Matthew O'Grady,
Craig Grattan,
Michael Phelan,
and Brian Creighton.
We hope you enjoy the read.
On Wednesday, September the 15th 2010, the 1st year Construction Management of 2010/2011 took a trip to Tallaght, Co. Dublin. The purpose of this event was to give each member of the class a firsthand experience on a construction site. Obviously a non working experience but an experience none the less.
Our day started at 10:15am, at the King Inn St. door to the D.I.T. Bolton St. Building. We met here with Ruairi and Ger and the rest of our class, and from there we broke up into groups of 4 and headed for the Aungier St. Building for registration. The registration process was very well organised and it ensured a quick and easy process, which in the long run got us out to Tallaght quicker and home sooner haha!
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| The Luas |
From Aungier St. we headed to the Abbey St. Luas line and hitched a lift right next to the Cookstown Way Construction Project. Once we departed from the Luas, we were given a short history lecture on the present day company Laing O'Rourke and we were given some information about the actual site we were visiting.
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| The Cookstown Way Developement project |
We were given a short talk about the Cookstown Way development project by the very knowledgeable Ruairi. The site started in the summer of 2008. It contains 8 blocks, A to H, and 161 units on a narrow site. The project was slightly delayed at the start due to a service diversion with underground ESB cables. The ESB had to be contacted so the problem could be resolved. It took some time as they had to be careful not to damage any other services on site during the excavation. For most of the construction they had been following the same method which was insitue concrete. This involved pouring the concrete into the framework on site. However when they came to block F they decided to change their methods. This change was in the form of precast concrete which means it was poured into the framework at the manufacturer and delivered out to the site. The company that the chose to use for this precast concrete method was O'Reilly Concrete, based in larchfield, kingscourt, Co. Cavan. They thought that this would work out quicker and cheaper but due to bad coordination between the suppliers, design manager and contractor this was not to be. They found out through this rough patch of the project that 3D creation could show them the problems that they faced and how easily they could have been fixed. Block E is going to be the street entrance into the residential area. It’s also where they introduced the town houses. These were duplex buildings that were placed behind the apartments.
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| Safety Really Does Start Outside The Site |
As we got nearer to entering the site, we were all given a health and safety talk, about behaviour and general etiquette on site, and a few golden rules about footing were thrown in there too. He was slightly worried about the lack of people wearing boots as the site we were entering was still literally a construction site!
We were told by Ruairi : that there was no major hazards within the site, to keep an eye on where abouts we were walking, don't walk on any timber because there could be nails sticking out, just not to get injured basically!He also made us aware of the increase in deaths over the last number of years in the construction industry. In 1998 there was roughly 12 deaths whereas in 2005 it had doubled to over 24 deaths. This could be down to the fact that the number of staff increased. Increase in staff, increase in injuries! The major contributor to the increase in injuries is falling from a height. It’s a problem that has to be sorted or the injuries will continue to rise. One of the points which struck me was the lack of attention that was paid towards health and safety over 10 years ago. The only piece of equipment that was a necessity 'in the olden days' was a hard hat. Whereas nowadays it is essential for every member except visitors to have an up to date safety pass. The mdy contruction site has a policy for safety which can be seen on this link : http://www.mdy.ie/Safety/134
Because there were two halves to this tour, our group of 4 split up. 2 headed on the first half of the tour and 2 on the second half. So essentially there were 2 groups, let’s say Group A for the first tour and Group B for the second tour.
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| The Site Entrance |
So Group A entered the site, firstly signing in to the office and then beginning their tour. Upon entering the site we took a right hand turn and were guided by Ruari Hayden. We learned about how the site is prepared in the early stages. Because there is a basement within the development, and also the fact that the site is close to a busy roadway, it was necessary to use a secant pile wall construction. Secant pile walls are formed by constructing intersecting reinforced concrete piles. The piles are reinforced with either steel rebar or steel beams and can be formed by drilling or augering. This prevents the ground around the site from caving in, damaging nearby buildings and roadways, and also delaying the construction. It is a very expensive process but is necessary to ensure a stable building. Under the basement a radon barrier is in place, and large vents are in the walls just below the internal floor level to allow airflow within the basement.
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| Picture Sourced on: www.casefoundation.com/images |
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| Small Brick Vent |
Above ground, on top of the piles a layer of DPC is laid and the external wall is constructed of 215mm block wall inner-leaf, 110mm cavity, and 100mm brick outer leaf. The cavity is to allow airflow through the wall to prevent damp. Because water can pass through the brick, small vents are built into the wall to allow any water that does get through to pass back out through the brick.
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| Below these windows lies the windy tunnel |
Whilst Group A were on site, Group B were off grabbing a bite to eat, Subway and Aldi seemed to be the places of choice. Group B waited on the return of Group A across the street, in what was probably the windiest tunnel in the pale. If wind was in the form of a human being, you would have wanted to punch him it was that irritating.
