first residents
of the island moved in. Today, about 1,500 beachfront mansions are located
in the 17 fronds, with a further 6,000 apartments on the trunk. Atlantis The
Palm and the Waldorf Astoria, with names such as Fairmont and Viceroy on
the trunk, are big hotels on the crescent. "The Royal Atlantis, next to the
current Atlantis resort, and Palm 360, a two-tower resort linked by a
155-m-long "sky pool," are the resorts in the works.

2/3 of break water and 9 palm fronds will rise above sea level in October
2002. But then engineers found an issue that could put the whole project at
risk. There was no circulation of the water inside the sea wall (break water),
which resulted in polluted water being deposited inside. Fortunately, the
solution was discovered just in time. It was easy for the sea to force clean
water inside by making two breaks in the sea wall (break water). August
2003 The water break ends. Complete the island recuperation two months
later. The maximum power of the sea retains 94 million cubic meters of sand
and 5.5 million cubic meters of rock. 4500 houses and flats, 200 hotels and
shopping malls are to be constructed on the island to fulfill the Crown
Prince's dream. An entire city on it must help the sand island. However, sand
is not an easy foundation on which to build. It is loose and not compactable
since the sand is pulverized. The sand will naturally compact over time, but
it will take time. The solution was to use vibro-compaction methods. Fifteen
vibro-compacting machines worked around the clock in January 2004 to firm
up the field. These shafts vibrate and compress the land by shaking the
earth around it. More sand is flowing in as the land compacts and falls.

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Stabilizing the land took 8 months. March 2004, Jumairah palm is ready for
construction and building site.

A private satellite was used to ensure that the island is in its required
position and shape, 676 km up in space. The island's shape is almost curved
everywhere and to shape it as a palm tree needs pin point precision, so GPS
(Global Positioning System) was used while pouring sand into the sea. As a
grid guide for the island, mobile receivers were used and the satellite
provided coordinates of the point at which sand was to be placed. The
dredgers would then fill the sea area which the satellite commanded them.

I learned that you can build any ideas you have in mind with money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiGc2KmLHn0&ab_channel=ProvidentR
ealEstate

Khan shatyr

Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, lies in an austere eastern landscape with an
inhospitable climate that can produce temperatures of-35 degrees Celsius in winter and +35
degrees Celsius in summer. The Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center is built to provide the city
with a variety of civic, cultural and social facilities all sheltered inside a 'world within' climate
envelope that provides a pleasant microclimate throughout the year, regardless of the weather.
The tented structure of the building has great significance in Kazakh history as the tent is a
typical nomadic mode of construction - Khan Shatyr translates as The Khan's Tent'. It is said
that the Khan Shatyr, which took three and a half years to complete, is the world's largest tent,
or the world's largest tensile structure, to be more precise.

In the building process, erecting the tripod was the biggest obstacle to overcome. In
collaboration with Samko, who was the specialist steelwork sub-contractor, Buro Happold
developed the concept. To allow a dramatic single lift process where the entire 1,700 ton tripod
was pivoted around pins at the bases of the two front legs, the general configuration of the
tripod was configured. Attached to the top of a temporary tower in front of the tripod, strand
jacks pulled on the lifting cables attached to the frame at the hub of the tripod. As the front legs
pivoted up, while its base fell into a bogey running on a rail track, the top of the back leg raised
on a temporary pin link under the hub. Temporary bracing remained in place until the cables
were mounted and properly pre-tensioned to the cable ring.

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The tripod provides the center of the cable net with a single point of support and is an important
feature of the building's design. A single mast is traditionally the central support of a conical tent,
pinned both at the top and at the bottom and stabilized by the tent it supports. This positions
only axial force in the mast that moves under asymmetric loads with the tent and decreases the
peak tensions within the cable net. However, temporarily supporting a completely articulated
150 m high single mast during construction was deemed impractical, so this concept was
modified for the Entertainment Centre. The tripod structure used provides a sturdy buildable
foundation, while the articulated top ring it supports provides some motion to relieve the cable
network forces. The movable portion of the mast is therefore a much smaller component that
during construction was easier to temporarily brace.

