survey

survey works are important element in any projects.

be it before design stage, during designing, after contractor entering site, during construction and after completion.

we always have problems when we start work. its more complicated when we have many designer and contractors within one package. Luckily we have only one licened survey.

all survey works must accordance to malaysian jabatan ukur JUPM data.

starting project

we had enter second month on this project since 29th august 2016.

Starting projects always not an easy things. Furthermore when we are on joint venture which this is first time we are going to implement consolidate joint execution of project. Our first joint venture was being handover to one partner to execute.

First joint venture agreement which need to agree and give to client. Next was agreement how to separate the builders work. Which partner want to do this and that and equivalent to partner equity. This matter i found was very tiring exercise which finally took almost two months to resolve!!!

Next was finding contractor and consultant site office. It made worst when we had no area to construct site office and to settle with rental building along 2 kilometer of our site. And consultant show their 'lancy' not to accept our proposal.

After settle with location, now to arrange renovations, table, chairs and others equipments to made our site office a better place to work.

Practical training

Practical training is a must for engineering degree course.

During my study at UKM, our practical to be done during third year second semester.  Each students will be sent to engineering company selected by university.  During my time, two students for each company.  Most of companies are civil engineering consultant.

My friend, suntara and i was send to geotechnical consultant firm in Subang Jaya, GEA sdn bhd. 

We stay at ukm medical campus at kampung baru dan had to take bus every day to subang jaya.  We had to go out as early after suboh prayers to catch bus. Coming back from was more difficult as  Subang jaya at that time was very difficult and remote place not like today. If we miss bus, we had to wait for longer time. Later I bring back my motorcycle to commute from kl to subang.  Later I move to shah alam rent room with my office mate.

Last two months of training we was send to site office.  There was few engineers and supervisor which one of them I meet later when I start work at ipoh plus highway.
We learn so many things at site and one incident involving using mackintosh probe which I remember until today.
Mr resident engineer want us to carry out probe at filling area which we not aware that how hard was the compaction was. Normally mac probe was done at new or undisturbed area. After few hours hammering the probe, we cannot pull out the rod and had to call backhoe to help.

Actually what they done at Sime Uep was a controlled filling which newly implemented in the country.  This technique will allow immediate construction of house upon filling earth completed. Filling needed to filled at controlled thickness and testing will be carried out each layer.

Finally

After almost than six month prepare, submit and lobby two most prestigious elevated bridge, we finally secure one package at ampang site.
From five tender submitted, three been shortlisted which one was the lowest amount among tenderes and the other two being selected due to technical proposal.
Now enter another interesting phase where we are working how to run and manage project as joint venture at 70:30 share portion.
This is the first time I will involved from start to form jv at site and manage together.
Previously my involvement was either the majority control everything or under minority which been given less portion.

Next month will be very interesting and tricky situation. 
Even now I already feeling the heat.

excavation

This is another my favourite photo.

First excavation without proper shoring and safety marker.
Make the matter worst, the sand was sandy type. Difficult to handle, easier to collapse and danger to workers inside the pit.

secondly why excavation been done near road/
Actually this excavation been done to locate the actual damage of sewerage pipe after testing failed. During excavation, we found that sewer pipe is broken and need to be replaced.

Why broken?
Difficult to establish why it broken. maybe because its alignment was swing towards road area and affected by compaction during road construction.

erosion

One photo when you didint handle properly slope . It made worst when soil was sandy type.
Even turfing was not been able to prevent erosion.

Roof leaking

Roof leaking or damage can  happened when we just complete a buildings.

It might happened few days after its had been installed or after sometime or after it experiance heavy rain and wind.

For above case, damage happened after all services been installed.
The frame for ceiling was not good enough to hold anythings attached to it. It might be ceiling itself or lamps or any ducting fix to frame or any water pipe running just above it.
Poor M &E and C&S consultant and architect didint coordinate properly to check weight or anythings attached to ceiling.

Thre are cases ceiling board didint clip to frame and it will blown away after heavy rain with strong wind.

SOKET 'SENGET'

This photo show how poor our supervision team. Again it was workers that decide the outcome of product and this is what happened. What made me mad with my supervisor was he still accept this shoddy work and still think it was right to do so. The socket arrangement show that they not event border to use any tools to make the arrangement of socket nice and neat.

senget = tilt ( in malay language )

earth cutting

Cutting of earth or hills are one of important element in construction of highway or in above photo, railway track.
Earth or suitable material use to fill at excavated area which above ground water level and building of embankment.
Proper filling of earth or suitable materials called controlled filling which mean thickness of fill specified and compaction to be done using certain weight of machine such as roller with vibration. Density test to be carried out every thickness of filling. Normally filling height recomended are 300mm and roller must be with vibration.
Cutting of hills will involved cut of top soil, earth or rock.
As i involved in photo above, top soil are more than 100mm thick. when we carried out test for earth materials, it didnt pass to be suitable material for filling and we had to dump somewhere and it was costly for contractors as rate are normally very low.
For rock or hard materials, we had to arrange rock blaster to remove it for embankment. Process fro blasting more tedious since it involve dynamite which are controlled item which we need special permit to get it. Blater also must be a qualified with authorities.

