SITE QUITE AND LOOKED ABANDONED FOR THE HARI RAYA HOLIDAYS as seen on 30 July 2014

Yes OF COURSE it is still holidays for the workers as on 30th July.

perhaps the workers deserve the long break as it is not that fun working under the sun, if you have ever tried just being a project supervisor.

Just being on site for one day will make all of your aircon office workers squirm. ha ha

 Not a soul seen on site since all workers on holidays even though 30 July is a working day.

 Five concrete beams all completed and the last two still waiting for the curing period.  Notice those cables jutting out from the top and bottom of the beams.  They are not yet tensioned and the end plates are still pending installation.

 At the left bank pile cap, these positions must be for the bearing points for the prestressed beams.

 Right bank pile cap have just been concreted.

 Extension base for the Slope retention wall

 Construction access for the bank protections or gabions

 Nearby, the cover for this waterpipe manhole was again broken and gone. Last time I saw, it was made of concrete but when vehicles ran over it, as always it get damaged and broken and some idiot even have his car wheel going into the gap.  Ha !

And the nearby bambangan fruit is still growing.  I think I gonna ask the owner for a few.

DAMBAI BRIDGE PROGRESS ON 23 JUNE 2014

Ooops this was last months progress pics which I did not upload on time, but anyway the works seems going slowly but smoothly and some breaks for Hari Raya on 28 and 29 July.

There was not much drastic changes so that's why sometimes I forgot to comment on my photos but here goes.

Four beams concreted on 23rd June
of course as of July all 5 beams completed but waiting for the cable tendons to be stressed. I think the concrete has to be fully cured before they can do that.

 Another view with the Bambangan tree at the background

 First part of retaining wall completed. There must be some continuation near that big boulder.

 Some excavator works under the bridge. Placing some rock armouring to protect the river banks from erosion.

 Big gap behind the retaining wall because of the size of the footing. The toe of the footing has to be long to ensure the wall do not slide or topple over.

And finally the bambangan fruit was big enough to make some dish, but somehow its seems most of them are now gone.  Must be free for everyone who happens to be around.

DAMBAI PROGRESS FROM 5 MAY TO 10 JUN 2014

SORRY folks, I had a backlog of photos to upload because there was simply too many harvest festival events to cover in May and even late Jun some are still having kaamatan parties.

Anyhow these are the progress that I have seen while passing the bridge everyday. The solid concrete retaining wall is already completed by now.

On 5 May 2013

 Concreting using the crane 5 May

 Concreting the pile caps which will support the prestress beams

 

from 12 May 2014

 Progress of the retaining wall as on 12 May 2014



From 10 June 2014

 Note the gunny sacks used to water-cure the prestressed beams - 3 beams completed up to this date.

 and the bambangan fruits have grown - good enough for cooking fish with.

 Bridge caps left bank completed

retaining wall half completed by 10 Jun 2014.

DAMBAI BRIDGE PROGRESS ON 2ND MAY 2014

I got a feedback on this blog that my comments are too technical. Actually, after leaving the technical world for the last 2 years, I myself can hardly use technical terms or even name the parts of the bridge. However, should any readers have any questions, I will try to answer them, or make additions by editing the relevant post.

 Well, as usual I will monitor the Bambangan.  Hopefully if the fruits can grow, I may just ask the owner for a few ripe ones, that is if it can grow to maturity before the roots of the tree give way to the clay around it and dies.
For the moment I think the fruits have not reach one inch in size yet.

The formwork for the prestressed concrete beam have now been fixed. Note that it is made of prefabricated steel plates which is then joined together with bolts plus some extra supports just to prevent it from tumbling down during the filling up with concrete. As of today concreting work has not begun because the supporting bars are not fully installed according to the workers.

 Here you can see that the steel formwork is sufficient for one beam only and there are 5 beams for the two lane bridge.  Therefore the concrete for the first beam will have to set before the formworks are removed and re-used for the next beam and so forth. This type of concrete beam design must come in pre-selected sizes otherwise the production of the steel formworks would become an expensive business.
Also note the steel reinforcing bars juts out from the top of the beam in a T shape form.  This part will be connected to the concrete bridge deck or slab once the beams are installed on top of the pile caps. The beam and slab then become a composite single structure.

Foreground, the workers have added the rebars to the final height of the pile caps where the ends of the beam will be laid on.

background:  the works for the retaining wall continues.

BRIDGE PROGRESS ON 28 APRIL 2014

Workers installing the steel end caps for the prestress concrete beam

Seems that there are 12 strands of cables in the top duct while the bottom one has 18 strands.

Rebars and formwork for the pile cap cum abutment at the left bank

At the right bank, the installation of rebars for the concrete retaining wall had commenced

It was a hot day on the 28th April but this time the river water is flowing with red clay. Some earthworks must be carried out upstream

BRIDGE PROGRESS 20 APRIL 2014

The Bambangan fruit is still small but growing.

Full view of one whole span of prestress concrete Beam

How the ends of the top and bottom cable is installed ( hooked and embedded) at one end of the concrete beam

End for mid cables sticking out of the cable duct which will be used for tensioning the cables later

Workers jointing the cable ducts, simple screw it and tape it.

The other end of the Beam where top and bottom cables are jutting out of the ducts that will be tensioned later, just like the tendons of your muscles !

Embedding of the ends of the middle cable,

Rebars for the left bank pile cap cum abutment

At right bank, earthworks continue to give space to the retaining wall

Left bank showing gabion protection works for the bridge piles, and the clear water in river during dry hot spell