I learned that the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre was only planned and constructed by
harnessing the talents of an international team of designers and contractors who worked closely
together. Despite the climatic extremes that the city faces, it has successfully overcome
significant challenges to provide a special, wide open space for the people of Astana to use in
comfort throughout the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CZzA8zMqbs&ab_channel=FreeDocumentary

STRUCTURAL WEBINAR

On the 29th day of November 2020, the Technological Institute of the Philippines, Civil
Engineering Department, American Concrete Institute (ACI) TIP chapter and the Philippine
Institute of Civil Engineering (PICE) TIP chapter held a webinar entitled “CIVIL ENGINEERING
CELEBRATION 2020” with the theme “Understanding the past, Engineering the future”. This
webinar marks the opening of the civil engineering celebration.

The first resource speaker of the webinar is Engr. Mark Vincent Yap Nodado, he is the Founder
of exambank.ph, house construction calculator, and Colonish: Construction and Design
industry's online marketplace, President of the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers Pampanga
chapter 2016-2018, President of MYV builders Incorporated since 2009 up to present, Inhinyero
review center since 2015 up to present, and a resource speaker for various events. He talks
about “Engineering the future, Marketing in Engineering”. He explains how technology changed
the way we market for our profession and business. Before, engineer use Word of mouth or
referral to market their product and services. But now, to broaden the reach, they use digital
marketing. Social media marketing is one of the types of digital marketing, it uses the social
media to reach other people. He teaches us how to use Facebook for our construction
profession. How to post and avoid posting in your Facebook post in order to promote your
profession. Then, Mr. Shan Bernard Ching, a S.T.E.E.L. mentee shares his testimony and

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experience on how to effectively schedule your tasks and assignments. He talks about how
scheduling is very important. Because one of the most important aspects of planning and
scheduling is to develop maximum productivity and success. Without setting a specific plan in
place with a specific desired outcome by a completion date, you won't know if you are meeting
goals. While Mr. Vincent Ruzzel Lorejas, a S.T.E.E.L. mentee shares his experience how to
survive civil engineering. He talks about how important books will help student as a reference to
studying engineering. And also he talks about how the power of asking questions or seeking
help when you didn’t understand what you want to learn to people who are excellent in that field
or subject. This webinar becomes successful.

Because this will guide and help us students taking up engineering know how we market our
services and the products in the future and how to reach a larger scale of clients with the help of
digital marketing. Also because Marketing should be one of driving for the future. I happened to
attend the webinar but I didn’t register so I don’t have the certificate.

GEOTECH

ASSIGNMENT # 2

The Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece, which opened to traffic for the first time in August 2004, was
the culmination of a construction programme from 1997 to 2004 and resulting in one of the
longest cable-stayed bridges in the world.

The Rion-Antirion Bridge has a suspended 2.883m deck, four pylons (usually 2) and a reference
length of 560m. The Rion-Antirion Bridge is situated in the western end of the Gulf of Corinth
and connects the Peloponnese with the Greek continent (in southern Greece). The bridge also
connects two main roads: the junction between the Patras–Athens–Thessaloniki road and the
western axis of the Kalamata–Patras–Igoumenitsa road.

In May 2004 the five-stranded pier was terminated and its opening shortened the crossing time
of the Gulf of Corinth considerably from 45 minutes to around five minutes (by ferry). 10,000
cars are actually crossing the bridge each day. In 2004, the traffic bridge was completed.

The pylons of the Rion-Antirion Bridge consist of reinforced concrete and pylons, measuring
between 25 meters and 45 meters above sea level. The overall length of the pylon heads is
160m. The Rion-Antirion Bridge needed to be reinforced through 200 hollow steel pipes (for

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each pier) into the seabed over the gravel because of its high sismic activity. Because of its high
degree of seismic activity.

A 27.2m deck includes two roads and a safety track and a footpath in all directions. The
construction of the deck consists of a steel frame of two 2.2m long plate girders with cross plate
girders.

There is also two approach viaducts, one on Rion's side 392 meters long and the other on the
Antirion side 239 meters long.

