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I

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Starting July 3rd, I began my internship in Kaohsiung, Taiwan with

Formosa Builders, Inc. This summer’s been quite the experience, and I’ve

been able to shadow some amazing engineers who have each taught me

something unique about the trade. For the past 7 weeks, I’ve spent my time

at a construction site, working on the bottom floors of a 26 floor high rise

designed by renowned Austrian architect and designer, Hans Hollein and the

structural engineering company famous for their design for the Taipei 101,

the Evergreen Consulting Engineer, Inc. Hans Hollein is an architect,

theoretician (唾寶伺), urban planner, designer, artist, and teacher who has

also been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for his splendid work.

“Evergreen Consulting Engineer, Inc. is a consulting structural engineering

firm offering services in the fields of structural engineering. These consulting

services are offered primarily to architects, owners and government agencies.

Since 1974, the firm has successfully completed hundreds of major structural

design projects. Included in these projects, there is a diversified scope of

designs for super-high-rise buildings, multi-purpose commercial buildings,

residential complexes, hospitals, hotels, museums, libraries, gymnasiums (稍

堰摯) , banks, studios, and factories. The most noted are 101-story Taipei

101, 85-story T&C Tower, and 50-story Grand 50.” (Turnkey Project for

Kaohsiung Exhibition and Convention Center Proposal on Package Services,

2010, Print) I’ve learned about diaphragm walls, braced excavation, bottom

floor infrastructure, and the workings that hold a general contracting

company together. Formosa Builders, Inc. works with all aspects of a project,

hiring and recruiting, taking all the steps and measures to get the job done

quickly and well. A quick summary about the company can be read in

Appendix C. It’s a highly collaborative (茄Ж) effort, but the job offers can be

extremely lucrative (モЧＤ隣疑). The company takes care of it all, so the

client has a

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go to place to get the job done. I’ve been able to see, first hand, the different

types of issues that the company deals with when working with hired hands.

If it’s one thing, I’ve learned that time is everything for this company because

time is literally money. With every day wasted, the cost piles up and profits

diminish. Formosa Builders, Inc. has graced me with an opportunity to learn

and explore further into the depths of my major and I am glad to say that

everyday here has been a worthy learning experience.

In this internship report, I touch upon the research I’ve been doing on

the topics related to the project we are currently working on here in

Kaohsiung, Taiwan. As aforementioned, I write about several topics:

diaphragm wall, strutting, basement infrastructure, and the different checks

engineers need to pay attention to. In Appendix A, I left a daily log of my

realizations throughout this internship. My changes in understanding are

quite apparent because this internship has shown me so many new things.

This internship will definitely help me in the future. Practical experience

helps to clear up misconceptions about concepts that we learn in school, and

will help me pick things up faster in my future work endeavors (Ьó). My

only hope is that this report is enough to touch upon what I’ve seen in the

summer of 2012.

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– U ( )

A diaphragm wall is a construction tool used to withstand the external

pressure of water and soil when a construction project requires braced

excavation (膝頚從、). The diaphragm wall is necessary when you need to

create a fairly watertight (横∈) wall and when you want to make a smooth

excavation site below water level without having to remove all the water from

the area. Not only is this beneficial for the construction process but it

doubles as a strong backing for good structures as well. Although the weight

of the basement floors along with the first two floors is enough to withstand

the upward pressure of the water now, the diaphragm wall is left intact(綾忝

尼緒疑) to maintain strength.

- C ( )

The construction of the diaphragm wall begins with the removal of the

soil to prepare space for the rebar cage. The way they dig out the soil is they

use a machine that drops a claw from about

50 meters up and use gravity in order to

bring it down with enough force to sink the

claw into the soil. The claws then close upon

the soil and bring it straight upwards. The

excavation happens in a rather snug area so

its important to make sure that positioning is correctly done and placed

before excavating. This requires that they do guide wall construction, which

gives the claw a direction to dig in. It

helps the excavation site stay neater and

also ensures that the panels dug out of the

ground is straight, so that when they pour

the concrete in the diaphragm wall isn’t

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crooked (睥ム疑). Once the hole has been dug, the next step in the process is

to lower the rebar cage, which will serve to produce strength through bonding

once the concrete is in.

The rebar cage needs to have a

protective layer between it and the

external surface of the concrete to keep it

from reacting with water or outside

humidity (暹圭). If the inside rebar is

ever exposed, it can rust or chip, which

will affect the overall strength of the structure and can compromise the safety

of the entire building if left unnoticed for a long enough period of time. Once

the rebar cage has be set and secured in place, the next step is figuring out

how to effectively pour in the concrete. When the panel slots were excavated,

the entire trench(萌瀞 ) was filled with water that came in from the

surroundings. Because of this, the concrete cannot be directly poured into

the water, because the strength of the concrete will be diminished. The

solution is tremie (授棲) concrete.

This is a technique that allows us to

pump the concrete below the water

level. The pipe must be submerged

(樌腎) at least 1 m below concrete

level to ensure that the water does

not force its way up the pipe. As the

concrete hits the bottom, the water

gets pushed up and out. An important note is that they only excavate panel

by panel and fill in the concrete panel by panel as well. They have male and

female molds that they fill in. They always do the female sides first, which

border the male panel in the middle. Before filling the female side with

concrete, they first lay out a tarp to keep the concrete from spilling too much

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into the surrounding soil, which would make it very difficult to excavate the

male sides surrounding them. The width of the female segments is limited to

2.5 meters to keep the pressure from being too high and bursting outwards

when filling in the tarp. Because the male segments already have the female

segments surrounding them, they are made larger and up to 4.5 meters in

width. All this, is to provide the wall with a strong connection to withstand

(堪從) the external force.

Once they start excavating, and we unearth one level at a time, they

begin to drill out the rebar to prepare for the next step in the entire

procedure, which is the tying of the rebar. They have formwork that are

within the concrete so that they know when to stop drilling so as not to

weaken the diaphragm wall any more than they need to. They then tear off

as much of the tarp on the female sections as much as they can, burning off

the residue at the end. These are all precautions that are taken to ensure

that the end result is clean, precise, and within regulations.

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- M C ( / ) The

diaphragm wall is made to withstand a lot of pressure, and is built in

sections. Because of all this

pressure, however, updates need

to be made to ensure that the

pressure coming from the

hydraulic jack (岐攣~□鎮) (will

be discussed in Section 3.1 for

Braced Excavation) is just right

to withstand the force pushing inwards, and not too much that we’re pushing

the diaphragm wall outwards. They have sensors attached to the H-beams to

ensure that this force is acceptable and not over a certain value, which is

important to keep tabs on. All the sensors (丙數弃) are linked to the ground

floor where they attach the monitor to the wires to test it all in the same spot.

This saves them the hassle of going down each floor just to check the pressure

in the H-beams.

Another tool they use is the inclinometer (敏楚呷), which detects the

amount of deviation (剳孜) the diaphragm wall has from straight vertical.

They attach the monitor to a sensor and then they drop an emitter(嚢四稍)

that goes straight down and sends a pulse every meter or so. The receivers in

the diaphragm wall send back a

pulse that lets the monitor know

how far the diaphragm wall has

deviated ( 薪 渮 ) from straight

vertical. There is a threshold (丈

櫃 )number, meaning there is a

number calculated to be the value that the diaphragm wall cannot deviate

past, or else action must be taken. Negative deviation means the force from

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the hydraulic jack is too high, and positive deviation means the force from the

hydraulic jack is too low. As expected, the force required by the hydraulic

jack increases as we go further and further down because water increases

pressure as you move lower and lower.

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- B E ( )

Before excavation even begins, the diaphragm wall is inserted into the

soil down as far as is necessary. At this point, there are no forces on the

diaphragm wall because there are counter forces everywhere (in the soil), so

there is a balance. However, as you start to excavate one side, the pressure

begins to build up as we take away the counterforce (∴Жこó), and so the

diaphragm wall begins to take the force, weakening it. In order to counteract

this, we do what is known as braced excavation, which is the act of providing

our counter forces as we dig out a site. This way, the diaphragm wall does

not collapse(歳副) halfway down, endangering the lives of everyone working

there.

The actual excavation of each floor takes about 8-9 days depending on

each level. There is a machine that is rented per day that comes to lower and

lift up containers full of soil that a machine is digging up at the lower levels.

The man operating the machinery has a camera that shows him what’s below

so that he doesn’t have to worry when he lowers the soil container. Before H-

beams are set up, they pre-dig a hole so that they can lower the excavation

machine into so that it doesn’t collide(學昂) with the H-beams. Once the

general excavation has been done, they use the same machines to begin to

press down and tidy up the excavation site, in preparation for laying down

the pure concrete (PC), which is all a part of the basement infrastructure.

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- H B ( / )

As necessary the diaphragm wall is to the construction of the basement

levels, strutting is crucial to keeping a diaphragm wall up. The horizontal

bracing includes the H-beams (beams & girders．垈 ) that keep the

diaphragm wall from collapsing inwards, pushing against it to counteract (堪

萎) the force of the soil trying to

cave the wall in. The vertical

bracing includes the columns that

keep the entire strut structure

upright. The vertical bracing goes

in first. They begin by drilling all

the way straight down in a

circular path until they hit the soil composition they need and feel is stable to

hold the H-beam vertically. Then, in order to keep the H-beam at the correct

height, they fashion a brace that holds the H-beam in place as they fill the

whole with concrete. They

remove the concrete as they

excavate downwards in order to

attach the horizontal bracing

around the vertical bracing.

