Thursday, June 27, 2013

Zamora AVE Project visit. Felipe

In the past couple of weeks we have been fortunate to visit three different projects throughout Spain. On Tuesday afternoon I received a phone call from Mr. Francisco Mallol informing me that I would be traveling to Zamora along with the head of prevention department for OHL in the North America region Jose Luis. I was picked up at 8:30 A.M along with my colleague Alejandro Falgons, an OHL environment control employee, and two representatives from OHL’s sister company JUDLAU construction. Before arriving to site the only information I had on the project was that it was going to be my first visit to a civil engineering work site  Upon arriving to Zamora we were briefed on some of the overpasses we encountered in our travel there. These overpasses were a main part of the project we were about to see. Once inside the office we were greeted by project manager Violeta and her team of project leaders. They brought us into the room to give us a briefing on what the project entailed while we were putting our safety boots and helmet on. What I took from this overview was the following:

The entire project’s length is approximately 200 kilometers which will connect the current Valladolid AVE bullet train station to the Region of Galicia.
The project includes a total of seven overpass bridges and ten underpass connections to allow for agricultural workers of the region to continue their cultivation tradition without it being hampered with the construction of the railways.
OHL is currently in charge of 20 km of the project, with the initial cost of the project being seventy million euros, and it is also in charge of the biggest part of the entire project which is the 368 meter bridge on top of the Zamora water reservoir.
The original project was to be completed in 27 months, however after funds were cut short from the government, the project was almost on hold for several months, until August, 2012 when it was taken back into full charge and it is now set to be completed in December, 2013.
OHL is in charge of all civil and structural work within this 20km area; however the railways and installations were subcontracted to another company.
There are around 100 workers on a daily basis working on all parts of the project at once.
Asides from the natural difficulty of the job, the legal process of it involved 5 different legislations for it to be approved.


We then traveled around 15 km of the site, and in the meantime one of the project leaders in charge of the environmental effects of the project explained to me how the project came to be and what it has taken for the project to be completed. One of the facts that caught my attention was the amount of work it takes to make the ground meet AVE’s standards for construction. She explained to me that the main part of this process was the mixing of the current dirt materials with a material called Cal, once this materials were proportionally mixed a special machine passed on top of them at a certain speed, giving this mixture the necessary solidity. After another machine crushed the solidified ground even more before the final two layers were put on top of it. A series of test with different machines and mixture combinations were made on site to find the right combination needed for each part of the site, being that within the 20m they are working on the soils vary vastly. She also informed me that 100% of the materials taken from the site were being used in different parts of the project and none of them went to waste. The project does require a series of material loans from neighboring areas in order to have the necessary materials to complete the job properly. We then arrived at the bridge that was being constructed on top of the reservoir, which in a few words left me extremely impressed with its construction process. Being built on top of three substantial columns that easily had to be the biggest columns I had ever gotten close to, the bridge was being constructed by sectors marked by the placement of the columns. In order to build the bridge on top of the reservoir a mini peninsula had to be built around the placement of the columns and the reservoir itself had to be lowered. They were lucky enough to finish building the three columns before a massive series of storms flooded the area and with it submerging the temporary bridge they had constructed in order to get to them. Being on top and inside the ongoing construction of the bridge is one of the most exhilarating experiences I have even encountered in my lifetime. We were shown around by the project’s superintendent who told us how the bridge was being constructed in a detailed manner. He showed us the post tension and pre tension techniques that were being used, the materials, and everything in the site. The main thing that caught my attention was how fast the construction process of the bridge was being done, due in large part to the new type of cement that they were using as their base (HA50), which is a relative new cement that gives them the flexibility to set a concrete base or top in one day and be able to continue with another piece the next day meeting the necessary strength requirements to do so. At the end of the visit I left extremely satisfied with the amount of information I had gathered about my first civil project work site visit. The lunch we ate after leaving the site was easily one of the best I have had in my entire life. Below are some of the pictures that represent my experience



Cleanest re-bars in the history of construction, if only they were real.
Overall site-plan of the project, almost 200 km in length

 Reservoir view from the temporary bridge

 The grand baby of them all, two fifty meter cranes at full go. impressive.
 foundations
 close look at one of the three columns yet to be built on top of
 Judlau quality control and safety representatives.


 incredible



 Girders ready for the 4 PM concrete pour
 busy working all day
 Post tension mechanism techniques being used


 Hidden gem, this machine is the one that pulls the cables for the post tension technique being applied
 50 Meter reach








 massive toolbox, massive tools!
























Delicious fancy restaurant for lunch