In the construction of the Bridge of Rion-Antirion a total of 250,000 m3 of concrete, 14,000 tons
of steel and 4,500 tons of cables were used.

Here's the link of the video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQf_vE7tOlw&ab_channel=ReelTruthScienceDocumentarie
s

GEOTECH WEBINAR

This Webinar, which took place on 19 August 2020, was titled "State of the art and state of
practice for geo-hazards and geotechnical evaluation." This webinar explores the geo-risks that
impact the lives of everyone here in the Philippines and we as engineers.
In Philippines, there are many geography threats, such as typhoons, earthquakes, landslides,
floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, tsunamis and many more, but my engineer is
the earthquakes, the Philippines in a middle of the calm ring of fire, meaning that my country is
still vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis.

As engineers, we should be able to tackle such geo-hazards, because there are lives at stake
here from building, to the final outcome of our ventures, there is always a chance of losing lives
as a result of geo-hazards such as earthquakes. After our projects have been introduced, we
shall be responsible for the protection of their users and should do our utmost to avoid
geo-related risks from arise in our structures.

One of the essential methods for geosafety is modeling research and inspection, we need to
carry out multiple analysis and always take into account all possible options to make our
structure ready for whatever is possible. Slope surveillance is necessary to keep our eye on
what happens in our projects/structures. Geoinformatics helps to predict and plan modern
building methods for any geological risks that threaten our structure. Basically, all of this

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methods of geosafety must be employed in order for our system to secure the lives of people
who use our structure.

HIGHWAY / TRAFFIC / TRANSPORTATION

ASSIGNMENT # 3 Qinghai-Tibet Heavy Rail Line

Literally constructed on the roof of the world, the railway of Qinghai-Tibet is the culmination of a
long-established Chinese dream of linking China with Tibet, averaging about 4,500m above the
sea level.

Crossing some of the toughest natural circumstances on the Earth, it is an incredible catalog of
world records over 1.956 km from Xining, capital of Qinghai province in China, to Lhasa.
Qinghai Tibet is easily recognised as the world's highest trail with its highest point at 5,072
meters – 200 meters or higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes – and the Tanggula
Station, just 4 meters below, is the highest station.

It's also the world's longest train plateau. Some 550 meters of tracks are frozen, via the
Fenghuoshan Tunnel (4,905m) and Kunlun Mountain (1,686m), the longest tracks in the world
to be built on frozen terrain.

Eventually, constructing the permafrost line at an altitude of 35-40% lower oxygen in the air than
at sea poses some specific technical difficulties – with the Kunlun earthquake zone passage
contributing to its own further challenges. It wasn't until 2001 that construction began on the final
1,142 Km to Lhasa. The initial portion, spanning 815 km from Xining to Golmud, opened in
1984. In October 2005 the line was finished at over $3.5 billion.

Since the early 1950s, China has had the intention to connect the province of Qinghai with the
Tibetan autonomous region via rail. At the time, while the potential was being shipped to
engineers and surveyors, the funding and the equipment available at the time were both not

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enough. Because of its rapid post-millennium growth China has permitted the construction of
the first part of the scheme to start the second – and much more demanding – part of the project
in the 1980s.

The project is an important part of China's Western Development Plan, an effort that aims to
help the western, much less developed provinces of China than the eastern one. The design of
the railroad, which has been acclaimed as one of the government's biggest modern
achievements in China, faced many technological challenges and creative methods to address
them.

Around half of the Golmud to Lhasa region has been put on barely permanent permafrost with
winter temperatures falling to -35oC, while the upper layers thaw to mud in the summer at
+30oC. In other places, pipes have been built to deliver liquid nitrogen below the rail bed to
keep the ground frozen and the railway routes and dockages over the most challenging terrain
have been constructed.

In this harsh environment it posed its own problems, particularly in terms of maintaining the
reliability of the electrical supply to provide a steady and reliable signaling and communication
system for so long. In order to meet this need, there has been installed an adjustable solar
electricity system – consisting of 9 solar power stations with a capacity of 122,4 kW – with an
additional seven railway supply stations. The highest of these is believed to be another planet at
an altitude of 5,100 meters.