The vertical bracing is a series

of H-beams that go in a certain

formation in order to push the

diaphragm wall back outwards

against the external force. There are hydraulic pumps (綜攣庫) in the middle

of the H-beams that apply the force, increasing in amount as we go to lower

levels (reaching up to 140 Tons at the fourth level!). In the end, as they begin

building upwards, the horizontal H-beams will be removed one level at a

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time, but the vertical bracing will remain until they’ve finished off all the

basement

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levels. They will then sever the beam at the bottom floor and lift the rest of

the beam up and out. An old practice was to yank the entire H-beam out, but

that left a hole and a weak point for the water to push upwards, so they

started just cutting it the floor and leaving part of the H-beam in the ground.

It leads to higher cost but sometimes a little extra cost is worth the time it

saves. They have a plate that they solder onto the H-beam that blocks water

from seeping upwards through the edges of the vertical H-beam.

- S M ( )

As described above, the pressure in the H-beams are constantly being

checked to make sure it’s not too much or too little. The sensors are linked to

the top so that they can take all their measurements from one spot.

Checking from one floor to one floor would be extremely inefficient, and

would lead to unnecessary danger considering the construction workers need

to climb on top of suspended H-beams just to do the check. Another

important safety measure that is taken are the stairways. They are

necessary to get to the lower floor, but they can’t be installed until the H-

beams are set up for fear of breaking them when lowering the H-beams.

Because of this, they have temporary ladders that we use to get to the bottom

floor during construction. This is a dangerous substitution (透∽軌) so

construction workers must be cautious when using such measures.

Because we walk along the H-beams when working, it’s required that

they set up safety cables for us to attach our harness (トゃ隻) to. However,

doing so would severely slow down the work flow, so sometimes, it just isn’t

practical to have cables everywhere, which would even make the work place

even more dangerous. They usually have cables alongside the outside walls,

which does make it easier to walk around with something to hold onto. From

what I’ve learned, it’s that safety measures need to be constantly enforced in

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the construction site. A lot of shortcuts are often taken, but when people’s

lives are at stake, a little inconvenience is worth it to preserve their safety.

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- T R ) !( (

)

Rebar is key in reinforced concrete. It’s necessary to take the tension

out of concrete because concrete can handle only one tenth the amount of

tension rebar can. So, because of this, we need to know where the forces are

and where the concrete is experiencing tension and where it’s experiencing

compression. It is important to note that the amount of rebar in a column or

beam must follow guidelines set by the structural design. Too little and too

much are both dangerous for their own reasons. Too little rebar can lead to

too much stress on the concrete and may end up in failure when there is

excessive tension. Too much rebar can cause the concrete to fail first, which

is a much more dangerous situation. For most floors, due to gravity, the

slabs get pulled downwards in the middle, and so the concrete feels tension

near the bottom side and compression on the top. Because of this, they place

more rebar on the bottom side of the slab and less on the top. This is the

same for every slab except for those on the bottom level where they have the

foundation. Here it is the exact opposite, because there is a force that pushes

up from below (the water trying to get up too). Because of this, there is more

rebar on the top part of the concrete slab and less on the bottom for the

foundation only.

Tying rebar needs to be somewhat precise because all the calculations

are already factored in, and putting in more or less can either endanger the

clients who use the building or create unnecessary cost by using too much

rebar. Engineers need to do these quality checks to make sure everything is

up to par and follows the parameters given in the construction design plan.

Another thing I noticed is the process they go about tying the rebar. If not

correctly planned out, it quickly becomes impossible to move around with

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giant rebar pieces, so everything needs to be done in a certain order, or else

you risk trapping yourself and causing more trouble than necessary.

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- C F P ( )

The concrete filling process is important because without concrete, the

building has no stability and no strength. The strength of the rebar comes

with its bonds to the concrete and the strength of the building comes from the

strength of the concrete. From this internship, I’ve only seen them fill

concrete up to the basement floor (foundation). Once the braced excavation

was complete, they proceded to cover the sand with a thin layer of pure

concrete (PC, about 10 centimeters thick), and then a much thicker layer of

foundation (90 centimeters). Only after the foundation was set in did they

begin to get ready to prepare to fill in the beams with concrete.

First off, to discuss preparation, formwork need to be set up to contain

the concrete within the beams that need to be the boundaries (奧艇) for the

water reserves. Without these formwork, the concrete would spill

everywhere and we wouldn’t have any tank space for water. They also only

do one half at a time in order to save costs on the formwork. For a country

like Taiwan, rain is a huge factor during typhoon season because it comes

and goes so often. Because of this, they must be prepared for any

circumstance. Once the concrete starts being pumped out, they cannot stop

the process until they are finished. If it is currently raining before they start,

they cannot begin the process because it may weaken the concrete too much

to have rain mixed at the bottom. However, the rain is harmless if it only

contacts the top once the concrete has already settled in its place. Rain does

affect the strength of the concrete, because it mixes and weakens the

mixture, but light rain is manageable considering the volume with which we

are working with. When it does begin to pour, however, considerations need

to be taken into whether or not the concrete has been negatively affected too

much. Once the diagnosis (Ц欹) has been decided upon, action can then be

taken.

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昵搬

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– S ( )

Safety is extremely important, and should always come first on a

construction site. There are so many opportunities to get injured and so

many lives at stake (ゑ渓牴搗), that it is impossible to ignore this check.

Engineers need to make these safety checks to ensure that the quality of the

precautions (裡横繊月 ) they take are enough to guarantee that the

construction workers go home safe and sound each night. Throughout my 8

weeks here with Formosa Builders, I’ve picked up a couple regulations here

and there in regards to safety control. One of the most important is making

sure all workers keep their hard hats on. During a hot day, it’s very

tempting to remove them for a couple minutes, or even for a job, to let off

some heat because it does get quite hot down at the bottom level with the

hard hats on, but those few minutes they don’t have their hard hats on could

be the few minutes that draw the line between life and death. Accidents

happen anytime, or else they wouldn’t be accidents, and hard hats are the

one article of protective clothing construction workers are required to wear,

so it’s important to make sure they keep them on.

Another regulation regards handrails (痼隠 ). They are required

whenever there is a walkway with a drop greater than 2 meters. Not only

that, but the handrails need to be double gated, and their sharp open ends

need to be taped up to prevent small injuries. All walkways need to follow

these regulations, and any walkway deviating from a fenced off section needs

to have a wire for safety harnesses. Although this second part is often

ignored by many construction sites, it can mean life and death, especially

when construction workers are walking back and forth along the H-beams

without a harness and carrying heavy loads. One slip-up (ー較黄血) can

mean a life. Other safety checks include diligently (怖勤ゲ) checking the

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pressures on the H-beams and the inclinometer (敏楚黒) for the diaphragm

wall to ensure that the construction workers are not in danger of a collapse.

- C ( )

Cost consideration is important for a construction project because, like

any business venture (excluding charity work), profit is extremely important.

The more you waste on unnecessary material, the less the company makes in

the end. The more the company spends fixing mistakes made, the less the

company makes in the end. Schedule is also extremely important in regards

to cost because a lot of the machinery is rented, so the more days it takes to

do a job, the higher the cost will be. For this specific project, they need to

continually suck out water to maintain a dry workspace. However, the

problem is that they need to do this 24/7 or else the job site will flood. What

this means is a constant use of electricity to suck out the water, so the longer

the project takes, the more money drains away (言ａ) , literally. For most

businesses, as long as the company hired is good enough, it’s good enough for

the project as long as the price is the lowest. True, some companies do a

better job than others, but if the job meets the standards and the cost

difference makes a huge difference, then the lowest price will be the most

desirable.

- S ( )

Scheduling a construction project is all about the planning. It is

crucial (紺酷疑) or else there is no way a project can be done by the given

deadline. Not only does the construction company need to think about the

current step at hand, but they need to prepare for the next step so that as

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soon as one step is finished, they can move onto the next. Delays are

inevitable (犂∇槃С), but with a good plan, they can be accounted for. If you

are two days behind schedule, but you know what’s coming, you can plan to

finish the next step twice as fast to make up for the lost time. This is how

you save costs and get the project finished on time to maintain good

credibility as a company.

- Q ( )

Quality checks directly affect your final product. Shoddily (托刳暎庁)

done steps lead to a poor final product. At all times, there needs to be a

standard that the company does not drop below, to make sure that everything

is accurate and up to par with the expectations of the client. This directly

reflects upon the integrity (勇劣) and reputation of a company and can affect

future clients decisions on whether or not to hire you. Quality checks include

checking to make sure that the rebar is tied correctly with accurate spacing

and the right rebar thickness. Not only is this important for the company,

but its important for the safety of your client. A poorly constructed building

is a danger to everyone whom steps foot inside and will only become worse

with time. Another type of quality check is setting the layout. This helps

construction works visualize the construction site and allows for fewer

mistakes when working. Less mistakes means less falling behind in the

schedule, which means less cost and more profit. Engineers must be in

constant communication with the construction workers. If something is

wrong, it must be corrected as quickly as possible to avoid any setbacks (ａ噌)

in the future.