And lastly dont forget to carry out surface drain silmutanously when cutting operation been carried out.

poor bridge

                             

Today i saw this old photo during my involvement in maintaining of roads and it was the first time i was on the newspaper.

The existing old bridge was partly damage during flood and been consider no longer safe to use by public. With the  initiative of state head of public works dept,  we bring state works exco to visit site which we are constructing new approach for Bailey bridge and   hope to get assistance for funding for permanent bridge in future. At that time we almost finish removal of unsuitable material and doing sand replacement.
Few weeks later the temporary Baily bridge was completed and been open to use until permanent bridge available.

To my surprised today five years later , there are no news regarding the permanent bridge and nobody have any idea when it will be constructed and that temporary still serving the traffic. Looks like it will be there for long time.

What a shame !!!!

differential settlement

Last weekend when sending my sons to Nilai and Bangi, i choose to use toll highway which entrance and exit at Teluk Panglima Garang / Banting.

The differential settlement at some spot of this highway getting very bad as our Jazz car hit the gound many times when i didnt slow down. It was bad riding surface at certain area compare to other toll highway in the country. Few years ago i saw major repair near bridge area but looks like it was a continous problems for them.
For me, its too late to repair until satisfactory. They can only minimize settlemet by overlaying or topping premix regulary.

Only contractor and consultant know what happened during design and construction.

Few question always come to my mind when i travel using this highway.
1. What kind of design for ground treatment been used in this marine clay area.
2. Did geotechnical designer have enough site experiance when they proposed the design?
    Of course they have licenced to design as permit by laws but results not encouraging so far
3. Did contractor follow recomendation made by geotechnical designer? or bulldozing all the way
4. Did contractor have good site engineer with geotechnical knowledge?
5. Did the settlement monitoring being done accurately?

Finaly did highway open in rush due to financial reason? based on my experiance, i dont think so.

Meanwhile, user had to swallow when using this highway and becarefull at few location.

dynamic compaction

Dynamic compaction

with Menard Geosystems bos, mr Michel

In this kerteh railway project i had opportunity to experiance this ground treatment. it was the only project i came across of this kind of treatment and understand how it had been done to improve soil conditions.

however i feel that this kind of treatment  not suitable to majority condition in malaysia except area which have sand especially near coastal area.

Anyhow i gained valuabe experiance from my specialist contractor head there, a frenchmen mr michel.

Below some write-up  on dynamic compaction taken from internet.

Dynamic compaction is a method that is used to increase the density of the soil when certain subsurface constraints make other methods inappropriate. It is a method that is used to increase the density of soil deposits. The process involves of dropping a heavy weight repeatedly on the ground at regularly spaced intervals. The weight and the height determine the amount of compaction that would occur. The weight that is used, depends on the degree of compaction desired and is between 8 tonne to 36 tonne. The height varies from 1m to 30m.

The impact of the free fall creates stress waves that help in the densification of the soil. These stress waves can penetrate up to 10m. In cohesionless soils, these waves create liquefaction that is followed by the compaction of the soil, and in cohesive soils, they create an increased amount of pore water pressure that is followed by the compaction of the soil. Pore water pressure is the pressure of water that is trapped within the particles of rocks and soils.

The degree of compaction depends on the weight of the hammer, the height from which the hammer is dropped, and the spacing of the locations at which the hammer is dropped. The initial weight dropping has the most impact, and penetrates up to a greater depth. The following drops, if spaced closer to one another, compact the shallower layers and the process is completed by compacting the soil at the surface.

Most soil types can be improved with dynamic compaction. Old fills and granular soils are most often treated. The soils that are below the water table have to be treated carefully to permit emission of the excess pore water pressure that is created when the weight is dropped onto the surface.

survey

Photo taken at Cameron Highland during survey camp.

It was compulsory for civil and structural to graduate from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia egineering course.
I miss the camp together with my batch due to personal reason and had to complete it with our juniors.

Later when i start working at highway PLUS project i realise how important was the survey for engineers like me. It not only about levels. Its about the entire highway network, bridges and culverts positions.
During study and early working time, the equipments for surveying are manual and we had to master many things before we get setting out and levels compare to nowdays which more advance.

landslide at roadway

few years ago photo that i just kept for self reminding on what will happened if we didint do construction properly.

this kind of landslide at roadway happened during rainy season for few reasons.

1. no or not enough size of culvert across the road
2. embankmenk of road was not properly compacted during construction of road.
    not properly means during earthfilling, the builders didint use latest technique of filling such as
    controlled filling layer by layer 300mm thich with checking of compaction every layer.
3. road was constructed in hurry. limited time to complete or rushing for certain event.
4. no slope protection. minimum had to be closed turfing.
5. no side drain at both side of premix to control run off water.
6. soft gound underneath didint been treated properly.
    embankment straight away build of existing ground after site clearing.

But doing first time right will save a lot of money, energy  and time later.

This is Not renovation works

First look at this photo like you see a renovation works but actual fact is was a new building.

why its become like this?