At that altitude, the thin air made building complicated, even though the workers were given
special oxygen installations and posed a passenger challenge as well. A health registration card
is required for passengers to read and sign a travel disclaimer at high altitudes prior to the
embarkation. While outside the carriages look conventional, they are equipped for the strictness
of their route and feature UV filtering windows and an additional supply of oxygen for each
passenger.

The construction of the railroad is truly remarkable. High altitude construction is an engineering
achievement. Building a structure in this area is very difficult to imagine building a stable soil on
a permafrost during the winter and the soil is muddy in the summer. The surrounding village
breaks all its foundations because of the water and the harsh weather as the water freezes.

Chinese engineers have found a solution that the buildings must be lifted to the ground to allow
air to flow through underneath the buildings. Because the heat inside the building melted the
ground below, causing subsidence, the ground below the building is kept frozen. Applying this
theory to the construction of the railway is not cheap at all. Chinese engineers have found a
solution to this problem by using crushed rocks. By using crushed rocks, the ground below is
allowed to remain frozen.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTSpdD6MswA&t=19s

Highway/Traffic/Transportation (Webinar)

The speaker addressed many questions on the challenges we face today on the current
standard and on the way corona virus impacts our lives on a regular basis during this webinar,
"Understanding the past and engineering the future."

One issue addressed in this webinar is travel, transportation, and the transportation
infrastructure has been disrupted by lockdowns and corona virus concerns when the corone
virus attacks. Traffic in manila has dropped from 110 to 1 percent, but it is only permissible for
private cars to fly and essential units.

The speaker says that if we are going anywhere, it is possible to use motorcycles or a
motocycle to preserve low-risk illnesses while driving, and our transit networks are being slowly
repaired and lined up again so the public buses can now carry a small amount of people to
reduce physical encounters and deter the transmission of corona viruses. The speaker also
suggests that city councils should concentrate more on supplying bike paths or bikers with a
scheme, since there is high likelihood of bike crashes when cyclists are on a par with highways
and main roads.

It also addressed the Guidelines for NMTs, the Number One Guideline for NMTs is "safety,"
which ensures that the Local Government maximizes the safety of the users of other transport
networks, because they are highly sensitive, the welfare of all road users is our Government's
top priority and they are happy to ride for us. The second guideline is "coherence," says the
speaker that we ought to create a consistent, continuing network for both users' origin and
destinations rather than the sudden termination of ad hoc facilities.The third guideline is
'directness,' which means that we need to create a direct path from the start to the destination
without any big detour, leading people to ignore the facility and the key word for this 'directness'
is comfort. Fourthly, the goal is to design and incorporate NMT facilities to make NMT journeys
appealing, both during the day and at night, to ensure the safety of users. "Comfort" is the last

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reference, to make sure that the NMT flows easily, rapidly and safely without unnecessary
gradients or rough surfaces, and that the road is still convenient for all users.

Road and warnings reminders for the safety of road travelers and pedestrians must also be
enforced, certain traffic collisions are triggered by no signs on the site available and drivers and
pedestrians missing aware. Finally, this pandemic has a huge impact on our life and on the
transport infrastructure, but we shouldn't stop living, work hard to deal with the problems we
face and hope that it will improve and ready us for the future.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=839030496844940&ref=watch_permalink

Reflective Essay (Highway/Traffic/Transportation Engineering)

The module showed very insightful videos on road, traffic and transport. It addressed various
types of roads based on construction materials, pavement layers, road construction techniques,
and civil engineering construction

Seven types of roads are based on building materials. Land roads have soil and are the
cheapest form of highway. They are primarily used in less public transport areas. Gravel roads
are often of poor quality but better than earthways, as paving materials, lightweight gravel is
used. Murrum is a substance formed by weathering from decay of igneous rocks. This form of
road is only used where there are a close deposition if this piercings is crushed and used as
pavement materials. WBM roads include crushed aggregates that are scattered on the surface
and watered before rolling in their base course. The most popular and most widely used road
around the world is bituminous roads. Concrete cement for concrete roads is used for building
pavement, which is also common and more costly than other streets.