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Although for only an hour or so at each job site, I got to revisit some of

the job sites I stayed at when I came to Taiwan last summer. I saw the

finished product of the massive church in Pingtung, the railroad bridge in

Dahu, and the residential complexes in Tainan. The Pingtung church is

already in it’s final stages of detailed work, which is also where the slowest

progress is made because of all the detail that must be taken into account.

The railroad bridge in Dahu was a nice visit because I spent the most time

there so I still remember talking to a lot of the coworkers there. The bridge

has also made huge progress since the last time I was there. This project is

also in it’s more intricate(孺渙傳諾) stages, which takes a lot longer than the

columns took when I was there one year ago. The residential complexes are

also in the finer stages, as they are working on the external tiling (挽愧)

already. The interior design has not yet begun but they’ve already begun to

smooth out the concrete inside, prepping it for work.

Railroad Bridge Crew

Railroad Bridge Current Completion

Tainan Construction Site, Elevator

Shaft

Tainan Construction Site

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7

輩 寶

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Now that the internship is over, I can only hope that what I’ve picked

up from these past 8 weeks will not be forgotten. It’s definitely been quite

the experience. I’m finally on my final week of this internship, and I must

say I’m going to miss this place. Much thanks goes to Dr. George Kuo for

giving me this opportunity in the first place. Without him, I never would

have had this chance to learn so much. I also have to thank the engineers at

the Kaohsiung construction site for guiding me through this process. Much

thanks goes to Mr. Eric Wang and Ms. Sophia Lee for spending so much time

reading my reports that were written in English and helping me learn the

construction lingo in mandarin. Finally, I need to thank Mr. Ming-Hung

Hung and Mr. Chin Yen Kuo for also providing guidance when I was on the

jobsite, and in need of some answers to my many questions. True, what I’ve

seen is only the tip of the iceberg. I’ve only begun to nibble on a couple of key

topics in Civil Engineering, but a start is a start, and this was an excellent

one for me. I’m also aware that once I go back to America, things will be

completely different. Because the environment is different and the issues

they deal with there are different, the methods are not the same, and I’ll have

to get used to a whole new attack plan. What this internship has taught me

is more than just facts, it’s the “brass tacks” (黄劣充喉). I’ve watched and

tried to learn as much about the everyday going – on situations of a life as a

Civil Engineer, and that’s what’s going to stay with me the longest as I go on

to pursue my career as a Civil Engineer.

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D

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Week 1

Today was day one at the Kaohsiung

project and I’ve already learned quite a bit.

Most of the things I touched upon was

catching up on the things I’ve missed since

the beginning of the project. I had a brief

overview of the theories that went into the

building of the basement segment of the

project as well as had a peek at the

infrastructure that was in the process of being erected. I spent a lot of the

time today in the building setting things up with the crew that works here:

getting my computer connected to

Team View, a program that

supports remote control between

co-workers, connecting my

computer to the printer (which

still hasn’t worked yet), and

working on starting the

assignments given to me.

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A quick detail of the

assignments I have been given for the

rest of the internship:

• Report

• Daily Log

• Resume

• Presentation Slides

• Translate Blue Prints

I’ve also taken it upon myself to

gather a list of the definitions for the

key terms that they gave to me.

These key terms are important to

this project because they are the

main terms that are being thrown

around on the worksite. It’s still a

little difficult for me because I’m trying to translate back and forth between

Chinese and English. Even though I’m able to speak conversationally in

Mandarin, it’s still sometimes difficult to converse in technical terms when it

comes to working in Taiwan, but I hope that with time, the outlook will

improve.

So far, with about two hours

left, I’ve completed the Resume and

have included my spot here as an

intern into my updated resume and

will be sending it to Sophia Lee as

soon as possible. Some of the main

concepts I’ve been briefed about are the reasons going into why they use a

diaphragm wall here in Kaohsiung. I did learn that different regions use

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different techniques for building pressure-withstanding walls due to the

different types of soil that is inherent (怪モ疑) to each area. Kaohsiung and

Taipei may use these diaphragm walls on every high-rise, but cities like

Tainan use different means to build their base structure. It’s quite

interesting, actually, and I have a lot more to learn. I feel that because of the

slight language barrier, a lot of my starting knowledge will come from simple

questions I ask on the field and more advanced research I do online.

Hopefully, I can find a couple good articles for me to really learn the why’s

and the what’s that go into using these tactics. What I am curious about, is

how much of this is used in America. How much of these ideas overlap (紺瞰)

between the two countries, and how much they differ, a topic I will be sure to

dive into soon.

Something else I’m going to look

at tonight or tomorrow is how things

are divided up on the worksite. I

learned that there are four main hubs:

safety/environment, quality control,

schedule, and cost. Knowing this, I

want to research more to know just what exactly are their duties and

obligations on the job. There are so many things to take in and it’s hard to

write them all down, but I’m also keeping a document of notes of randomly

assorted facts and important notations (圦剌) for my own keepsake to refer to

when I am working on my main report.

Terms I saw and went over specifically with Mr. Kuo: diaphragm wall,

working platform (＾ЖｌＳ), deck (洽＾還), hydraulic jack, strutting, bracket

(嚮権), and excavation.

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I started today by gathering

information on one of the topics:

Strutting. For this high-rise project,

diaphragm walls are needed to wall in

areas of soft earth close to open water

or a high ground water table. This

technique is often used when laying foundations for high rises in certain

regions that need it, and also to surround tunnels and open cuts. The

structure is placed in the ground and that’s where strutting comes into play.

In order to support the diaphragm wall against the pressure of the ground

and water from the retained side (side with higher soil elevation). The struts

are necessary to avoid collapse or endangerment to the crew working in the

excavation site.

The strutting technique used in the Kaohsiung project included both

horizontal and vertical bracing. I learned that the vertical column goes down

first and they sometimes use concrete at

the bottom to help keep it stable while

it’s first going in, and then they proceed

to break it apart once the vertical

column is set. When all is done and the

project is being wrapped up (敏§牴翫

疑), they cut off part of the beam and

seal it to make it more difficult for the

water to come back up. It’s also a

workable plan to take out the beam and

save some money by not having to

replace the beam segment left in the

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ground, but it makes it easier for water to reflow to the surface, thus making

it a bigger issue in the future.

When the horizontal braces go up, they put the triangular (Ö援疑)

supports in first, then place the H-beam on top of it. They also have broken

bamboo sticks that get piled on top of rebar they stick into the wall to help

hold the concrete that gets filled in between the H-beam and the diaphragm

wall. The reason there is concrete between the H-beam and the diaphragm

wall is to make sure that the safety structure sits flush with the wall. This

way, in the case of an earthquake, the structure is more stabile and less

prone (敏楚) to damage and caving in.

Today, I went down

to the construction site

with Mr. Eric Wang and he

took me down to the bottom

floor to check out the

infrastructure. That’s

where I learned about the

raft foundation (杯バ杉毯)

and had a closer look at the infrastructure. They are still working on digging

the last floor so I was able to

witness the wet sand at the

bottom and have a close look at

the entire process. They are

currently gearing up for further

excavation later on in the week

and they’ve pre-dug a hole in the

bottom floor already for the excavator (頚線恟) to drive into and have an

easier time digging. Mr. Wang posed many questions for me to think about,

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all of which I will spend time to researching in the next few days. A couple of

the questions he asked included: “Why do you think there are alternating

large and small sections in the diaphragm wall? And why do you think the

female is always the small one?”

He told me about the financial benefits for doing so and also discussed

the fact that with diaphragm walls, leaking often occurs at the construction

joints, which would be a problem in housing units, but there are ways around

it, such as erecting (蟻つ) a wall with space between the diaphragm wall for

the water to flow into a drainage (閃∈

悦濯) pipe.

Also, before I forget. I also learned

about safety control and the importance

of being a civil engineer who is on top of

things. Everyday safety codes may often

be skirted and slightly avoided by the

workers sometimes, and although it may

be enough to keep everyone safe in ideal

conditions, it still is not a safe working

environment.

A safe working environment will keep workers safe even in the case of

an emergency such as an earthquake. If there are any violations, they need

to be addressed immediately to ensure a certain level of safety and quality.

This is important in ensuring quality in a company and a project as well.

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I’m going to spend today

primarily fleshing out my

research on diaphragm walls.

I’m going to explain the

reasoning behind it and the

methodology that I researched

through the Internet and

through listening to the

explanations given to me here at work. I found an interesting article where

I’m pulling most of my information. The article is a pdf on Diaphragm walls

by Nicholson Construction Company in Pennsylvania, USA. Diaphragm

walls are important for a list of many reasons:

• Provide fairly watertight walls

• Be formed to depths of several

hundred feet, and can go through

almost any type of soil and even

through rock, still giving the

construction management great

control over its geometry (伝υ弯)

• Run excavations below groundwater

while eliminating dewatering

• Accommodate connections to

structures

• Can be adapted to anchors and internal structural bracing systems

• Help make excavation process smoother by allowing for work to be

done before process begins

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• Provide a backing for good

structures as well

The diaphragm wall is made to

withstand a lot of pressure, and is built

in sections. The first step that is taken

when creating a diaphragm wall is the

segment excavation, where they dig out

space for each segment one at a time.