First it happened because client not consistance on what they want after they approved all the design and their needs.
Second when they come to meeting every month, they never really looks and monitor what had contractor done at site. They just come to meeting, round site and have free lunch.

What they comments actually can be accomodate if its had been highlight earlier eventhought it was contracdict to contract that had been bind earlier. And contractor can easly plan during construction to avoid any hacking works to newly completed building.

Sad story is mentality client always right been implemented here.

ground treatment with surcharge

Back to my last poject with my second company in Kerteh.

I arrive at this project at early stage when site clearing and part of railway track start doing ground treatment works.

Many ground treatment design for this project since the track running at many soft gound area.

This photo was taken near site which w are doing ground treatment works. There also an electrical pylon which yet to relocate. Excavator still removing top soil while front part we already lay geotextile and sand blanket.

This location is at section after Kerteh river  near road to kerteh airport.
The treatment was just to remove top soft layer and laying geotextile separator. After sandfilling completed, earthfill  was carried out until surcharge level and leave for six month for settlement monitoring.
Base on settlement reading, geotechnical engineer will decide weather to continue surcharge time or surcharge can be remove.

Talk about geotechnical, here i had to deal with expert from India Dr Karibasapa. Since there are so many discrepencies between design and site condition, we had  proposed for trial pit to recomfirm design or decide depth or changing of treatment type specified. it was very troublesome since the stretch are about 30 kilometre and some not accessibly by jeep or car. we had to depend on excavator track to be at actual site.
I learn a lot about geotech here but not many photos taken. At that time handphone with camera was not available compare like today.

why i am here

This photo was taken during my travel to terengganu few years ago. We stop at small town near oil industry area, Paka.

Amazingly this red pili for fire brigade was in the middle of acess and  parking area with yellow marking. That was very poor coordination of design, construction and compliance to authority.

How is it end-up like this? Its trully puzzle me as construction man and looks like now been accepted by everybody or people already tired to complaint.

Just for guessing, it might be after parking widening done, owner of the red pili didnt come to relocate. Relocation was not on original plan or contract.

Next question, how come designer left this in the middle of acess road without relocate it? Its impossible they didint notice before work start.

Looks like it will be like this forever.

Sadly that's happened in Malaysia and nobody bother.

where is your measurement tape?

This is also my favourite photo on what sometimes can happened at site especially when our engineer or supervisor dont use their brain to think.

We first seen this photo at meeting with our client  and it appear during their presentation. Eventhough they didnt mentioned from where and which concession  company but i can recognize from shirt that the guy wear.
My bos and i got mad with again our head of state Negeri Sembilan for his brainless staff. Poor Hj Razak got screw for nothing.

Listen from their explaination later was more sickfull.

According to them during visit from client at site to check defects of roads, they want to measure deppression of undulating section of pavement near the shoulder. Since nobody bring together measurement tape, one of client ask our supervisor to get small piece of tree branch to put like photo above. Nobody thought that it will be big issue later.
people who see this picture will interprate many things like why dont bring tape? why supervisor dont bring together measurement tape? how the measure any distance etc.
A lot of question mark on the supervisor or site engineer at site.

Worst part for me are why must  follow stupid instruction?

Illegal workers

This event finally happened after i had been more than twenty years  in construction industry.

i never been caught in any case involved foreign workers before but here because only one women from indonesia come to malaysia with visit visa to meet her husband and quietly working with one of my sub contractor.  my team also lack of monitoring at site and resulted that i almost sleep in jail.

this rushing by imegresen trigger when one of our vietnam workers go out and do part time repair house in town and have fight with local people and he' visa not fully completed.

i had bad time to explain to officer which take more that six hours.

Case was resolve later but i still got warning letter from department for let them work and protect at site.

road marking

i never expect a mistake from simple road marking work.
neither i came across of mistake like this during my twenty years of woking.

i dont know how to describe how poor my supervisor or engineer when i see this during one of my site visit. The only thing come to my mind are quickly take photo for evidence and immediately bombard our head of state of  maintainance team and get them to immediately repair before our client notice.

this is an example how poor or no proper supervision will lead to bad outcome of work. i am very sure that our supervisor here didint event bother to monitor the work. he just tell our workers to carry out the work without given correct instruction and the workers that had no brain just draw the line without thinking to match the line with the existing one.

i dont want to listen to my team explaination on this case i as i told they are lucky not to be sack by me.

Becoming freelancer

I left construction as contractor after 22 years.

Initially i plan to have full exit of construction but its not that easy. once a contractor, looks like forever will be contractor. My attemp to be site consultant also not succesfull as one of bos consultant say i was over qualified due to age and no professional engineer.

After few months taking care of my wife, i had oppurtunity to be as project advisor on freelance basis. Work on four days a week at  one of road and bridge project in sepang. Unfortunately that project was  heavily sick  and already almost end of the  extension of time no 1.

I had difficulty to rescue this one due to no financial and bad construction team at site. things started moves well on the first month after wa had review some programme and method of work but after second month things become difficult due to no payment to sub contractors and suppliers.

In short it was failure of planning and monitoring of both financial and construction.
 i will share later on why some projects delayed or failed.

