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.

Industrial Training Week 2 Day 6 - 12 Apr 2010

Into my second week of internship here in Kuala Rompin. After my first week, I had the weekend off. Made the 3 hour trip back to my beloved JB. Ahh, what a relieve is was to finally see tall & big buildings, mamak shops and the bright lights again. After 1 whole is this town where the tallest building is 3 stories, it was relieving to go back to a more "developed" place. No offense to those people who live in Kuala Rompin or come from such small towns, but I have no idea how they spend their weekends here. Maybe they have some place where they hang out which I haven't found out yet. Anyway, the Monday blues has arrived again.

Nothing much today. Since there were no inspections to be done, I didn't really have anything to do. So for the first time in my life, I had to ask for work to do. Well, at least the QA/QC engineer gave me some office work to do. So I did the paper work and typing of the list of inspections done for last month. Well, it sure beats doing nothing.

Well anyway, that's all for the day.

Industrial Training Day 4 & 5

DAY 4 - 8 April 2010
It's was a very quiet day today. All the supervisors and the project team had meetings to attend to. Firstly, it was with the JKR people. Then later that evening they had a coordinators meeting. So basically I was left on my own. After going through some drawings and plans, I decided that since I had nothing else to do, I'd start on my report. Well, at the end of the day, I manage to finish 2 parts of the report. So at least I did get something done for the day.

DAY 5 - 9 April 2010
I accompanied the M & E engineer along with the mechanical consultant to the site for inspection and testing. But before I go on, although I'm majoring in electrical engineering, the work here also includes mechanical aspects. Therefore, throughout my internship here, not only will I be exposed to the electrical aspects of construction, but at the same time exposed also to the mechanical side of it as well. So for today, the inspection done was mainly on the sanitary plumbing system. As can be seen below, the M & E engineer goes along with the consultant to inspect the work done before further work is carried out.

After the inspection was done, they carried of the testings. The first test was the leakage test. Basically, it's to check if there are any leakage within the pipe itself. One end of the pipe is blocked. Water is then poured into the pipe until it's filled up. The water level is then marked. After about 2 hours, the water level is checked again to see if there is any decrease. If there is not, then the pipe has passed the test. If there is a decrease in water level, then further inspection needs to be carried out to determine where the leakage is.


The second test carried out was the flow test. Its purpose is to make sure that there is a steady flow in the pipes that lead out into the manhole via the gully trap. For this test, water is poured into one end and the flow is monitored at the other end.