They then lower the steel cages and then

proceed to fill in with concrete using a

tremie pipe (授棲偐).

I also got to go down to the site today by myself to have a look at what I

need. Unfortunately, since the diaphragm wall is already built, I could only

obtain pictures of the after, but at least I have access to the photos that were

taken before and during the process so I was able to glance at those files.

The information I got from my research today seems very basic, but it took

a lot of reading to even get this much, because the hardest part for me was

figuring out the process of things. For the next few days, I want to dive

deeper into the diaphragm wall and figure out the specifics, the reasons why,

and the many different related topics there are left to explore. Also, I

updated images for the daily log for not only today, but the past two days.

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!""#$%$

Today, I went down to the job

site again to take a look at the

hydraulic jack setup and the

measurements that go along

with reinstating a new level of

horizontal bracing. The

reason for the hydraulic jack

is to pre-apply the counter pressure that will be needed once the level has

been excavated. Today, they are working on the fourth level and the pressure

down there is to be 140 Tons. As expected, there is a need for increased

pressure as we go further down due to water’s tendency to increase pressure

as we go further down. The sensors are linked to the top so that they can

take all their measurements from

one spot instead of having to

move one floor at a time, which

would be very inefficient. The

measurements are used to

determine whether or not the

stress is too great still and

whether or not they need to

increase the pressure given by the hydraulic jack.

In the afternoon I met up with Dr. Kuo and discussed a couple more

topics that we saw on the job site, which included: permanent structures &

rebar support in strutting, female and male segments of a diaphragm wall,

hydraulic jacks, car washes, safety railings, H-beams safety checks, the

erection process, different forms of beams, and soil composition. These are

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the topics I intend to look into for the next few days, leaving a detailed

notation in my daily log.

To tackle a couple, I

will start out with the car

wash. The importance of this

is to keep the worksite

separate from the outside

world, to keep the dirty mess

within the confines of the job

site. This leads to less

problems and less complaints from the surrounding communities so that the

workers and the company can focus solely on the job at hand. For bigger job

sites, they use a full car wash where the car can drive through a pool that

washes off the tires and they can hose down the car. Because of the current

job site’s smaller size, they had to compensate by creating a grated hole in the

ground where the cars and machines can park and they can spray down the

car.

Another important matter is safety checks and quality control.

Besides designs that help ensure the safety of the client, engineers need to

work about the safety of the workplace as well. That includes checking the

screws on the H-beams and all temporary infrastructures, installing safety

railings in all edges that are above a 2-meter drop, and checking to make

sure all safety harnesses are worn when necessary. There are many

regulations that need to be followed when on a job site and all onsite

personnel need to keep a sharp eye out for broken rules in order to keep the

environment safe for everyone. What was also pointed out to me today was

broken railings, which need to be fixed as soon as possible because they not

only do not protect the workers sufficiently, they also can be a possible

endangerment because they jut out in random directions.

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The next topic of

concern is the

diaphragm wall and its

female and male

counterparts. When

dug out, the diaphragm

wall is dug out in

sections by dropping a

claw from a high distance and using gravity to get the claw in. The female

segments are dug out first because they border the male segment and make it

easier to fill in the male segment. Because the female segments are not

supported by anything, they use a tarp to keep the concrete from secreting

outwards into the surrounding soil too much. The width is also limited to 2.5

meters to keep the pressure from being too high and bursting outwards.

After the female mold is ready and dried, the male mold is excavated and

then filled with concrete until the connection is flush with the female mold.

This provides the wall with a strong connection to withstand the external

force.

To take a look at the excavation process that we are using for this

project, it starts off with a diaphragm wall to withstand the pressure of the

water and soil pushing inwards against the wall, and thus forcing all the

pressure to come from the bottom, which will be combated by the weight of

the structure. From what they have told me, the weight of the building will

not be entirely sufficient until they reach the first or second floor, so they

need to continuously drain the area of water until they reach that point. The

next part is the creation of the temporary support system and actual

excavation of soil. This is the combination of beams, girders, and columns

that go together to keep the structure from collapsing. This structure will be

built as they dig downwards and will be pre-tensioned in order to withstand

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the external force once the soil is excavated. Once all the levels have been

excavated of soil, the PC is laid out. It is a thin layer at about 10 centimeters

and it simply there to keep things clean and organized. Once that is finished,

the foundation is laid in, which is a thick mix up to about 90 centimeters.

From then on, the construction can begin upwards, because concrete

structures require you start from the very bottom and move up.

I plan on finishing up the topics I looked at today in tomorrow’s daily

log. At the end of the day, I did go back to the job site one last time to see

how things were going. Most of the work was the same as the morning

because they were trying to finish the horizontal bracing so they can begin

excavation tomorrow. I did get to watch them use the inclinometer though, a

device that measures how much the diaphragm wall is coming in. If the

indent is too severe, extra actions need to be taken to either increase the

counter-pressure or reinforce the wall.

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Today, they began the

excavation. I got to see first hand

the process and also go to learn a

little more about what makes a

construction management company.

I asked Mr. Hong about the

different aspects of a company and

what comes into play in a company.

For example, I found out that in a

management company, other than

the employees, all equipment and

personnel on the field are rented

from another company. In my

opinion, this keeps the business local and it’s a clean way of dealing with

things. There is no hassle of having to transport equipment and machinery,

no worry about severe damage to your own equipment, and no need to handle

so many workers either. It makes the process more about managing the

resources you decide to hire. Hearing all this got me thinking, and I think in

the next day or so, I’m going to research company management so I can tell

what exactly is everyone’s job in a company such as this. I believe that it will

help me understand more about where everyone is coming from.

With soil excavation, I got to witness them working the lift today that

brings up all the soil. The man operating the machinery has a camera that

shows him what’s below so that he doesn’t have to worry when he lowers the

soil container. Once at the bottom, there were two workers operating

excavation machinery piling the soil into the lift. I found out that this whole

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process takes about 9 days and is a rather slow and tedious, but necessary

process. It may seem like

a dull process but I find it

quite interesting, and I

recognize its importance.

So far in my internship,

I’ve witnessed the process

of an excavation, and I’ve

seen a lot of the

precautions (裡横繊月 )

that they take before the actual digging. They think about all the different

aspects such as increased pressure after the removal of the soil and it is only

after all the necessary actions have been taken can they begin to excavate.

The next topic I looked into was measuring elevation differences. We

recently got a new elevation laser that tells you if something is on the same

elevation using a laser and a

receiver. Because of this, I got

curious in how elevation grading

is done on construction sites.

Using the new equipment that

they were holding today, I looked

up some articles on using lasers

to determine elevations. It’s quite similar to using a tripod and a viewer, in

that you need a reference, and you need a point of interest. Using the

reference with a known elevation, you simply take the differences. All the

calculations are relative and quite simple so it’s the act of setting up the

measurements that need to be precise to produce values of any meaning.

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A question from

yesterday that I wanted to hit

today was the vertical and

horizontal rebar placements

and why they were where

they were. The rebar

placement is meant to keep

the columns and beams that will serve to be the future permanent support

system up and strong. Because of that, the placements need to be exact, but

at the same time, construction can changed based on circumstances and a

good design always accounts for minor changes. Because of that, there are 9

slots for rebar instead of 7, to allow leeway in case the location of the column

is the change. The two rows are also put closer together to account for

vertical movement of the horizontal infrastructure.

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Today was day 2 of the digging process. Apparently, the cost for each

cubic meter of soil (or sand in our case) is 120 Taiwan dollars. Because of

this, it’s quite viable to hire people to remove the soil for you. This is simply

another connection I made from today to yesterday’s discussion about

company management.

I also got to watch them plan the

layout today on the site. They used a

handy piece of equipment in order to line

up and measure the distances between

certain points. The way it works is that it

sends out a signal and there is a person

on the other side who moves around and

bounces the signal back. They had a pre-

traced line drawn parallel (ｌη疑) to the

excavation site that they lined the

equipment with. The person carrying the

receiver walked along this line to certain

pre-determined points drawn up from AutoCAD. They were basically

verifying the distances between these points to prepare for post-digging work

where they start tying the rebar. One importance note to remember is to

keep the receiver perfectly upright (there is a bubble to help you determine

whether or not you are level) because the equipment will still give you

readings if it is crooked but it will not be accurate readings. After they go

down the main line, they proceeded to go to each point and get readings at a

90-degree angle to the first line, to get the line that goes to the other side and

verify that it is correct on both ends. This is all in preparation for the next

step in the long list of to-do’s for this project.

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Something I noticed these past few days is the low number of workers

on the site, so I had to ask. It’s

actually quite interesting, how the

planning goes that is. The fact that

sometimes you only hire a select few

and sometimes you get bulk man

power is all being factored into the

budget plan is quite amazing and I can already tell will take quite some time.