Then the project gone from bad to worse. it had been terminated. attempt to meet higher officer also failed and later we had to sue the project owner and my service ended after court granted to hold any action from bank until legal settle.

after two months break, i had new oppurnity to work on tendering for new highway projects.

becoming chief

I reach peak of my carrier here.

i never expect this. No matter what people will say about my performance later, i still proud to be there for three years and completed few assigments.

Game was very different at top  and politics had been more that technical. every move and decision that we made, there will be different opinion and evaluation. tough part was i had to rescue again our major projects after few senior staff was fired. to juggle both was not easy. after things settle down, my right hand man was required at other group. eventhough consent given later by me but i still believe the was an agenda against me. but thats the life at top. fighting against tide also will made us tired. agreed everything also will stress us. the best thing is concentrate what we do and finish off as quickly as possible.

i am not ready to write all my experiance here but after complete the biggest job that we have, i decided to take leave and if possible left the group.
Later after almost fourteen years in the group i decided to leave for reason only i know .   i never share with anybody but my trust with the group had gone forever.

My new life as freelance begin after this exit.

ayer keroh melaka

after Bosnia which me give different experiance, i move to new area in ayer keroh, melaka.

This group is not new to me as its also within our circle before. but they not involve in construction projects. They core bussiness are doing maintainance of road. I and my team  also had few bad experiance with some of them earlier especially when we become subcontractor to construct bridge which damage during big flood. Being internal contractor its like working with a monster. Almost everything is wrong and not good. But we manage to complete on time but still being branded as slow and late. Thats how people treat fellow collage in the same organization without realise that one day things might change. True enough  later i  been  there and even worse is i become their number two bos. Some people at managerial level which previously handle the job sometimes come and see me and comments few new things that i implement.

Office was at ayer keroh, melaka. like the place name 'keroh' that was the situation there.
Their name outside within contractor circle was very bad. late payment and poor management.
Lastly before i arrive, client give very poor rating  and i need to change fast without realise that successful was a disaster for me on later stage. i was there less that two years. just to improve image and PR, change some method of maintainance, revive morale of operation staff which was at very low, no motivation and main  thing change client rating and perspective. Client  bos very difficult and a task master. no compromise on any failure. even on first meeting with him, i feel it was a mistake to accept this assigment.
To make matter worst, my own bos also very difficult. Few of his lieutenant was also tricky. later he left with words that makes me motivated. he says, you will never get five star !!!!!!!
Together with new bos, Mr Eagle and few staff which sideline earlier,  we manage to change everything and get team back to normal and later manage to get five star from client. Client bos also became good friend.
This new success create another new enemy sincemany thought that i will failed. You will never known who and i never saw its coming to break partnership between my bos and me to avoid we become stronger. reality thats life in coorporate world.
During negotiation on extension contract,  i had another urgent call for new assigment.
As usual story look nice, back to Kl and bla..bla..bla.... And i knew this time i will be in area which not many survived.
but due to my hajj which i expected the followings year, i accept the job.

live and work in Bosnia

i only know about Bosnia when its  with federation of  Yugoslavia which now not exist anymore.
about its communist ideologies, have good sports and football team with some name like muslim. also  contractor which have some projects in malaysia and famous leader name Aliya Izetbegovic.
when war broke down, only its was very clear where and what is Bosnia is about.

i never image that this country was so beautiful.

but i came at wrong time. not war but my company and project  has tricky tussle  with contractor there. their manipulation was extreme and beyond my imigination. worst part was how this happened without notice.
when i start interview the sub-contractors and discover many things that had been done, i thought locals take chance to sucks all the fund that available with so many ways. maybe post war people was so desperate to survived and purposely forget about ethics. our main contractor was so notorius eventhough they looks capable to complete the job. they also have own machinery and equipments for the project and have few good technical staff.
when contract been terminated and enter legal battle, i dont have much reason to stay longer and decided to end after six month as my original plan.

anyway during my stays there, i had very good friend from consultant. he is good technically as consultant, very religiuos and committed to islam. we still communicate until now eventhough his english was not good and forget already all simple bosnian language which smilliar to russian.

bosnia.....here i come

one day i had been called to head office by deputy big boss and give me bomb.

big boss required you in Bosnia. Urgent. 

later i know my future bos put my name foward and approved. only waiting for me to comfirm.

when i ask, how long? he says, not sure. but package to be there as usual...bla..bla..bla......which i had not interested to hear because the oversea package offer was not attractive at all. the person who create and approved that package looks like dont know or dont have feeling  or never been as an professional expatriate. they minset only thinking about less money to be paid and not about people who sacrified to save and protect company interest.

frankly i am not thinking about package but again why me. after few minutes, i think it was destiny for me to be there for reason that only god knows.

but i give a try to be there for reason that i keep to myself only.

then i say, if you cannot tell me how long, let me tell you since ticket provided only after six month, i will be there for six month only if you can give me letter tommorow.  i know before this that they cannot give any black and white within one day  but bacause of desperation the handed me the letter the next day. actually i just want to avoid them talk verbally then after we agree, they always forget and we had to chase them for   official.