The "Subgrade Layer is called the first layer of road pavement which covers 300mm to 400mm.
The "Sub-base Layer" is above the undergrading layer. Above it is the "Base Coarse" ranging
between 30cm and 35cm. A bitumen-type coat is on top, called "Prime Coat" to cover the base.
The "Asphalt Layer" and then the "Tact Coat" are on the top of the coat. They serve a function
similar to the prime coat. In Bluff City, Andale Construction did the following procedures when
constructing a lane; first of all the slurry loading had been off, the road was torn up, and then the
slurry had been injected. The materials are combined and compacted with pad-foot after
injection, blading and rolling are done to even up the surface. Afterwards it would be density
regulation and micro-cracking. It's paved on top of asphalt.

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WATER RESOURCES ENGINEERING

ASSIGNMENT # 4

Stormwater runoff and its use, materials, and its environmental impacts are addressed in this
video. Before it is used on site, inspection is a must to check the quality of the pipes and to look
for defects or irregularities. The design of the pipes used on the drainage is important. It is also
necessary to check if all the pipes are the correct pipes and to ensure that the contractor can
handle all the defects. The requirements for the particular project should be met and the
contractor should comply with them.

In this video, good environmental practice is also addressed, it is important to identify the
natural water course on building drainage since this is where the drainage system would go, we
can also redirect the water around the site of the culvert. We need to ensure that the sediments
do not go with the culvert, too. Foundations should also be quality-designed to prevent issues
such as witness points and other pipe failures on the pipes in the future. If it is appropriate for
pipe construction, insufficient materials should be removed to preserve the consistency of pipes,
soil should be examined, alignment is also important to avoid leaning of the pipes.

It is also important to carefully link pipes to prevent leaks and to connect pipes in the right way.
In conclusion, drainage system design is a very important activity and a delicate job that needs
to comply with the requirements and standards necessary.

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Water resources (Webinar)

In this webinar the speaker addresses the Leyte tide recession hydrodynamic study of the 2013
typhoon haiyan and its impact on people and systems in the past.

This typhoon has killed us by thousands and devastated hundreds of facilities. The speakers
offered some ideas for reducing the devastation of storms such as haiyan, road raising plans, a
sea wall plan, and a tide recession plan, or possibly preventing them.

The road map is planned to improve the road and the tide drainage plan. They want to enforce
these plans on Leyte in order to avoid or decrease the damaging power of the natural calamity
caused by the storms that often cross the country, particularly Leyte. so this is a must to avoid
more innocent deaths. This project is a must.

Tide observing facilities for Leyte tracking and research, 2 offshore Maasin and Siargao tide
stations and 2 inland Guiuan and Tacloban tide stations are used. Hopefully, by the end of 2022,
this scheme will be completed in order to fight existing floods and deter tidal floods. In this
webinar I also recall the analysis of the changes in pore water pressure in sand and coconut
shell ashes; the bottom line is that when we apply 5% CSA to sand, the containment of pressure
and the reduction of pore water pressure is more successful and this will improve the integrity of
structures and will protect the system against the tension of the water.

Hopeful that this concept will be explored further to give us an insight into how our building
practices are improved and maybe it can allow us to create shelters to defend Leyte from
devastating storms in its land area.

here's the link of the webinar : https://www.facebook.com/pice.natl/videos/399609584723377/

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CONSTRUCTION
ASSIGNMENT # 5

An advanced building technique is being used to shape one of the world’s most iconic buildings,
Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi. The diagrid technology has been used on only a few high-profile
international buildings, including the Hearst Tower in New York City, the Swiss Re building (“the
Gherkin”) in London and the CCTV headquarters tower in Beijing. The system requires less
structural steel than a conventional steel frame, reducing costs and benefiting the environment.
The diagrid is formed by creating triangular structures with diagonal support beams.

Capital Gate, which has applied to the Guinness World Records for the “world’s most inclined
building” is being built by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) and has been
designed by global architects RMJM. The structural steel diagrid has now reached level eight of
the 35 storey, 160 metre tower, with the core at level 11. The diagrid will now begin to curve
westward as the tower’s unique leaning posture becomes visible.