For the current step, the reason they only have about 4-5 workers on site is

because that’s all it takes. They are digging and that means two workers

operating the machinery at the bottom, one worker operating the lift at the

top, and one managing and keeping tabs on number of cubic meters

excavated. This, of course, does not include the 3-4 trucks going back and

forth with the soil/sand excavated. However, with the next step (tying rebar),

there will be 40-50 workers on site, a huge difference from the current

numbers. That is because tying rebar takes a lot of manpower and a lot of

people can be working at once. True, it may cost more per day, but a lot of

people working will lessen the time it takes to do the job altogether, which is

also important because we must remember that there are many other factors

involved, and each day costs money. Every extra day means an extra day of

sucking out water, another day to rent the temporary bracing, and another

day the company needs to pay for all the materials and machinery that are

rented. This is why, for most cases, cutting out work time is always better

financially.

I also learned something new about the stairways today. I was

wondering why they weren’t installed completely before when I first came

and why we had to use this ladder to get to the bottom and I learned that it

was because the bottom floor was not completely built yet so they were still

lowering the H-beams, which makes building stairs very improbable and

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even dangerous. It’s interesting because

it was something I would not have

thought of without the experience of

going through it. That also means that

every stage in the step has its own set of

safety precautions that need to be taken

and each precaution needs to be tailored

(ォ蛙) to each step and what’s being done.

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Today was a

continuation of the

excavation process, so

much of the day was the

same as before. They did

begin to open up the

diaphragm wall and

exposing the rebar, so that

was something new. They need to remove the concrete that is covering the

rebar so that they can tie it once all the excavation is finished. The wood that

is there is so that they do not need to chisel off any more concrete than they

have to to keep the wall as strong as possible. They also need to peel off the

tarp that is surrounding the female sections of the diaphragm wall.

However, because the tarp leaves some residue on the diaphragm wall, they

need to burn it in order to remove all of the tarp. Although the tarp does not

technically affect anything, it would be unclean and the job wouldn’t be truly

finished until the tarp is all off. In my opinion, this is an important aspect in

any work setting. Finishing a job right helps the workers and employees to

get that kind of mindset for every single job.

Not extremely important,

but something Mr. Wang pointed

out to me yesterday was the

clams ( 蛤 耶 ) /mussel( 修 祥 )

remnants (挧夕) that you can see

on the diaphragm wall, so I went

down for a look today! The reason I find this very interesting is because of

how it got there. Although it does not have to do with the actual

construction, it gets you thinking about the location at which you are building

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on. As explained to me, Taiwan is like any other island. It started off small,

and has amassed a larger amount of sediment (窺恤軌) and soil over the

years, and as a result, has grown larger. Because of this, the ground that we

currently stand on in Kaohsiung was originally part of the ocean. The reason

I believe this is important is because it emphasizes the importance of

knowing what is beneath you. This is why they must take soil samples down

to a certain depth because it can affect the design the company decides on.

The level they are currently digging through is mainly sand, whereas in the

upper layers it was soil. Knowing this can affect how much pressure you

need to add to the diaphragm walls and also how much suction (сó) you

need to keep the water from flowing upwards. I spent most of my day looking

through different articles today, trying to find something on soil composition

that was relevant.

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Went down to the bottom floor today. Couldn’t find the ladder last

time! But this time I went with Mr. Wang and he explained to me a lot more

about the different

things going on at the

bottom of the

excavation. I learned

that different parts of

the layout have

different elevations

they dig down to

because of how high the

building is above that area. For example, if the certain segment of the

building only goes to the third floor, there’s simply no need to excavate as

deep as the area that goes up to the

26th floor. It’s just a matter of

figuring out what’s necessary and

what’s not when planning. He also

described again the process of

planning first before taking action.

I believe this is really important

because without good planning, it’s very difficult to finish a project well

because a well-executed plan of action still produces poor results if the plan is

sub par. I bring this up because I saw the slight gap in the third floor H-

beam and the diaphragm wall. This can produce problems if there is an

earthquake and extra pressure comes from the outside and the H-beam

support is not completely flush with the wall because this does not transfer

the force into the temporary support beams. This, however, was inescapable

(ーＤ槃С疑) for this project because of a slight modification made in the

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middle that caused the H-beam support to land right where the rebar came

out of the wall, thus making it impossible for them to hold the H-beam flush

to the diaphragm wall. I also went up an extra level and finally found the

seashells/clams/mussels I was talking about the last post! They were stuck

right into the diaphragm wall!

I also got a little more insight into soil composition profiling today. For

this project, they dug straight down to 35 meters in 6 different chosen and

marked locations to see what the soil

composition was. For the first 10 or

so meters they got dirty, which held

up to force very poorly. The majority

of the profile was a mixture between

sand and soil, increasing in

percentage of soil as we go further

down and becoming all soil around the 33-meter mark. This is interesting

and necessary information because they need to know what the soil profile is

as they dig downwards to know how much water they need to be sucking out

to keep the water level at 1 meter below the surface. The proper flow out of

the pipes should be rather slow for them to know that they have the flow rate

correct. Having the suction too high or having too many suction tubes will

only waste energy and cause the cost to rise over time. Having it too low

means the water level gets too close to the surface and the ground floor

becomes difficult to work on.

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!""#$&$

Today I got to work

with a differential level.

Basically, how it works is you

look through the viewer and

match it up to a certain

marked point on a measuring

stick at the point of interest.

Of course, to make any sense

of the number that you obtain, you need a reference, which is a point that you

set where you know the elevation or depth. For example, in our case, we

knew a point that was at -12

meters. We first set the

differential level so that it was

stabile in the soil, and then

proceeded to see how far off it was

from the -12 meter mark through

the viewfinder. There is a knob

where you can adjust the focus of

the view so that you can see clearly

where the mark is where you’re

supposed to stop. The mark was

approximately 0.123 meters above

the -12 meter mark and the depth

we wanted was -13 meters, so we

knew that from wherever point we

chose, it needed to be 1.123 meters above that point when we look through

the viewfinder. Today was nice because it was the first time I got to do

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anything hands on and actually call the shots. It’s a rather simple task, but

it needs to be done right or else all the steps afterwards will be inaccurate.

Because it

rained last night, I

thought I would take

today to research a

little into work site

procedures taken

before and after a

rainy day or week, especially in a site where we are digging

downwards. Water flow can be

very tricky to deal with especially

when you’re working with a

contained site. For our case,

there are no precautions to take,

except to make sure anything

valuable isn’t left in the worksite

at the end of the day. They even

leave the fans they use at the

bottom because in the case of a

real flood, it doesn’t really matter

too much. Since we have

drainage constantly sucking out water, we can only wait for everything

to dry out a little bit before continuing the work. Depending on the

stage of the project, we need to react differently. For example, because

we are only digging/excavating right now, it doesn’t really matter that

+372-.)/-!/)H,/.!

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it’s wet. In fact, because they are in the stages of pressing down and

leveling out the soil, it’s actually better that the sand is a little damp

(埖暹) because the ground is easier to compact (攣棲). However, in the

case where they are putting in concrete, if it begins to rain, they may

need to stop because it can affect the strength of the concrete if the

water mixes with it. Knowing this, reactions to rain are all case-to-

case.

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Today I went out with Mr.

Wang to check out the job site and

see how things were coming

along. He showed me a couple

things and let me rework the

differential level by myself to

make sure I understood the

concepts. It’s interesting to notice how fast everything is coming together

within the past few days. You can already see the smoothing out of the

compacted sand and they’re

lifting their last two or three

mounds(趨) of sand. They’ve also

already begun to lay rebar in the

ground for extra support on the

side with the 26 floors. They cut

down the rebar that is too long using an oxygen tank dispenser and a lighter.

Now that the excavation is finally coming to end, more workers are starting

to enter the job site and more jobs are opening up. People are still drilling

out the rebar in the diaphragm wall, people are continuing the final stages of

the excavation process, people are flattening out the ground with tools, and

people are also using the solder iron and the blowtorch. They’re beginning to

prepare for cutting the H-beams at the bottom and filling the place with PC.

Two of the construction workers were soldering on the plates that would hold

back the water so the electrical wires don’t get shot out once they install

everything. They are also preparing to set the ground in for the building and

preparing to tie the rebar at the end of this week and possibly beginning of

the next. It’s quite exciting because soon there will be around forty to fifty

++72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

construction workers around, each doing something unique and all

contributing in a necessary way.

The next stage in this project is where the upward climb begins. Now

that excavation is almost

done, once the PC and the

foundation are set, they

need to start building

upwards. Because of the

water pressure, they will

not be able to stop

sucking out water until

after they’ve built the

first or second floor. This way, the structure will be strong enough to push

down the water pressure trying to push upwards.

!

+L72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Because of the scheduling,

the tying of the rebar didn’t

happen today, so I wasn’t able to

see that much at work today. I

went down to the jobsite (it was

raining also), and just checked out

the finished excavation site. The

ground floor was relatively flat and well pressed, although Mr. Wang said

that the construction workers are going to work on it a little more the next

day or so. I also got to watch them work with the laser level, which is a

differential level that you can

handle and take calculations by

yourself. It costs about six times

as much as a normal differential

level but it saves a lot of time.

