On Engineering Exams

TRUE or FALSE?

Do your homework...

Would like to share with you pictures that I found from the web. Credits to those guys who have been so creative to come up with these equations. :)

and, 

and, 

and,

 

and to summarize the above equation? :)

These equations are for fun only. And, I don't think and believe that

"Women=Problems".

Video on Diaphragm Wall

I would like to share with you this video seen in youtube on the Construction Sequence of a Diaphragm Wall by AFCONS.

World's longest tunnel breaks down Swiss Alpine barrier

SEDRUN, Switzerland (AFP) - – A giant drilling machine punched its way through a final section of Alpine rock on Friday to complete the world's longest tunnel, after 15 years of sometimes lethal construction work.
In a stage-managed breakthrough, attended by some 200 dignitaries, 30 kilometres (20 miles) inside the tunnel and broadcast live on Swiss television, engineers from both sides shook hands after the bore had pummeled through the final 1.5 metres (five feet) of rock.

"Here, in the heart of the Swiss Alps, one of the biggest environmental projects on the continent has become reality," said Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger.

Tunnel workers paid tribute to their colleagues who had died on the construction site with a minute's silence as the names of the eight victims were read out during an emotional ceremony for the breakthrough.
"Workers, thank you, thank you, thank you. We have not only built a tunnel, we have written history," said Luzi Gruber of the construction company Implenia.

The 57-kilometre (35.4-mile) high-speed rail link, which will open in 2017, will form the lynchpin of a new rail network between northern and southeastern Europe and help ease congestion and pollution in the Swiss Alps.
It is the third tunnel to be built through the snowbound St. Gotthard area but it is much the longest and three kilometres longer than a rail link between two Japanese islands, the current record holder at 53.8 kilometres.
"The myth of the Gotthard has been broken for a third time. Our forefathers struggled from the Middle Ages onwards to make this mountain passable," Peter Fueglistaler, director of the Federal Transport office, told journalists gathered for the final breakthrough.

Passengers will ultimately be able to speed from the Italian city of Milan to Zurich in less than three hours and further north into Germany, cutting the journey time by an hour.

Once completed, around 300 trains should be able to speed through the Gotthard's twin tubes every day, at up to 250 kilometres per hour (155 mph) for passenger trains.

The 9.8-billion Swiss franc (7.0-billion euro, 9.8-billion dollar) tunnel, which is 9.5 metres in diameter, is also the fruit of strong popular environmental concern about pollution in the Swiss Alps.

Switzerland nonetheless struggled to convince sceptical European neighbours to support the ambitious and costly transalpine rail plans. But Swiss voters helped force the issue in 1994 by supporting a ban on heavy trucks driving across the Alps -- including the expanding flow of transiting EU goods traffic.

 A nationwide poll published on Wednesday suggested that sentiment is undimmed, with two thirds supporting a ban on truck traffic through the Gotthard road tunnel and moving it on to rail.

But a senior Swiss official warned the full benefit of the rail tunnel can only be realised if Germany and Italy complete complementary infrastructure.

"For a noticeable amount of freight to be shifted from road to rail, our neighbouring countries Germany and Italy will have to fulfill their contractual obligation to extend access routes," said Peter Fueglistaler, director of the government's Federal Transport Office.

In recent years, Austria, France and Italy have set in motion two similar rail tunnel projects through the eastern and western Alps, which are both planned to exceed 50 kilometres in length in the 2020s.

Apart from the economic and environmental implications, the spotlight was on more than 2,000 tunnel workers, especially following the rescue of Chile's trapped miners.

The builders, who have blasted and bored through 13 million cubic metres (460 million cubic feet) of rock, were feted at a celebration just above the breakthrough point in the mist-bound village of Sedrun.

As the two tunnels became one, tunnelers unfurled a Swiss flag to a thunder of applause.
One of the first to make it through, Hubert Baer, told the crowd: "It's a wonderful feeling, it's an honour to have participated in the construction of the longest rail tunnel in the world."

