Sunday, 21 July 2013

woot woot

This summer I was interning with L&T (Larsen and Toubro) in Hauz Khas. An underground metro station is being constructed at the site which will connect Janakpuri to Botanical Garden, Noida. No job is easy but construction job has its own challenges. There is no room for even slightest mistakes. Everything is cross-checked twice and again and again because a nearmiss can cause a big, long-term, irreversible problem. The client is so demanding and the contractors have to work so hard to do it just right to satisfy the client. Whenever there is a client visit at the site, the engineers, the project mangers, and the project directors are so uptight and stressed to make sure they show the client what they are looking for. Safety of the labors and the engineers is very big concern at the site. Nobody can go to the site without the safety gear, ie, helmet, shoes and reflective jacket. It is a good feeling to wear this "uniform" specially for a rookie like myself. Going to the construction site is very good feeling. It makes me feel like I am learning something useful and practical.
Talking about my experience, the first day is always the exciting day where I was very hyped about how much I am going to learn and be very punctual, regardless of how lazy I am. I was staying in Lajpat Nagar, which is not very far from the site, so transportation was not a problem. Another good thing was that I had my classmate/friend/roommate along with me at the internship, to ease the boredom while waiting for the engineers to come and teach us.
There was a lot of waiting involved during the internship because the engineers were at site doing their work. It was the first week when I learned the most. I was going to the site regularly, noting down all the details and going back in the office for more questions. The following week and the other was a little less productive because I started skipping and going late and leaving early. Then we (all the interns) got an ultimatum from the project manager and I was punctual again.
There are many interesting things to learn at the site. Many new things that we haven't heard of, and many things that we have heard of in the classes that we don't "really" understand. The theoretical knowledge that we get during our class was "translated" into real, useful, and practical knowledge. The engineers were very helpful at all times. Besides that fact that we added more work to their 12 hour job, they welcomed us.
The construction site has many additional challenges because the site is in a residential area. Also in order to for the work to start, a park had to be cleared out, water pipelines had to be diverted. To get permissions from the Jal Board and the society head and other government officials was one of the main reasons the work got delayed.
For the construction of a underground structure, one of the main structures is D-wall, ie, the diaghpram wall. It can be a permanent or temporary structure depending upon the use. In this case, it was a permanent structure which was about 36 meters from the existing ground level. It is constructed on the basis of a guide wall, about 1m deep, which serves as a boundary. The guide wall is later on dismantled after it serves its purpose. The concreting is done with the help of tremie pipe set. I learned about 'stopend', a very concept used to facilitate concreting. Another interesting material I learned about was Polymer. It is used to control the properties of the sand and avoid collapsing. There are many machines that are used at the site. For example, JCB, 50T and 80T cranes, piling rig, Byagrab, sounding equipment, generators, etc.
It was a great learning experience this summer, and due to the interesting nature of the work and their working style, I have decided to stay in touch with the project director. I have asked him to stay in touch with any progress at the site. I am planning to visit the site with execution of any new work. As of now I am waiting for the tunneling to start, which is done with a tunnel boring machine. This is the tunnel for the metro to run. The TBM is a huge machine that drills through and makes a tunnel of desired diameter. Hopefully I will be contacted to make a visit to the site, so I am with the project till its completion. 

2 comments:

  1. Good, but you forgot to mention your Name and Enrollment Number.

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