with the letter, i can request money to start buying winter clothing since temperature there minus 5 degree.

i left KLIA airport then transit at bangkok before leaving to vianna, austria. at vianna i had to wait for few hours to  change plane to sarajevo.    my new bos had been at airport waiting for me and take me to fuad muhija road at small town Ilidza near our project development site. 

another  malaysian guys that had come earlier stay in that house together with me. but he is planning to be back to malaysia soon.

i stay in this house for next six month to experiance life culture and most important how construction in Bosnia.

below one of my earlist article in my other blog which i created when i was in Bosnia.

setahun sudah berlalu II

pada saat ini setahun yang lalu aku dah lepas dari KLIA ke bangkok dan sekarang berada di atas kapal ke vianna, austria.

puak imegresen siam buat hal periksa aku lama-lama. entah apa yang tak puas hati. aku cakap siam baru tau.



pertama kali aku berada atas kapal lama-lama.sebelum ni ke delhi tak la sampai enam jam tapi kali ni mau berbelas jam.

rupanya dalam penerbangan ni ramai orang vietnam yang nak ke sebelah eropah sana. seorang mamat yang aku tanya, dia dah kerja di sana dan kali bawa anak bini pergi sana.

seorang melayu pun tak ada.terkial-kial la aku sorang tapi peduli apa......



sampai di vienna, cuaca sangat sejuk. nak keluar pun tak tau.lagipun aku dah terlepas tempat keluar.dah tak tau macamana nak pusing balik lagi. terpaksalah tunggu empat jam sebelum ke sarajevo.

tidur aja kat bangku dan nak makan pun tak lalu. sempat juga buka lap top. ada wifi situ.

cuaca kat luar makin sejuk.

keesokannya aku berlepas ke sarajevo dengan austrian air. sampai sana pagi dan bos aku tn hj bad dah menunggu.
suhu disitu masa tu -5 darjah. kali pertama sejuk gila-gila macam ni.

selepas tu aku terus ke pejabat dan kemudian ke rumah di peyton, ilidza yang aku akan tinggal selepas ini selama enam bulan. buat masa ni brader kamali masih ada dan belum balik lagi.

bermulalah episod baru di negara balkan bekas kesatuan yugoslavia, bosnia herzegovina yang banyak kenangan walaupun selama enam bulan saja........

left and returned

we always made decision base on our emotions and its always happened to me that it was not a good and successful decision.
it happened again this time and that what almighty want to teach me.

indah khabar dari rupa. that what old malay always says. grass not always greener on the other side.

this time it hit me hard.

the day i report for work they tell me that project that i supposed to handle near my house at port klang already have manager and i had to go to another site at port dickson which manager there is about to leave the company.
since i had no choice, i had to be outstation again. its not what i expected but decided to give a try.

when i arrived, i found the project was worst than previous. monitoring and control of works and material wa very big issue. dicipline amoung staff was also bad especially those which related to owner.  as usual i try to change but again time was aginst me and client already start pressure very hard eventhough i know the consultant very well.
another blow was atitute of my immediate bos which less respect for practising of prayer. in one ocassion he came during friday prayer time and get me to visit site with him and i miss that weekly pray. that was the last event that i decided to say goodbye eventhough i just be there for two month only.
one fine day my ex bos from besut called and ask what i am doing now. after i tell him that i looking for new job, he ask me to be back and assit him at head quarters. i find that suite me and decided to returned.

i am now based at head quarters as operation head to manage site issues from far. setting-up now also smaller. we only have small bridge project at melaka and johor. at same time had to closed account all project we had complete earlier. many interesting things i found during this assigment especially when projects been handover to client and nobody taking care to properly closed account and get back retention or released project bond. one occasion variation cannot be process because paperwork not complete. the also cases we use other company to carried out work and had problems to get final balance payment.
Bad things when everything was on track again, company will get you to do other assignment. they always think you starting to be complecent.
Now they want me back to india on monthly basis. this time i just go and meet back my former staff which i thought will never meet them again. i enjoy every trip and we also planning to shift head office from chennai to vijayawada.  shifting completed and had tried new office. never think that it will be over for good for another oversea assignment when i go for india trip in december 2008.

i always enjoy this assignment. maybe this time i stay with my family. but as happened before, it only last for one and half year and i will be on trip that i never think before.

my working world - besut

as mentioned earlier that i should be on monthly basis to india after my first six month stay.

but there was other plan to me. i had been told to be in besut for project that i should be going after gebeng complete.  few of my engineers at gebeng already been there. project contract duration left only three month. another disaster for me.
how to save and experdite the project there was the hardest in my career so far.
major issue here lack of understanding of design , method and communication with designer and supervising consultant. anticipating future construction problems and managing work at site also and issue. another issue that i call 'undercurrent' also contribute. engineers ans supervisors after some time  not ready to raised any problems because they think noboby will solve and prefer to solve themselves. this will lead to bos been caught off guard and problems discover late or by other people outside team. clearly communication breakdown heavily.
performance of architect and consultant also poor. coordination of design between them not been done effectively and hope contractor to manage. understanding method proposed by contractor also contribute as we know actual comments after work to start eventhough approval of method statement had been given earlier. many sub contractor left after they just mobilized and discover consultant want other things.
when this had been solve, we move better but need more time expension and finally complete with another time bom to explode. but we manage to get certificate practical completion.