Scene: Santa Barbara stands watch over world's longest tunnel

source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101016/tts-switzerland-transport-tunnel-rail-en-c1b2fc3.html

"Concrete"

Concrete is easily and readily prepared and fabricated in all sorts of conceivable shapes and structural systems. It is used in the realms of infrastructure, habitation, work and play. Its great simplicity lies in the fact that its constituents are ubiquitous and are readily available almost anywhere in the world ¹. As a result of its ubiquity, functionality and flexibility it has become by far the most popular and widely used construction material in the world ².

The material concrete is often confused with the material cement. Cement is one of the many constituents of concrete, part of the glue that holds the other materials together. Concrete is made by mixing cement, supplementary cementitious materials, water, fine aggregate (sand), coarse aggregate (gravel or crushed stone) with or without admixtures, reinforcement, fibres or pigments.

The ingredients are proportioned and engineered to produce a concrete of a specific strength and durability, so it is 'fit for purpose' for the job for which it is intended. It can be produced in the form of precast products or as ready-mixed concrete, which is delivered in the familiar rotating concrete lorry.


source: http://www.sustainableconcrete.org.uk

World's Tallest Building Just Got Taller

AFP - Wednesday, September 3

DUBAI (AFP) - - The world's tallest building just got taller -- the Burj Dubai tower in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai has now reached a height of 688 metres (2,257 feet) and is still growing, developers Emaar said on Tuesday.

It now boasts 160 storeys, the highest skyscraper in the world, Emaar said in a statement.

The skyscraper, set for completion in September 2009, is one of several mega projects taking shape in Dubai, which is a member of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) federation.

Burj Dubai, which was started in 2004, overtook Taiwan's Taipei 101 tower as the world's tallest building when it reached 512 metres (1,533 feet) in April 2007.

It became the tallest man-made structure on the planet, when Emaar announced in April that it has surpassed the 629-metre (2,063-foot) KVLY-TV mast in the United States.

Its eventual height remains a closely-guarded secret, though there is speculation it will reach a final height of 900 metres (2,953 feet).

It had been due for completion in the bustling city state at the end of 2008, but Emaar said in June that "finishing touches" had pushed back the date until September next year.

The skyscraper is being built by a consortium involving Arabtec Construction LLC of the UAE, Samsung of South Korea and Besix of Belgium.

Many building projects in Dubai, which is going through a construction frenzy, have been facing delays caused by shortage of building materials and skilled labour.

source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/

Vinci on board for Qatar-Bahrain bridge

Construction of the Qatar-Bahrain causeway, at 40 km said to be the world’s longest bridge, is due to start next year.

This will be a design-build operation in the hands of a consortium of construction companies led by Vinci Construction Grands Projets. The Middle East Dredging company Medco, a subsidiary of the Vinci Group company CFE, will carry out the dredging work required to build the motorway connection between Qatar and Bahrain.

The value of the contract recently signed between Vinci and Qatari Diar (causeway foundation) is put at US$3 billion.

The project is a joint venture between Vinci Construction Grands Projets and QDVC, a Qatari subsidiary owned 51 per cent by Qatari Diar and 49 per cent by Vinci and its contracting partners.

Other companies in the consortium are Hochtief and Athens based Consolidated Contractors International. The Danish engineering consultant COWI, which conducted pre-contract studies of the causeway, is working as design consultant for the consortium.

A further contract is expected to be awarded shortly for the client representative and program management role. The successful bidder reporting directly to Qatari Diar will be responsible to the client for managing construction of the project.

The causeway calls for design and construction of a dual carriageway motorway connection between the two island states. It will run over a total of 18 km of embankments where the sea is shallow and 22 km of viaducts and bridges over deep water. These will include two 400m cable stayed bridges over shipping channels.

Known as the Friendship Bridge, the causeway will reduce the journey time between Qatar and Bahrain to about 30 minutes compared with five hours by road at present. Work is to start after nine months of further studies and the structure itself is due for completion in 51 months.

source: International Construction Review