Industrial Training May Summary.

Hello there. I know I haven't written here for more than a month now. Like I said before, blogging isn't one of my favourite things. So instead of making a daily summary of what I've been up to, I've decided that for the month of May, I'll do an entire months wrap up with pics only.

Things here are going on well. Progress at the site is moving. Except for some minor delays here and there, work is going on as plan.




This is an aerial view of the site. As can be seen, the precast columns are already up on 2 zones.

The project here uses the Intelligent-Building-Systems of IBS. The slabs, columns and walls are precasted before fitted in place, as can be seen here.

The picture above show the Damp-prove-membrane. It's a plastic sheet that is placed on the ground before concreting works a carried out to prevent water from seaping out of the ground in future.

Industrial Training Day 16-21

WEEK 4
Haven't really had the mood to update my blog much. This week was more towards documentation. Had to key-in and update the existing data for the Inspection Request Forms and also the Work Method Statement.

The Inspection Request Form (IRF) is used to request the respective consultants to carry out inspections on works done before any other works can proceed. Once the works have been inspected, the consultant will either give the go-ahead for further works to continue or order correctional works to be done if faults are found.

The Work Method Statement (WMS) are guidelines written up by the architect or consultants for the Engineers and Contractors on how a certain work should be carried out.

This week I had the opportunity to go along with the M&E engineer, consultant and contractor for an inspection on the pipes done for the underground sanitary services.

On Friday, the YB for this area along with the health director paid a visit to the site to see how things are going on along here.

Industrial Training Day 12-15

DAY 12, 20 APR 2010 (Tuesday)
A quiet day at the office. The bosses were having their meeting with the people from JKR regarding the progress of the construction here. I went around observing the works being carried out at the site.

DAY 13, 21 APR 2010 (Wednesday)
Bosses had their second day of meetings with the JKR people. I observed the installation of additional lighting protection for the i-supervision towers.

The copper rod to which the copper wire is attached to goes down to a depth of about 30 feet (9 metres).

DAY 14, 22 APR 2010 (Thursday)
Observed installation of first floor pre-cast floor slabs.

Some of the perils of working at a construction site:

DAY 15, 23 APR 2010 (Friday)
Assisted in office work and translation of documents from BM to English.

Industrial Training Week 3 Day 11 (19 Apr 2010)

DAY 11 (19 APR 2010)
Into my third week here at Kuala Rompin. After the weekend break, I'm back to this small town. Today was pretty quiet. Nothing much other than the ordinary going on here. Other than my walk around the site in the morning, I manage to have a conversation with the Safety Officer here regarding the role of a Safety & Health Officer. It was pretty interesting hearing what he had to say about being a safety officer. At the end of the conversation with him, I got a better view of what actually a safety officer does and how he goes about his day here. At the same time, I manage to get some info as to the procedure taken in order to obtain the qualifications to become a Safety and Health Officer.

Industrial Training Day 10

Day 10 of my industrial training in Kuala Rompin. Things have been going on well here. Mostly self-exploring and then getting answers to my questions from the people around here. Basically the day began with me observing works at the site. Went to see how the works on the sanitary system was going on. It's pretty interesting to see things that we don't normally see especially those that are done underground.

Ever wonder where the dirty water goes after in goes into the floor trap and before it enters the manhole? Well, this is where it goes to, it's called a gully trap.
Some other workings on the sanitary system:

Later that evening, I observed the installation of the pre-cast columns at the hospital block. Here at this project, the Intelligent Building System (IBS) is used. Basically what this means is that certain sections or parts of the building, in this case the columns, are pre-cast at a factory somewhere else, brought to the site and the installed. It's something like Lego where you actually put them in place. It's faster, easier and more cost effective than the conventional way of using the cast and mold method.

Industrial Training Day 7 - 9

DAY 7 (13 APR 2010)
It was a quiet day at the office. So far the work progress here is still in the ground works. So from the electrical point of view, it's still too early to start any major wiring other than the earthing for some blocks and lightning protection. At the moment, more work is being done on the sanitary systems, laying of pipes underground. So for the time being, my exposure here will be more towards the groundworks and piping system. Hopefully my 3 months here will be enough to give me a chance see the electrical works being carried out.

Nevertheless, although so far what I've learnt here has very little to do with EE, but it any way, I have learnt quite a lot of what goes around in a construction area albeit the theory part only. You can say that I've been exposed to the civil & structural works here as well.

This is how things start out, with piles driven deep into the ground.
Next come the columns:
Then the ground beams:

Next the underground services i.e pipes, earthing etc:

And then the concrete floor:

That's basically how the foundation of a building is laid. Of course, it's easier said than done.

DAY 8 - 14 APRIL 2010
I started the day by visiting the site to see the works that were going on. Initially I thought that the day was going to be like the day before, free and easy, and a bit boring. But low and behold, little did I know that it was going to be a long day at the office, literally.

In the morning I just went around the site observing work being done. Pretty easy and it beats sitting in the office doing nothing.


After lunch I was given some task to do. Initially I thought that it was going to be an easy on since it was just typing and keying in data. So I happily accepted it since I had nothing to do at that time. Well, as it turned out, it wasn't so straight forward. Firstly, the worksheet was in Excel. Of all the Microsoft Office programs, this is the one that I had least knowledge. My task was just to modify the tables, add a few columns here and there, then key in the data. Thing is, I wasn't sure of my way around Excel. Heck, I "forgot" how to even merge cells and create borders.

Well, like any of the people my age when we don't know something and want to save face by not saying that we don't know how to do something that we should know, I requested the help of my good friend, Mr Google. Got some answers there. But it was pretty slow. So I then decided to ask the QA/QC engineer for a help. At least she was kind enough to help me out. So once I found my way around, things were pretty straight forward. But worst was to come. After taking my sweet time finish modifying one table and keying in the data, I realised that I had about 30 tables to modify and fill up. And I took about 20 minutes relaxing between work and FB to do the first table and it was nearly 4pm. Well, hook or by crook, I had to get it done since they needed it the next day.

And so I stayed back after working hours to complete the task.I had the air-cond here and it wasn't as if I had something to do back home. There were others as well who stayed back completing their work, so I wasn't alone. And another plus point, my boss bought us dinner, KFC. I wouldn't mind staying back if he does it everytime.

I managed to finish my task at about 10pm. It was indeed a long day. But it was better than nothing. So that was how my day went.

DAY 9 - 15 APR 2010
It was a less hectic day today. Started of the morning at the site observing work being done, especially on the concrete works.