When Group A finally returned, it was like a peace offering the way in which the Hi-Vis Jackets and Hard Hats were exchanged. Group B then set off into the site, firstly signing in just like Group A and instead of going right we took a left. Guided by site Engineer Stephen, We stood on a path way raised roughly 4-5 foot above the ground level of the onsite Crèche for the duration of our tour, learning about his job as site Engineer and some of the difficulties he encounters.
As site engineer, Stephen had to deal with and solve any problems that came his way. For instance, he had to ensure that sites were cut and filled appropriately to keep them level and between Stephen and Ruairi, they explained how rain water was going to be dealt with on site. We were told further up the site, under a grass or playground area, there was an atinuation tank. This tank is used during times of heavy rainfall. How it works is very simple, the south Dublin county council placed a flow meter where the site drains meet the main water works system. During times of heavy rainfall the flow of water becomes faster and when it reaches a certain speed the site pipe is closed off from main system and the water from the site is redirected to this tank. Once the flow slows down the pipe is reopened to the mains and the tank slowly drained. The whole point of this tank is to help stop storm drains on main roads flooding and to keep the main water ways flowing smoothly.
We also learned of a new type of heating system they were using onsite. The sanyo SHP-C45DEN is a new type of eco-friendly heating system. We had discussed how it worked on the site and basically it works oppositely of a fridge. It draws air in from the atmosphere and heats it, which in turn uses that heat to heat the water in the house for its various purposes, like central heating and hot water in taps. A fridge cools the air coming in, therefore they’re pretty opposite. The air coming into the sanyo SHP_C45DEN is heated by the air leaving the system and in the colder months the system is backed up by a small bit of electricity, just to ensure good warm temperatures. The hot air is transferred to the house via insulated ducts, which in the above pictures you can see in the background, they’re silver pipes.
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| Whacking the gravel |
As we were having our tour the main attraction was the construction of the onsite crèche. As we stood getting our talks from Stephen and Ruairi, one of the construction teams were laying and whacking a layer of gravel. We captured a video (which unfortunetly isn't working) and pictures of this event.
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| The head we see here is Stephens, and if you look above his head there appears to be blothches on the insitu concrete basement entrance. These are marks left by the form work. |
Earlier in the day, Ruairi explained to us about block F and the way they changed their methods from insitu concrete to precast. In the earlier stages of the project however, they used the insitu method to create the concrete entrance to the basements. Noticeable features of insitu concrete formation are the marks that the form work leaves on the surfaces of the concrete structure.
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| Insulated pipes leading to house |
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| Insulated pipes leaving back of system |
We also learned of a new type of heating system they were using onsite. The sanyo SHP-C45DEN is a new type of eco-friendly heating system. We had discussed how it worked on the site and basically it works oppositely of a fridge. It draws air in from the atmosphere and heats it, which in turn uses that heat to heat the water in the house for its various purposes, like central heating and hot water in taps. A fridge cools the air coming in, therefore they’re pretty opposite. The air coming into the sanyo SHP_C45DEN is heated by the air leaving the system and in the colder months the system is backed up by a small bit of electricity, just to ensure good warm temperatures. The hot air is transferred to the house via insulated ducts, which in the above pictures you can see in the background, they’re silver pipes.
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| Sanyo system exposed |
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| The Sanyo system protected on balcony |
Another kind of issue that we thought of was the protection of these systems. As you can see from the picture they are very exposed and they are situated at the side of a path. Anything could happen to these systems, such as children kicking footballs off of them or vandals just pushing them over. For this particular unit of houses they are not very well protected, but in the picture on the above right, you can see an apartment balcony and the system is hidden and up out of the way of children and vandals, which is some form of protection. http://www.r744.com/content/products/sanyo-shp-c45den.php
Over the course of our tour many pictures were taken, all of which did not make it into the final draft of our blog, but in some cases we felt were too important to leave out. There are only a few but they are pictures of great importantance in the construction industry.
These three pictures down the left hand side show huge importance in the area of safety onsite. They are all relevent to the set up of scaffolding.  |
| This picture is of a scaffolding footing. you can see how it has been placed on a level surface to ensure stability throughout the scaffolding structure. |
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| This picture shows the scaffolding structure as a whole. We can clearly see the handrails in place, and that the whole structure is completely paved with boards, leaving no holes for anyone or thing to fall through. |
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| This image is of a wall anchor for scaffolding. From the steal loop, the scaffolding verticles are tied off for stabillity. On the opposite side of the wall there are bars that counter act the scaffoldings weight giving it more stability. |
The next picture is of a not widely used render. This is a Monocuch render, it is put up in the one colour and the advantage is that it does not have to be painted over, it looks rather well when left alone.
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| The Monocuch render. |
The last two pictures show us two views of a window ope. We can see in the first picture the cavity wall of a window ope and below that we can see a window lintel.
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| Here we can see the cavity wall. This particular cavity wall is made of block on the left, and brick on the right. |
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| In this view we can see just below the outer block work, a window lintel. This is a close up view. |
This concludes our induction day assignment blog. We hope you enjoyed the read, and we would especially like to thank Ruairi and Ger for the day out and also Stephen the site engineer and the MDY construction company for allowing us onsite.
