₦airaland Forum

large concrete cap has finally been poured,

hbrednic:
welldone, very nice job

Thank you by brother, i appreciate all the words of encouragement.

Installation of structural steel at 2 story area.

Reinfocing steel has been installed , nice work

Piles have been chipped down completely. It is now ready for reinforcing steel and formwork. Pictures to come ,

Another view

Installation of structural steel at the 2-story portion of the project has started. This process should last for two weeks pending weather conditions. The picture shows the steel members on the ground and the small crane used for installation. Some of the steel members are already standing on the slab.

We have uncovered all the piles that support one set of elevators. The next step is to chip the piles down to the bottom, then reinforcing steel will be installed for this huge cap.

Excavation to uncover piles in progress.

Formwork for shear walls have arrived on site.

Excavation for the largest pile cap is in progress. So as you can see, the piles are drilled from grade, and then they are uncovered up to the depth of the pile cap. The most labor intensive part of this installation is chipping the piles down to the bottom of the cap. See pictures.

Slab for 2 story portion has been poured and covered with a curing blanket.

aseju:
Oga, thank you o.
Some observations - it seems like no below grade occupiable space, 1st floor will be slab on grade? Guessing that is what obtains in that neck of the wood because of water level. I may also want to ask about distances to adjacent buildings, some have openings now and is that going to remain as such along with yours in place? Some existing columns are protected in that foto and I am thinking separation (or none) with those buildings (existing)?
Thank you for taking us through this.

First i should point out that this slab is for a 2 story portion of the project that adjoins the 10 story building. It is a slab on grade, and the existing openings will remain. The two building will be separated by a rubber expansion joint to allow for potential movement. The 10 story portion is still at the foundation stage as shown in the attached pictures.

Slab ready to be poured.

Tower crane complete. 

@ Aventures, Wonderfiul questions, All partitions will be constructed with metal studs/ frame with gypsum board surfaces. This is typical for most commercial projects. For special areas where radio activity or infra red rays will be present, a solid high density concrete wall will be used for containment. These area include MRI, Linear accelerators etc.

aseju:
kez007 along with other construction gurus, I salute o. May God bless you all for this and other like-threads. To me it does not matter where this project is. The process itself is a lot to learn from. Me sef I be laborer in Naija terms, however, I don register for the class even though I too dey skip class. My first question is, is this going to be a "steel and concrete" or "reinforced concrete" structure? Thank you.

This will be a steel framed building with conrete slabs and concrete shear walls for elevators and stairwells. As you can see in the picture, excavation for the elevator pile cap has began,

Behind bobo:
What type of form work do u guys use?? For good quality construction in naija we use steel shuttering or doca wood panels(or any similar machine cut panels).though most peeps use common untreated panels as this is cheaper.but i love the quality of construction right from the foundation.that s the real difference between construction in naija and foreign countries.though i must add that there are a couple of construction companies doing well here too

There are a variety of forms that are used here, but for large projects, steel and wood are the norm. Permanent metal forms are also used in cases where form removal may be unproductive.

Thanks for all the compliments, I was away last week, I will provide an update by tomorrow,

Behind bobo:
"Ground beam reinforcement in progress" u mean

Nope, I actually mean "grade beam" installation. That is what it is called here, but I would still like to know the different construction terminologies that prevail in different parts of the world, I assume it it. Called "ground beam" in Naija. Interesting, thanks for the insight.

Finally, aerial view of site. We notice that the pile caps have been covered completely with only the column pedestals exposed. , Enjoy the weekend!!

Grade beam reinforcing in progress,

Preparing for crane erection tomorrow.

Compacting backfill with a remote controlled vibrating compactor,

Backfilling around pile cap,

Wow, Another Friday, As of today, the pile caps have been backfilled and covered.
Drilling is continuing and is scheduled to end next week, and the tower crane will be erected over the weekend.

atasteve:
Lord Kez007 and all the profs, this is so educative and interesting. I have learned a lot reading through this thread.

@atasteve, hopefully it will get even more interesting as the months go by, this should be an enjoyable ride!!

Fhemmmy:
When i am ready, I am sure you would not leave your brother hanging, i am sure you would travel for my sake oh to my own site, cos you are my brother from the other mother

At least my own is in Nnewi, so i'm covered

Nice job man!!

spyder880:
^^^ I will ship them like those your neat cars, my workers are that precious, lolz. Make man catch 4 hours of sweet sleep joo.

I thought you only worked in Enugu, Do you have a limit on how far you travel for work?,

Another day on the grind. Augered piles, and excavation of pile caps continue,

Excavated Grade beam, supported by drilled piers.

Aventures:
I cld have asked this at the begining of this tread. Hw do you set out your column points. well i know in some Big construction like this GPS or total station is always used to locate the coordinates of the piers as specified in the drawing. Can you pls shed more light on this or rather give us your method. Thanks

You are correct, the use of a total station is pretty much the norm. It's basically a stake out process where you set a benchmark off an existing structure, then set building corners and eventually the entire footprint. All the piers are located off the benchmark, and then a licensed surveyor is hired to determine variances. At the end of the pier drilling operation, the land surveyor produces and as built drawing indicating actual pile/pier locations. This report is submitted to the engineer for review and approval. In the case where the variance of a pier location exceeds the allowable variance in the specifications, the engineer may elect to add one more pier to the set to guarantee the structural integrity of the system.