then i thought that its my time to leave. i also didnt get appreciation what i had done. few get compensation after company decided to close the operation and i miss that.

i tendered my resignation after get another job at port klang.

my working world - india

assignment to india was never in my mind but i accept as it was destiny for me that decide by almighty for many reasons as i discover later. it was more to spiritual journey to me and i discover many things in my life there that i not ready to  share here.

i set my foot in new delhi airport on 10th january and few days later discover that my new bos is about to leave the company. he just waiting for me to arrive.
all the suddent i had to be head of india operation and alone. no more malaysian working in the company during that time. i had to start to deal my all local indian staff. it was very challenging since all aspect of culture are totally different. as many people always say, oversea assignment will change many things either positive or negative.
good things is about survival. survival to live and to work with new environment and india is very hostile but good things is english is widely spoken and that had remove many barriers and made my life easy.
my assignment this was very different from before. maintainance work which company had share in conssesionare had just started. a lot of things to tidy-up and final account previous project also yet to finalize. the the  most difficult one was to start deal with arbitration work which earlier been terminated. no foreign company had succesfull in fighting arbitration with indian goverment before. its will be miracle to win due to lenghty and complicated process. aften ten years the overall judgement still not out.
during this assignment i stay in apartment Alwarpet in chennai, tamil nadhu. never image that i will staying alone in foreign country. what a paintfull experiance but i manage to stay for six month. eventhough i had driver and cook but still lonely was the most things that difficult to manage. later i had to find ways to overcome my loneliness. one of the was every sunday, i will get my driver to go to chennai beach to buy fresh fish. every morning fisherman will be back from sea and sell the fish at beachside and bring home for my maid to cook.  other this was going to malaysia restaurant which branch was in chennai. malaysian food was availabe there with indian taste.
later i manage to get in touch with other malaysian contractor working in chennai. they are doing road widening works. we first meet at pelita also. what a surprise.......the engineer i meet is rozihat, my junior during university days in Bangi.  during my final year, i joint them doing survey camp  at cameron highland. we never bump to each other in malaysia after graduate but interestingly meet in chennai, tamil nadhu.

cut short my indian venture, i decided to left after my first six month . first thinking of looking other other new job in malaysia but been offered oppurtunity to be in head quarters and come to india on monthly basis.
i thought this will suite me but never expected god plans.

my working world - gebeng

i am off to gebeng on september 2001.

this time i became  as assistance to senior project manager, a graduate from korea. this project contract are RM 118 million. it  started from road to jabor off main road from kuantan to kemaman. scope of work include upgrade part of road to jabor near border with one roundbout bridge  above exit of LPT one highway to sg ular joint back main road to kemaman. Roundbout bridge also connect to housing scheme called Aspa Cottege. the alignment pass through high hill which have hard materials. there are also one bridge above rive and another bridge above road for future. that bridge until now not yet connected to anywhere. the another overhead bridge are above railway track from  kerteh to pelabuhan kuantan. this railway also stop service few years ago. at the end joint back to main road, there was another interchange.
earthworks and ground treatment and roundbout bridge are the most challenging. a lot of cutting earth materials had to be done and filing haulage are not balance. we had many dispute with the earthworks contractor to resolve rate transport filling materials. hard materials also exist. another dispute with subcontractor and client also as that kind of materials at that time not specified in the contract. sub contractor argue that the cannot excavate with normal excavator. we had to demonstrate many times to client to prove this. at one time we had to mobilize excavator with blade and machine called dozer with specified horse power to site. to blast the materials, client not agree as rock rate was very high and quantity allocate in contract was very small.
i again had another bad experiance on embankment failure. this time even frust because i had predict it earlier due to ground condition and also no control of filling in the design. after failed to convince consultant to review and introduce alternate day filling condition, i officially instruct my earthwork contractor to carry out earthfilling in alternay day sequence but the was big huha with them and i got screw from my bos as i was trying to delay the work. my contractor succeed to cancel my instruction but we suffer two month later as 800 meter embankment fail. this time everybody quiet. luckly my boss already left site back to HQ. if not we might have big quarrell. the designer that come to visit site but nothing he can say only blame contractor that carry out earthfill  aggressively. wasting time listened to all of them. we also try to claim insurance. the adjustor that came to site also blame designer. blame game started. sub contractor not willing to repair until we agree the cost. another tricky situation . later only repair start after we resolve with them.
another freelance bos coming to assist after that. and later i had to carry on and complete the work.

bridgework at that site also extensive. one roundbout bridge that i mentioned earlier, one single spang bridge 20 span, one cross river and railway track, ane overhead and last one crossing mail road kuantan to kemaman. roundbout bridge was cast in-site deck. we try to change to precast but not approved. to start piling we need to do earth cutting. then nobody understand how to image and start expect me and my surveyor. later after we start only my engineer, supervisor and earthwork contractor understand.
as bridge across railway, i need to go to kerteh to meet the train team and discuss on how to peroceed the work. we also dont have any direct acess. we had to detour to carry out the work. as for launching we use steel trust with railtrack. construction of diaphram dan deck also had to be  carefull due to life train underneath. i got few call and complaint from train operator.