The total weight of Capital Gate’s steel is estimated to be around 21,500 tons which compares
favourably to the 110,000 tons used to build Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, the 50,000 tons estimated for
the CCTV tower in Beijing and the 36,910 tons of steel used in Malaysia’s Petronas Towers in
Kuala Lumpur.

Capital Gate’s ‘diagrid’ is subdivided into 722 elements and approximately 8,500 structural steel
beams for the entire building. Each ‘diagrid’ element weighs approximately 15 tons and sports a
painted finish.

The building’s decorative ‘splash’ is designed to mimic a wave. Besides providing an innovative
sun shade for the Capital Gate tower itself, the splash also provides a new and creative
treatment for the roof of the existing Grandstand canopy in the adjoining Abu Dhabi National
Exhibition Centre Grandstand. The splash is a completely independent structure made of
structural steel “I-beams” fixed to the main building structure.

14
Capital Gate, is being constructed on top of a 2 metre deep concrete base filled with an
incredibly dense mesh of reinforced steel. This base sits above an intensive distribution of 490
piles which have been drilled 30 metres underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind
and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building.

Capital Gate will accommodate the 5-star ‘Hyatt at Capital Centre’ hotel and will provide the
most exclusive office space in Abu Dhabi.

The iconic tower forms a major part of the Capital Centre development, an AED 8 billion
(US$2.2 billion) business and residential micro city being constructed around the thriving Abu
Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMWxoCmt6Ng&ab_channel=JIGYASA

CONSTRUCTION WEBINAR

I watched the construction management webinar and it was held on 8-19 June 2020 with the
title "RISKS MANAGEMENT AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION" and the
speaker was Dr. Florencio f. Padernal In the webinar, the speaker showed a 2-minute video of
what can and can go wrong with the construction. In the video, the speaker explained the risks
of non-coordination between workers resulting in accidents and damage to building materials.
The other risks are the skill of the worker if the operator has no proper knowledge of how to
operate certain equipment, which may lead to an accident.The first topic of the presentation
addressed is the construction environment. The project engineer, designer and construction
management consultant is the first stage in which the professionals involved in the project work
together and exchange ideas on how to construct and interpret a specific project. The
construction management consultant will be the one to plan and monitor the progress of the
construction of the project. In order to avoid conflict, the project engineer and the construction
management consultant should have a good coordination.the speaker also addressed the risks
involved on construction. the engineers should analyze "what can go wrong?" in the
construction after analyzing the risks involved "what can be done?" in order to eliminate the
risks and apply solutions to the problems.Risk management is also discussed in this webinar.
There is a process to be followed to manage the risk that you need to identify, assess and

15
control potential risks. Once the risks have been identified, you must respond and act to find
solutions to a particular risk. Another definition of risk management is the process to mitigate
potential risks

I am unable to obtain the certificate of attendance of the webinar

ASSIGNMENT # 7

Concrete hollow block/s (CHB)

The production of concrete blocks consists of four basic processes: mixing, molding, curing, and
cubing. Some manufacturing plants produce only concrete blocks, while others may produce a
wide variety of precast concrete products including blocks, flat paver stones, and decorative
landscaping pieces such as lawn edging. Some plants are capable of producing 2,000 or more
blocks per hour.

The following steps are commonly used to manufacture concrete blocks.

Mixing

The sand and gravel are stored outside in piles and are transferred into storage bins in the plant
by a conveyor belt as they are needed. The portland cement is stored outside in large vertical
silos to protect it from moisture.

As a production run starts, the required amounts of sand, gravel, and cement are transferred by
gravity or by mechanical means to a weigh batcher which measures the proper amounts of each
material.

The dry materials then flow into a stationary mixer where they are blended together for several
minutes. There are two types of mixers commonly used. One type, called a planetary or pan
mixer, resembles a shallow pan with a lid. Mixing blades are attached to a vertical rotating shaft
inside the mixer. The other type is called a horizontal drum mixer. It resembles a coffee can
turned on its side and has mixing blades attached to a horizontal rotating shaft inside the mixer.