The way it works is it sends out a

laser point in all directions and

whoever has the receiving end has a receiver that beeps when the sensor is in

line with the laser. I also got to see the finished work of the soldered plates

that is supposed to keep water suppressed and noticed that the rain was

trickling down a couple of them. Turns out they needed extra work done on

them because they were not done well! Mr. Wang told me that they usually

check it with an x-ray light that tells them where there are holes or

weaknesses in the barrier.

Because not as much went on in the job site today, I decided to look

into the next step a little bit before I got to see it for myself. I did a little

research on tying rebar and found a couple steps and descriptions for what I

might be seeing in the next few days. The company recently sent the rebar

+G72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

they purchased to another company that does the work on the rebar, sending

back the different forms of rebar we needed. They sent us stirrups (cage

formation rebar that is meant to create a

framework to keep the larger bars in

position), dowels (L shapes ), corner bars,

offset bends (varies in shape and design),

hair pins (U shapes), and candycanes

(straight lengths with U shape at the end).

These, of course, are just possibilities,

seeing as how I have not yet seen the ones

they ordered.

!

+:72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

( )

Today was the beginning of a new segment

of the project. The excavation finally having been

finished (except for minor detailing and extra

flattening that needs to be done on the bottom

floor), the construction workers are now working

on installing the ground and preparing to set up

the wiring. This needs to be done before the PC

is put down because the ground and electrical

work needs to be set up underneath. The ground

is what keeps the residents of the building safe in

case of a thunderstorm. It runs the thunder or

electricity into the ground instead of the people inside the building, which is

why this is so critical. They’re also working on flattening out the diaphragm

wall as well today. They first apply a layer of substance that increases the

bond strength between the wall and the concrete, and then they apply the

concrete. This is so that the water will not rise through the cracks or

distance between the diaphragm wall and the actual wall. They’ve also

begun to attack rebar to the H-beams to prepare to sever it near the base.

They will sever it and put in the foundation once the

PC is all in place and

ready.

I also got an update

today from Mr. Wang about

why the plates were

leaking yesterday when it

rained. The plates were

supposed to supress the

water, so the fact that they

+I72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

were leaking was a problem. He explained that the reason was because

before the construction workers soldered the plates onto the H-beam, they

failed to scrape off the debris from the beam, and so when they soldered on

the plates, the connection was poor. Some of the debris easily broke off or

had tiny air pockets in them that allowed the water to trickle down slowly.

With the naked eye, it seems like everything is fine and the work was done

well, but the plates do not function as they are supposed to. Knowing this,

it’s important to always remember to double check your work, either by

yourself or with a co-worker. This ensures better quality in whatever project

you are working on.

L;72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

The weekend was an awesome break for me. It was relaxing simply

because I could comfortable converse in English once again. A couple of

friends and I took a trip around Kaohsiung and then to Kenting for the

weekend to just hang out. We went to the night market in Kaohsiung, took a

ferry and a bike ride around Qi Jing to eat seafood and enjoy some outdoors

time, and went to Kenting to do some awesome banana boat-ing!

Unfortunately, it was raining and there were high winds in Kenting meaning

the boats could not go out due to the large waves and the strong pull current.

Overall, the weekend was a great getaway and helped me relax a little with

some friends from back home. It was a nice refresher because it gets tiring to

constantly be in Taiwan mode all the time.

At the end of the day, I

had a couple cuts and sunburns,

but it was all worth it. The

original plans were to go banana

boating, maybe take up

parasailing for an afternoon, and

going to the night market at night. But everything needed to be changed

because none of that was possible with a rainstorm at hand. Luckily, my

group of friends is close and it didn’t matter that we stayed inside and just

had fun for the rest of the night.

L&72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Week 4

Today, they were working on the layout. It’s

amazing how fast they got the PC down! However, I

still got to see quite a lot of things that were new

though. The first, of course, was the new layer of PC

that was put in last Friday. When Mr. Wang told

me about the PC and how it isn’t completely

necessary to get it perfectly flat, I thought that

concrete would settle somewhat on its own and that it would still be

relatively flat. However, when I stepped on the ground floor today I was

surprised to see that it’s still a relatively rough surface, which makes sense

because it’s only there to make it easier to set up the layout before tying the

rebar and laying in the foundation. I also got to see the rebar being laid out

on the floor. They had a batch of rebar that was already worked on and in

the right figurations needed for the structure, and they were lowering it by

crane. The construction workers on the bottom then separated them, placing

them upon the pre-marked locations on the PC floor. They also used small

cinderblocks to elevate the rebar to

ensure maximum strength in the

concrete. If the rebar are flush to

the ground, it doesn’t bond as well

as if the concrete as full access to

the entire surface area.

Since nothing can be seen in the final product, the construction

workers mark the diaphragm wall and floor using spray paint to help

themselves keep everything clear

when they are working on tying the

L$72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

rebar. It’s important to keep things somewhat accurate and so the engineers

need to walk around with the building code and match what’s drawn on

paper to what’s laid out on the concrete. In this step, it’s crucial to double-

check your work constantly, because the support system of any building is the

most important aspect. Safety is always number one whether it concerns the

construction workers or the clients that will be using the space after it’s

completion.

The other things I saw today included pulling on the rebar that were

stuck into the wall. This is necessary because the next phase of the job is to

start tying the rebar to the diaphragm wall in preparation to put the

foundation in. They also started attaching the black water sealer to the

diaphragm wall. This water sealer is the reason they must flatten the

diaphragm wall as much as possible. If it were not flat, then the seal would

not be flush and it wouldn’t work properly, no matter how much it expands to

the touch of water.

L372-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today, I got to practice

measuring and verifying the lengths

and types of rebar used. The

concepts used in the foundation

rebar structure are different

from those of the floors above

because the ground pushes

upward against the foundation,

causing the stress to be in the

opposite directions. With each

floor, there are two layers of

rebar, each floor used to counteract the different forces that are hitting that

point. For the foundation, because the force pushes up on the slab, the

tension is at the middle for the top layer and on the sides for the bottom

layer. Since reinforced concrete is designed to have more rebar to take the

tension off the concrete, there is more rebar in the middle for the top layer

and the sides for the bottom layer when it comes to the foundation. For each

floor up, it’s the exact opposite. Because gravity pulls down on the slabs,

there is more rebar in the middle of the bottom layer and the sides of the top

layer. However, today when I went down I noticed that they had not lessened

the amount of rebar in the respective areas but instead just had straight bars

going through all directions. The reason this is bad is not because of a

question of strength when the concrete goes in, but it is a waste of money and

resources to use so much rebar since rebar is expensive.

LE72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

It was nice that I was able to practice with the measurements today

because it is a skill I’m going to have to use in the future. I have most of it

down, but there are a few things I want to try again tomorrow. I had to come

back halfway because it was pouring and I had my camera on me so I needed

to bring it back to the office. It’s very interesting to see the things I’m

learning go into play in the real work world. For example, I learned about

beam stress and stress distribution during my second year in college and

seeing it in action today really helped me solidify my understanding of those

concepts. I’m hoping to retain

as much information as possible

now to help me in my future

studies as well because it can

come in handy in helping me

visualize the problems I will see

in the classes I take.

There are also different types of foundation that are used for different

ranging levels of force. For an ordinary, smaller sized house/building, single

column foundations are usually enough. If it gets a little higher, maybe up to

8-10 stories, designers need to consider using a continuous foundation, which

is a line of columns together. This provides more stability and the ability to

withstand more force. For our case, a 26 floor high rise, we need a full

foundation slab in order to withstand the force of the buildings gravitational

(紺ó疑 ) force to help keep it from crushing itself in its own weight.

Sometimes, depending on the soil content, they need a driven pile or a bored

pile which is dug straight into hard rock/stone in order to make the

foundation that much stronger.

L+72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today I got to really

have a chance to work with

something practical. Instead

of just walking around

watching people work, I got to

do some measuring myself. I

learned how to read the charts

on the blueprints and tell what

they mean. Yesterday, my practice got cut short because of the rain and the

business but today I really got

to walk around and practice

measuring and verifying the

work done by the construction

workers. I also had a short

conversation with one of the

construction workers who

worked for the company. He’s the one that’s always at the job site no matter

what job they’re doing and he wears orange/blue. It was interesting talking

to him simply because he spoke of the importance of experience you get on

the job. He talked about how, coming here six years ago, he knew how to do

none of the stuff that he does today and now he’s capable of doing all the

projects.

LL72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

The second time around, I got to see them finishing up one row of the

rebar tying on the sides. Mr. Hong showed me how to check to see if it

matches up with the diagram but I’ll have to find a diagram for myself and

try it out tomorrow to see if I really got the

concepts or not. It’s not hard in my opinion; it

just takes practice to get used to knowing what to

look for and making it an efficient process. When I

do my rounds and checks, I noticed that it takes

me a couple seconds sometimes to think about

where to look on the diagram and also to organize

what I’m looking for.

LG72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today I

learned how

to verify

beam rebar

placements.