another difficult work are construction slab above gas pipe. the are 13 nos of various pipe underneath the road. the owner dont want to give as builts drawing. they want us to fisically search and found all the pipes and get the actual coordinates. i dont blame them because sometimes pipe undergroud might moves and as built data upon completion last time might be not relevant. but sometime they also dont have the data or not confident to give. dealing with them another big headege. same as i experiance before in kerteh. we need to get our client help to start. later we manage to resolve and detect all pipes. piling had to be jack-in and construction of slab still under their close supervision.

finally all completed and project handover to client.

my next destination supposed to be at besut for airport expansion work but i suspect politics in company change that and they decide to throw me to india.  

My working world - BHM

i start in new company which i just called BHM on 2nd january 2001.

this is my third working place in my contractors life without knowing later that it will be my longgest stay. eventhough i been recommend by my former boss but it was so difficult to joint them until i feel it was over.  my conversation with human resource guy was the worst experiance in my life which i sometimes i felt that he  negotiate like buying fish in wet market. that conversation i never forget until today and always remind my human resource  not to do like that again in future.

i was send to project at sri damansara as project manager. i had to travel every day from klang to kepong. that project had been a year without project manager and under extension of time no 1.  the are without site engineer. only senior supervisor, junior supervisor, surveyor, quantity surveyor and one male clerk.there we built interchange for sri damansara that link to LDP from kepong, sg buloh and sri damansara itself. consept construction here are sub labour. mean we buy all materials and engaged labour to carried the work. only specialist item, we sub contract. client and consultant was very good and coorperative to solve the problems.
this my work more on bridges and roadworks. site was very constraint and traffic that we had to deal are massive. there one traffic light within the site that always cause problems to us. any breakdowk will be very paintfull to handle.

anyway after eight months, project completed. where next?
looks like i had to go outstation again. there are new projects in temerloh and kuantan. i try to lobby for temerloh since it will be near to travel compare to kuantan but i ended in gebeng, kuantan. now famous with mining of bauksit.

my working world - kerteh, terengganu

i was outstation  in terengganu in 1999. First time i been outstation away from my family in klang. i was away from my home town perlis at 13 years old when i enter boarding school in kedah.
i been to kerteh few days before fasting month. that raya was my turn to celebrate raya in my wife home town in terengganu. their culture was not alient to me due to my marriege with local girl but stay outside terengganu. my adjustment was fast. i was no problem with food and local atitute.
but not with the work.

this assignment was very challenging due to shortage of engineer. this time we are doing railway track from kerteh to border of terengganu and pahang in kemaman.
i had to supervise all 30kilometre stretch for earthwork and ground treatment operation. groun treatment was same like previous highway job except this time i will involved with new ways to treat soft ground.
i consider have seen almost all type of treatment available that had been done in malaysia. give me  a lot of knowledge in this area of civil engineering. later this geotechnical knowledge give me some experiance and clue of any embankment failure. This project have all treatment from normal excavation unsuitable material and replace with suitable material,  PVD , dynamic compaction, stone column and pile embankment.
Dynamic compaction specialist was Menard geosystems and stone column was done by Keller. both team was headed by engineer from french and german. they always want to show that their treatment was the best in town. that was their attitute which teach me a lot of things.
anyway both treatment are for different type soil condition.

i also had to handle own earthworks operation after our subcontractor failed. here again i encounter with embankment failure as photo shown on this blog cover. before this there was embankment failure also at kesas highway. here also sama as soft ground also from marine clay but not so sensitif compare to klang area.
failure sometimes from design. sometimes from contractor own fault to experdite filling works without consider weather settlement are rapid or not. soft clay are very sensitif. if you load heavy and faster, it will react and move. the good geotechnical consultant or engineer will always give advise to contractor to monitor settlement. and if nessesasary we need to alternate filling works to reduce loading then we need to do so. late one day is better rather than we had to struggle repair the embankment that had failed.

when this project come to end, i need to reconsider my position. same as before, stay or back to K near my family. then i decided to end my stay with the company and try my luck as project manager.

again i chose december end 2000 to end my stay in the  project and back to KL with the hope that i will be nearer to my family.

my working world - percon

after i left ireka, my next destination was a bumiputra company and have link indirectly with goverment. But construction in contractor environment are the same.

