SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN

Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (Honours)

March 2015 Intake

Semester 1

Title: Technical site visit to Andes Construction site

YEO DOR EEN 0316224

MEASUREMENT 1 [QSB 60104] MS. ANG FUEY LIN

CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY I [BLD 60104] MS. AZRINA BINTI MD YAAKOB

BUILDING MATERIALS [BLD 62003]

MS. AISHAH KAMARAZALY

TABLE OF CONTENT

No Title Pages

1. Introduction and objectives of site visit 3 - 4

2. Content/ Technical observation 5 - 11

3. Photos and descriptions 12 - 15

4. Conclusion / Learning outcomes 16

Introduction

This assignment is a combination of 3 different subjects, Measurement l,

Building Materials and Construction Technology l. A site visit was held on 26

June 2015 (Friday). It is organized by our Measurement l lecturer, SR. Ang

Fuey Lin. It is compulsory for all the sem 1 students to go to the site. We

are required to write a report based on the visit. The location of our site

visit is Andes Construction site. It is located 6km away from Taylor’s

University Campus. Students are divided into two sections. First bus leave

from campus at 8.30 am and second bus leave at 9.30 am. Some students

go by their own car since there are no enough space in bus for all students.

The agenda of the visit consists of in-depth explanation by the contractor

and consultants on the operation of the project.

Objectives of the site visit

To provide students the opportunity to experience the working

environment in the construction site.

To understand the basics of the construction process.

To understand the practical aspect of construction techniques in

comparison to the theory aspect in books and its application on site.

To explore and identify various types of building materials and

technology on site.

Awareness of the importance of safety on site and understanding of

safety problems and site conditions.

To improve ability to communicate with the construction team

members on site and to see the importance of teamwork in building

team.

To make it easier for students to get clearer image of how the

structures look like in real life.

Content/ Technical observation

When we reach the construction site, we have a briefing session with

project director, Mr Tan Hock Lye. He gives us a summary about the whole

construction project so that we can have a better understanding about the

site before we go for further details of visiting. From his briefing, we get to

know that there are two sections in this construction project which are

Block A and Block B. This project commenced at 5 May 2014. There are 353

units and 22 units of Villa which have 3 floors. All these blocks are

apartments for residents. He also makes sure that all the students who

authorize to enter the construction site must always follow the safety rules

to prevent any accidents and injury happens. Wearing helmet and covered

shoes is a must in construction site.

After that, students are separated into three groups. My group is

leaded by En. Khareel Azwan, one of the experienced supervisor. We follow

him to observe every parts of the construction.

We can see that the workers in the project site are doing site

clearance, earthworks, construction of bored piles and pile cap works. We

follow En. Khareel to sub-structure construction site. We can see how the

reinforced bars and links in the column looks like before formwork is added

and concrete is poured. We also get to know the real image of a concrete

cover. Along the journey, we have the chance to see timber formwork,

scaffoldings, water tanks, pile caps, bored piles and some equipments or

machineries that we never seen before.

One of the tool I learn from the site is called Plumb. It is used to

provide vertical datum lines for the building measurements. In Andes

construction site, it is used to make sure the formwork built is vertical but

not slant.

Formworks used in the site are mostly timber formworks. Timber

formwork is the most common traditional formwork. There are many

advantages by using timber formworks. It is flexible, light, easily available,

easily cut into size, easy to produce and low labour cost.

Plumb

Timber formwork on site

Pile Foundation

The foundation of site is pile foundation. It is a group of piles that

supports a superstructure and usually used with multi storey buildings. Pile

foundation is a combination of pile and pile caps. Pile caps will connect the

piles together and distributes the superstructure loads the layer beneath.

Load-bearing member of piles is made of timber, steel, concrete, or a

combination of these materials, usually forced into the ground to transfer

the load to underlying soil or rock layers when the surface soils at a

proposed site are too weak or compressible to provide enough support.

Bored piles

Bored pile is another type of reinforced concrete pile, which is used

to support high building producing heavy vertical loads. Bored pile is a cast-

in-place concrete pile where the bored piles have to be cast on the

construction site, while other concrete piles like Spun Pile and Reinforced

Concrete Square Pile are precast concrete piles. Bored piling is cast by using

bored piling machine which has specially designed drilling tools, buckets

Bored piles in the site

and grabs, it’s used to remove the soil and rock. Normally, it can be drilling

into 50 metres depth of soil.

Advantages

Piles of variable lengths can be extended through soft compressible

or swelling soils, into suitable bearing material.

Piles can be extended to depths below frost penetration, and

seasonal moisture variation.

Large excavations and subsequent backfill are eliminated.

Adjacent soil is not disturbed or remolded.

Absence of vibration will not disturb adjacent piles or structures.

Extremely high capacity caissons can be obtained by expanding the

base of the shaft up to three times the shaft diameter, thus

eliminating construction of caps over multiple pile groups.

For many design situations bored piles offer higher capacities with

potentially better economics than driven piles.

Disadvantages

Concrete is not placed under ideal conditions and cannot be

subsequently inspected.

Water under artesian pressure may pipe up pile shaft washing out

cement.

Enlarged ends cannot be formed in cohesionless materials.

Cannot be readily extended above ground level especially in river and

marine structures.

Boring methods may loosen sandy or gravely soils. Sinking piles may

cause loss of ground in cohesionless soils, leading to settlement of

adjacent structures.

Reinforced concrete grade

Concrete is the most important building material, due to its ability to be

moulded to take up the shapes required for the various structural forms. It

is also very durable and fire resistant.

These are the reinforced concrete grade used by different types of building

elements in the site.

Column - Grade 45 Foundation - Grade 35

Beam - Grade 35 Slab - Grade 35

Grade 35

Advantages:

It is commonly used in construction industry and cheaper than grade

40 concrete.

Long service life with low maintenance cost

Better resistance to fire

Disadvantages:

It has low compressive strength compared to grade 45 concrete.

The ability to resist sulphate is lower than grade 45 concrete.

Using lower grade concrete to the reinforced concrete structure, it

will easily cracks under service load.

Grade 45

Advantages:

Using higher grade concrete means that column size can be reduced

and therefore the amount of concrete, reinforcement and formwork

required is reduced too.

Extend life cycle

Relatively high compressive strength

Disadvantages:

More expensive than grade 35 concrete because grade 45 concrete is

designed concrete.

The concrete surface is hard.

Do not retain heat very well. The surface of concrete will be cold

during the winter.

Photos and descriptions

Entrance of Andes Construction site

Reinforcement bars, links and concrete cover in a column

Water tank in the site

Scaffoldings in the site

Making of concrete cover

Bar bending machine

Cylinders for oxy cutter

Air compressor

Water flowing out from sub-structure site through a tube

Pile caps plan of the site

Conclusion/Learning outcomes

I had gained a lot of useful information and knowledge about

construction process from the site visit. After I exposed to the actual

working environment, now I can imagine my future life as a Quantity

Surveyor.

From the visit, I aware that our safety is the most important aspect in

a construction site. We must take precaution steps to avoid any accidents

or injury. Apart from that, I had the chance to witness the usage of different

construction equipments, explore and identify various types of building

materials and technology on site that I never know before the visit.

Furthermore, I realized the importance of teamwork and communication of

a building team in the process to complete a successful construction

project.

I would like to thank Ms Ang for organizing this site visit at Andes

Construction. I appreciate that I have the opportunity to go for site visit this

time. Looking forward to more site visits in the future!