It was hard

to get around simply because they blocked off

each section into squares so in order to walk to

the other side of the construction site, I needed to

wedge myself between loose rebar that wasn’t

tied yet. I talked to a couple of the construction

workers there, not really about much other than what I was doing here this

summer and where I go to school. For beam rebar placement, the places I

had to check was mostly number of rebar, unlike slab rebar placements.

Only for the stirrups (テ敗) did I measure using a measuring ruler instead of

counting the number of rebar. The work that they do is tough though, and I

have a newfound respect for them. They’re not the youngest group of people,

but the labor that they go through is arduous and demanding on their body.

One of the pumps also broke down today! It was exciting, in my

opinion. I wanted to see just how fast it would start flooding, but because

there were working pumps nearby, the leak wasn’t too severe. There were

people there in the afternoon fixing it, however, and it seemed like they

removed some of the water that was

leaked out. I can only imagine the

disastrous effects of a power outage

and thus the loss of all the water

pumps.

L:72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today was a simple

continuation of what I saw

yesterday. I got to measure a

couple more wall beams and

validate (夛剪) my findings from

yesterday. Other than that,

today was pretty much the same as yesterday, which is fine. I’ve started to

realize that jobs on a construction site oftentimes take more than just one

day, especially for projects on a larger scale. Also,

safety is a huge measure when it comes to building

foundations because handling large pieces of rebar is

dangerous and also because the end result needs to be

accurate to a degree to ensure that the building lives

up to its building code and safety measures. Other

than that, I spent most of the day fixing up the daily

reports for the final intern report! It’s starting to look

better! And the pictures are also starting to go in.

LI72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Week 5

Apparently, over the weekend

one of the construction workers fell

over the side of an H-beam while

trying to help reposition a bundle of

rebar they were lowering into the

job site. Luckily, there was no

injury worse than a couple broken ribs, because it could have been a lot

worse. It kind of opens your eyes to

just how dangerous the job site can

be, and why all those safety

precautions are so necessary in

keeping the construction workers

safe. I tried walking along the

H-beams myself and I always get

slightly nervous because of

what’s lying underneath, but

these construction workers walk

along these beams without even

thinking about it and they need to maneuver (寫壬 ) themselves while

carrying equipment. There are so many ways to get injured it’s quite

surprising more things don’t happen. There are, however, many precautions

that can be taken to lessen this danger. For example, if a construction

worker is on an open platform with no railings above two meters off the

ground, they need to be harnessed in. Unfortunately, not many people do

this because it proves to be a huge hassle when you’re moving from beam to

beam and you need to move quickly, so a lot of short cuts are taken, and

sometimes short cuts lead to injuries, which range from mild to serious.

G;72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Another thing I got to see was the column rebar placements. I

personally think its much easier to check these compared to the beam and

the slabs because you only have to count and check the thickness of the rebar

to make sure they used the right ones.

The charts are super simple and the

concepts for placement is understandable

as well. It’s even easier for foundation

columns because you don’t have to worry

about the extra stress within the L/4

range, since it’s all submerged (樌腎) in the foundation.

G&72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today is the last day of tying

rebar as they prepare to put the

foundation floor in. It’s near

impossible to walk through the bottom

floor now because the rebar is blocking

the way now that they’ve erected the horizontal rebar. Because of this, in

order to get around, we need to walk around on the H-beams in order to make

it around and have a good look at things. Mr. Wang told me that the most

important thing to think about when

walking on these suspended H-

beams is to constantly watch our

step. Even if you hit your head or

walk into something, you have a

hard hat whereas if you misstep and

trip over something on an H-beam, there’s a good chance you will fall over the

side and then you’re at the mercy of whatever dangerous equipment is lying

below you. For us, it was a 3 meter

fall, but sometimes it can be much

more serious than that. That’s why

they have strings around the side that

you’re supposed to harness yourself to.

However, most construction workers

don’t use those harnesses because it impedes your movement and the

movement of the people are you and slows down the flow of work. Because of

that, many construction workers choose to choose to risk a little bit for the

sake of getting work done.

I also had a meeting about my report plans today. I gave a brief

overview of what I’ve been doing and I think I’m on the right track to

G$72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

finishing up the report on time and

well! I’m starting to understand the

concepts better and am grasping just

how to explain it all in Chinese,

which was personally the biggest

obstacle (厮瀋) for me.

G372-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

We were completely rained

out yesterday and I was sick on

Wednesday, so today’s my first

day back since Tuesday.

Fortunately, the rain wasn’t too

bad so the job site wasn’t

completely flooded. If the entire

place was flooded, they would have had to drain out the water before they can

begin working on putting down the layout because they need to leave

markings on the floor so that they know

where to put what. Climbing along the top, I

basically got to watch them prepare to put

down the boards tomorrow so they can begin

putting in the concrete for the beams starting

next Monday. A lot of today was spent lowering the wood so that they can

begin spreading out the stacks so that the process is much faster when they

begin to set up the wood slats.

They also set up the tubing today. There are several sizes and each are

used for a different purpose. The orange one is for piping water and the

larger grayish tube is for connecting the water tanks together. The thin

grayish tube is for covering the wiring

and protecting it from water. They

were lowering those at the end of the

day too, preparing for tomorrow’s

work.

GE72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Week 6

Today they were continuing to

put up the boards in

preparation for filling in with

concrete. Mr. Wang explained

to me the different pipes and

the reasons for their

placement. He showed me the

different water reservoirs such

as the one to hold rainwater to recycle and use for watering plants, which is

the one directly underneath the

lobby connected to two other

smaller tanks. The second

reservoir is the one for the fire

hydrant to keep a reserve to use

in case of a fire in the building.

This is a good safety measure especially for a 26 floor high rise because there

are a lot of people living in the building. The reason the tanks are not mixed

with the others is because they want to prevent dirty water from getting

mixed into the reservoir used for watering plants. It’s okay with rainwater

because that’s natural and not as harmful as would be the water that flow

into the other tanks. Those tanks are all connected and depending on where

they are, flow to a respective water pump that maintains the water level at a

certain level. The reason they need to have pipes on the bottom and on the

top is because they need a connection for water and for air. If there is only

water and no change in pressure, the water will not flow. Because of this,

they have two pipes that lets air flow through the different segments and two

pipes on the bottom that lets the water flow through.

G+72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Another important thing that Mr. Wang mentioned to me today was

the distance between the wooden planks and the rebar. This is the same

concept as the protective layer in the diaphragm wall. If you put the layer

too thin then there’s a good chance that the rebar will be exposed at some

point in time, which leads to the risk of rust and failure in the rebar. When

doing this, there’s also leeway for

the wooden planks to be skewed (元

楚 ) no more than 2 centimeters.

That is because up to 2 centimeters,

patching and making it straight is

relatively still cost-effective and not

that big of a problem, but anything more can lead to issues with cost and

time.

GL72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Got to watch them put

in concrete for the beams

today! When they began it

was a semi nice day, kind of

cool, but definitely not

raining. Two hours in,

however, it had begun to rain

semi hard. The reason this could become a problem is because once you begin

putting the concrete in, you cannot stop until you finish. At the same time,

rainwater will mix with the

concrete and lower its

strength. However, Mr. Hung

explained to me that they

prepare for this by

overshooting the strength of

the concrete by quite a lot.

For example, if the threshold (京歙) is 420, then they prepare the concrete at

about 500 so that in this worst-case scenario (■悉), the strength is still at

least 450 or higher, meaning everything still checks out fine in the end. If

there’s one thing I’ve learned from this internship, it’s just how important

planning is in ensuring that

everything works out and on

schedule. Overlooking one thing

can push back the schedule by

days, if not weeks. You really

have to think of all the

possibilities and cover all the bases, and experience is the best way to learn

about all the things to look out for on the job site. Other than that, today was

GG72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

pretty much seeing the same thing throughout the day. They started to take

water out which will help with later since there was so much rainwater, it

would take too long to just wait for it all to dry out on its own.

GI72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Unfortunately, it

rained against last night, so

there were no construction

workers came again today.

The one new thing I did learn,

however, was why they were

pumping from 1 tank into

another. It actually makes a lot more sense after he told me the reason,

which is that they were sucking out the water from one big tank that the

others were getting sucked into. It’s so that they

don’t need to set up multiple pumps in every single

separate tank now that the concrete is in and each

section is separate and not linking. I pretty much

spent the rest of the day doing more research on concrete and

superplasticizers.

:;72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

And it rained again. Hopefully, by Monday, this raining streak will

have come to an end, because it has put the entire schedule to a halt. They

simply cannot move on until the

water has been sucked out of the

tanks. Because of that, it is a

never-ending process of sucking out

the rainwater from the night before

as long as it rains. Fortunately,

this has given me some time to

work on my report, and the outlining is coming together quite nicely. I

believe that the final report, other than these daily reports, will be about 5-10

pages and is going to be encompassing all that I have learned this internship.

It’s nice to see just how much I have learned in this process. With a list of

the topics, I can easily write about the subjects without referring to my notes,

which goes to show just how much I have retained in the time I’ve been here.

This experience will definitely be helpful in the future.