After the dry materials are blended, a small amount of water is added to the mixer. If the plant is
located in a climate subject to temperature extremes, the water may first pass through a heater
or chiller to regulate its temperature. Admixture chemicals and coloring pigments may also be
added at this time. The concrete is then mixed for six to eight minutes.

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Molding

Once the load of concrete is thoroughly mixed, it is dumped into an inclined bucket conveyor
and transported to an elevated hopper. The mixing cycle begins again for the next load.

From the hopper the concrete is conveyed to another hopper on top of the block machine at a
measured flow rate. In the block machine, the concrete is forced downward into molds. The
molds consist of an outer mold box containing several mold liners. The liners determine the
outer shape of the block and the inner shape of the block cavities. As many as 15 blocks may
be molded at one time.

When the molds are full, the concrete is compacted by the weight of the upper mold head
coming down on the mold cavities. This compaction may be supplemented by air or hydraulic
pressure cylinders acting on the mold head. Most block machines also use a short burst of
mechanical vibration to further aid compaction.

The compacted blocks are pushed down and out of the molds onto a flat steel pallet. The pallet
and blocks are pushed out of the machine and onto a chain conveyor. In some operations the
blocks then pass under a rotating brush which removes loose material from the top of the
blocks.

Curing

The pallets of blocks are conveyed to an automated stacker or loader which places them in a
curing rack. Each rack holds several hundred blocks. When a rack is full, it is rolled onto a set of
rails and moved into a curing kiln.

The kiln is an enclosed room with the capacity to hold several racks of blocks at a time. There
are two basic types of curing kilns. The most common type is a low-pressure steam kiln. In this
type, the blocks are held in the kiln for one to three hours at room temperature to allow them to
harden slightly. Steam is then gradually introduced to raise the temperature at a controlled rate
of not more than 60°F per hour (16°C per hour). Standard weight blocks are usually cured at a
temperature of 150-165°F (66-74°C), while lightweight blocks are cured at 170-185°F (77-85°C).
When the curing temperature has been reached, the steam is shut off, and the blocks are
allowed to soak in the hot, moist air for 12-18 hours. After soaking, the blocks are dried by
exhausting the moist air and further raising the temperature in the kiln. The whole curing cycle
takes about 24 hours.

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Another type of kiln is the high-pressure steam kiln, sometimes called an autoclave. In this type,
the temperature is raised to 300-375°F (149-191°C), and the pressure is raised to 80-185 psi
(5.5-12.8 bar). The blocks are allowed to soak for five to 10 hours. The pressure is then rapidly
vented, which causes the blocks to quickly release their trapped moisture. The autoclave curing
process requires more energy and a more expensive kiln, but it can produce blocks in less time.

Cubing

The racks of cured blocks are rolled out of the kiln, and the pallets of blocks are unstacked and
placed on a chain conveyor. The blocks are pushed off the steel pallets, and the empty pallets
are fed back into the block machine to receive a new set of molded blocks.

If the blocks are to be made into split-face blocks, they are first molded as two blocks joined
together. Once these double blocks are cured, they pass through a splitter, which strikes them
with a heavy blade along the section between the two halves. This causes the double block to
fracture and form a rough, stone-like texture on one face of each piece.

The blocks pass through a cuber which aligns each block and then stacks them into a cube
three blocks across by six blocks deep by three or four blocks high. These cubes are carried
outside with a forklift and placed in storage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWocndJ0Ino&ab_channel=VillagePeoplePhilippines

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REFLECTIVE ESSAY
In such a short period of time, I learned a lot of knowledge during the course. Although we are
not able to visit some of the facilities here in the Philippines because of the pandemic, we still
learned a lot by watching different videos (documentaries) on each subject, I have learned a lot
of techniques in the construction methods and principles used in construction. Watching
webinars helps a lot to get you to watch veterans in line with our profession who have taught us
their experience and give us tips on what to do to address some of the issues we may face in
the future. I'm also very grateful to our professor for this course. Engr. Rhonnie C. Estores for
the kindness and understanding of his students

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