Greetings, we are two students from the FIU OHL School of Construction who were selected to take part in FIU's first ever international internship in collaboration with construction giant Obrascón Huarte Lain. The internship will be based out of Madrid, Spain. Through this blog we will be sharing our experiences with the company, our travel through the different cities and countries in Europe, among other miscellaneous events. Alejandro Falgons and Felipe Martinez
Friday, July 5, 2013
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
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