:&72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Week 7

It finally stopped raining, so today they began to take down the boards

that they put up for the beams. The concrete is completely dried and they’re

starting to take down the boards so that they can move to the other half of

the beams that still need to be filled with concrete. The one thing that needs

to be watched out for with this second half of beams is how tight the boards

are placed when set. The last half

was a little too loose on the

bottom and the concrete leaked

out, so they had to waste time

today with a jackhammer (○投筱)

breaking apart the concrete that

leaked out from the bottom. A little leak is okay because it’s just a small

problem, but when we’re behind schedule, a little leak is still a delay and

would preferably be avoided. I spent the rest of my day working on my

report. With all my daily logs finally organized with pictures, all that’s left is

to take out what I’ve already written and extract the meaning.

:$72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today, they began to put up the wooden slats on the other half of the

foundation floor.

They’re preparing for

putting the concrete in

the other half of beams

now. Since, most of it

was stuff I’d seen

already with the first

half, I took today as a

chance to work on my report! Knocked out the entire section of Diaphragm

Wall and started my section on strutting. Report is starting to come

together, currently at fifty pages!

To be honest, today was exactly the same as yesterday. On the field,

they were continuing to put up the boards in preparation for filling the rest of

the beams with concrete. I

stayed there for about 45

minutes or so, watching them set

up the boards. They also

recently set up new cable lines

for safety purposes so that people

have a guardrail (痼隠 ) when

walking along the sides of the H-beams. I spent the rest of the day writing

my report! Almost finished, and then it’s time for touch-ups and final

proofreads to make sure everything is up to par (圦鳳) !

:372-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Today is the second to last day! And I’m officially finished with my

rough draft for my report! I’m going to start putting in some pictures from the

database today into the report and then I’m going to proofread and finalize

tomorrow. We also went to lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant to

celebrate the end of my time here at this construction site. After tomorrow, I

change locations to the

headquarters for two weeks.

It’s been a good experience this

summer, and I’ve definitely

learned a lot I hope I can carry

into the workplace in the future.

Last day!! And my report is officially reread! Not much else happened

today. I gave them the pineapple cakes I got for them as thank you’s, went

out to the construction site for an hour or so, and spent the rest of the day

fixing up this report. I might add some stuff later but we’ll see. For now, I’m

going to turn this into a pdf and give it to Mr. Wang so he can have a copy

before I leave.

:E72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

I spent my final week at headquarters, preparing my presentation and

report for the final day on Monday Aug 27, 2012. I visited a couple old

construction sites nearby with Dr. George Kuo and my internship supervisor,

Mrs. Sophia Lee. Had a great time, but now it’s really time to crunch down

and finish this presentation! I believe I am presenting around 2 PM next

Monday.

:+72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

Appendix B

:L72-.)/-!/)H,/.!

!

1. "Biography - Hans Hollein." The Pritzker Architecture Prize. The Hyatt

Foundation, 2012. Web. 22 Aug. 2012.

<http://www.pritzkerprize.com/1985/bio>.

2. This site gave me a detailed description of what it is Hans Hollein

accomplished in his life and how he came to win the Pritzker prize.

3. Durham, Jeff. "Construction Site Safety." Workplace Safety Advice. N.p.,

24 July 2012. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.

<http://www.workplacesafetyadvice.co.uk/construction-site-safety.html>.

4. This site gave me some tips on how to maintain a level of safety in the

construction site even during the rainy season, which was definitely an

issue we had to deal with here in Taiwan during typhoon season.

5. "HANS HOLLEIN." Home - HANS HOLLEIN.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 22

Aug. 2012. <http://www.hollein.com/eng>.

6. This site had his portfolio and an about section that I used to get to know

the architect for this project better during my research.

7. Jamal, Haseeb. "Reinforced Cement Concrete Design." Reinforced

Concrete Design. SJ Soft Technologies, 2010. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.

<http://www.aboutcivil.org/reinforced-cement-concrete-design.html>.

8. This site was a good refresher course on reinforced concrete and helped

me double check that I had my concepts down well.

9. Nemati, Kamran M. "CM420: Tremie

Concrete." Courses.washington.edu. University of Washington, Feb.

2007. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.

<http://courses.washington.edu/cm420/Lecture8.pdf>.

10. Because I was not present for this portion of the project, I had to

research and look at old pictures, so this site was useful in helping me

truly understand what tremie concrete is and how it works.

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11. Ricegeneral. "Safety Tips During Wet and Rainy Weather." Hubpages.

N.p., 10 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.

<http://ricegeneral.hubpages.com/hub/safetytipsduringwetandrainyweat

her>.

This site gave me tips on how to deal with the dangers of rainy weather

on the construction site.

12. Richards, Thomas D. "Diaphragm Walls." Nicholsonconstruction.com.

Soletanche Bachy, 23 Mar. 2005. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.

<http://www.nicholsonconstruction.com/techresources/techPapers/PDF/Di

aphragm%20Wall%20Paper%20Hershey2005-rev.pdf>.

13. Because I was not present for the building of the diaphragm wall, this

site was crucial in my understanding of the entire ordeal. This site was

truly a savior.

14. "Team and Portfolio." Turnkey Project for Kaohsiung Exhibition and

Convention Center Proposal on Package Services. Kaohsiung: Formosa

Builders, 2010. 11. Print.

15. This site gave me my excerpt on the Evergreen Consulting Engineer,

Inc., the structural engineering company responsible for this project.

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-

George Kuo, PhD, P.E.

Jack Lee, P.E.

April, 1994

NT $336,000,000

–

Queensland Consulting Engineers was founded by Dr. George

Kuo, Dr. Te-Hsiung Lin, Dr. Huei-Huang Lee, Dr. Jaw-Kuei Fu, and

Dr. Richard Lai in Tainan, Taiwan. Dr. George Kuo was the

appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO). This group of distinguished

engineers soon added a group of professional engineers to their ranks,

and Formosa Builder, Inc. was thus founded.

They took over Hsing-Hsiung Construction in 1995 and also merged

with Dr. William Hu’s O’Hayo Construction in 1997. In 2001, Hong-

Sheng Construction also came under the ownership of Formosa

Builders. Today, Formosa Builders is a general contracting company as

well as a developer. It is a trustworthy company consisting of talented

and well-educated employees who work by a high moral standard.

–

C.3.1 –

Our team is one of extremely few members who acquired an

international certificate of all 4 (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS

18001, TOSHMS) in the Taiwanese construction industry.

• Quality Management Assurance Certificate

• Environmental Management Assurance Certificate

• Occupational, Safety & Health Management Assurance Certificate

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• Taiwan Occupational Safety & Health Management

We promise safe environmental practice and devote ourselves to offering

a new standard in engineering and construction.

C.3.2 –

All important members of our staff receive the highest education, and

are experienced in various specialized degrees and industry

certifications. Formosa Builders holds one of the highest ratios of

certifications per employee in the Taiwanese construction industry.

C.3.3 –

Interior Ministry of Taiwan chose ten Distinguished Contractors

among more than 10,000 construction companies from Taiwan every

year. Our team members were given this special honor in 1998.

O’hayo construction became the first company and the youngest in

history to be given this honor. We devote ourselves to maintaining a

reputation of excellence and reliability.

C.3.4 –

Most key members of our staff have experience in both design and

construction and are capable of making correct decisions on the field

instantly. We believe that maximizing value of service for each client

using our invaluable human resources to function and meet the

demands of today’s competition is a necessity.

C.3.5 –

We strive to finish the job in a range according to a planned schedule

and to provide the highest quality and the best price for our client.

This driving force and enthusiasm for success has been proven by our

success in each project in the past. Our excellent team members are

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capable of making key decisions in any circumstances because they

have both engineering and management knowledge. Under their

careful direction, our company progress strives to satisfy our clients in

any way possible.

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暴 ⊃

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Horizontal & Vertical Bracing Hydraulic Jack Parts

Triangular Brace

Lowering H-Beams

Diaphragm Wall Corner

Generator for Equipment & Tools

Using the Inclinometer

Connection between H-Beams

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Trucks loading up with dirt/soil Excavation Machine

Setting the Layout

Drilling out the Rebar

Bottom Floor

Excavation Process

Gradient Marker

Setting the Gradient

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Space for Water Pump Excavation

Plate to Block Water

Cleaned up bottom floor

Pure Concrete laid in

Rebar

To prevent water from running up the

side of the wall

Tying Rebar, Rained

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Me setting up the gradient

Me setting up the gradient

Verifying Rebar Placement Setting up beams rebar

Unhooking rebar from machine Rebar finally coming up

Hammering the water prevention up

Rebar setup

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Discussion Strutting System

Tying Rebar

Elevator Shaft

Sucking Water Out

Formwork

Concrete Work

Concrete truck

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Flooded Tanks Tubing used to suck out water

Tubing used to suck out water Flooded Tanks Again

Removing formwork

Removing formwork and drilling

excess concrete

Safety Precaution

Putting formwork up on other half

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Formwork

Formwork

Dahu Railroad Bridge Site Dahu Railroad Bridge Site

Dahu Railroad Bridge Site

Tainan Residential Complex Site

Tainan Residential Complex Site

Formosa Builders, Inc.

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