It was total opposite from previous company. new management style and community. i am blessed with both mix of working culture which later i found very usefull when i became leader at site or company.

i started 2nd january 1996. station at HQ. again in KL town. travelling from klang was very hectic with my second hand nissan sunny .  There i attached to  technical team under GM operation together with another senior engineer, musa and a young fresh engineer. our task was preparing technical proposal for tender.  i stated become boring with this new assignment but it was good for my married life. after six month, i was assign to Kesas highway project at klang. what a bless. it was not very far to my rental house in kampung sri pandan, klang.

in Kesas highway project i again involved in ground treatment, earthworks, re wall and start bridge structure. but this time ground treatment work was more advance from my first highway project since all ground below  was marine clay.
 then i start to  know about PVD or vertical drain which been installed after site clearing work been done. before start we need one layer of sand for machine platform and drainage layer. here we need almost one meter thick of sand. after PVD done, we need to put another layer of sand. then only we start earth filling until stage 1 and start monitoring. rest period of time required during this time before we continue next filling activity until design surcharge level.
another sensitive ground treatment that i involved here is vacuum treatment. it was so sensitif that only one light machine allow during early start of sangfilling and it had to be done on alternate day. luckly its involve in small section only. now jalan telekon bridge run above this section. earthfilling operation also on alternate day. if settlement reading reading was high, we need to wait for another day. we also had to becarefull to avoid vacuum being burst.
for area which TNB pylon run above proposed highway, PVD cannot be done due to machine too close to cable, pile jack-in need to be done.

during this project my deliver twin boys.  now as project engineer and a father of new born twins.
life was managaeble due to working quite nearby and have understanding boss and all site team.
during this time also, me and my wife start looking for our permanet house. we had choosen one at taman sri andalas.

as usual, priject come to finishing line. where is my next destination? quit or stay with current company but they dont have anymore projects in klang. it must be to KL or outstation.

company had decided to send me to new highway project near sg klang in KL. there will be totatly new team there include foreigner. the politics there was to heavy since they are few foreigner which alway want to show that local was fool. i had seen this in KLCC few years back but never involved with any. not this time. i was send to ampang that fabricate and assemble gantry.after few month there, one day senior engineer from site HQ call me to assembly truss at one of crosshead without realise that it was the first one to be installed in that project. i never saw that dirty tactics coming from one indian and filiphino engineer. they told that they had arrange everything and give me the drawing to installed without i know that the fabrication of truss was wrong and cannot be installed. i been made scapegoat that local cannot work and they want to kick me out from the project. later i realise that parent company had  already started to remove other foreigner engineer at other section. what wandering me until now since the truss was the first to installed, why  dont foreign engineer that so call expert to installed first and we local learn from them? we found out later that they also dont have any knowledge also. just have a good talk and convince everybody that they know everything.
what an expensive lesson for me and we must be sensitive on what happening around us.
After that  incident, i still continue with same project but different section. joint back with my previous boss.

after that section complete, in year 1999, i move again. this time out station to kerteh, terengganu. leaving my three and half years old twins with their mother and newly born sister.

my working world - ireka

As i mention earlier, since graduate in 1992, majority of my work are   with contractor.
only less than two years i had opportunity to work with road maintainance company.

My first assignment are in ipoh with Ireka-Gkm jv which construct new highway for PLUS from ipoh to simpang pulai. there i involved in scope of work such as earthworks, ground treatment, re wall and roadworks.
This is one of my most enjoy working life eventhough working environment are very tough.

I aslo meet new fresh graduate from different background. kang mas and wak  kos are graduate from US. Pak ku from UTM and myself a local graduate from UKM. we stay in house provide by company with another senior engineer which also graduate from US.
Later stage we had been joint by graduate from UITM. yazid, mail, zamri, hamran, shukri and rengoi.

What and enjoy time for all bachelor like us. we always have time for sepaktakraw and go fishing at teluk batik and overnight there.

After complete that project, i and wak move to new small project at sg buloh. still mr yap as our project manager. i miss opportunity  to go prestige KLIA project. many of others engineers from ipoh site go there. this time i work with a very small team, we are to construct facilities for cement company from ipoh. they want to built a cement storage area or depoh  for cement from ipoh send by train. from there cement will be distribute to klang valley area.
we stay together at bandar baru sg buloh. this time old man surveyor, ah meng also with us.

After sg buloh pack II project complete, all of us go to new project at KLCC.
oohhh...not the main tower but we will construct district cooling tower which supply aircon to both tower. i and wak still staying at sg buloh and travel every day to site in heart of KL.
i had many experiance there. first construct using top down construction method. that means after bore piling work, both work below and above ground layer start simultaneously. i had opportunity to in charge the under ground and later on top also. we had the biggest pour in the company history which ended almost two days concreting.
forget to mentioned that this team eventhough still headed by mr yap, we had senior engineer azam above us.
second which i cannot forget are dealing with resident engineer from ireland. how tough it is but at the end i had biggest praised from him when i left to another project.

i and wak still bachelor but i meet my future wife during this time. she working at school in klang. the same school that i go for nadwah in 1983. what a coinsidence !!!! i not sure what i had done when i was there earlier.

after working at KLCC , i move again. this time moving alone to start new Lembah Beringin Interchange project. it was away near tanjung malim and i still reside at sg buloh together with wak. work life are very tough as the only access are from sleepy town kerling through track road. we cannot open any access from PLUS highway. any material either come from kerling or if possible load from highway to our site but it required permit with temporary traffic management. as engineer, it was my duty to ensure all applications for lane closure are approved and section manager at that time really give me hard time. construction was really difficult especially when rain come. if we are inside the site, we might trapped and cannot move out. it has to be tow or left there until the next morning. other option which not good at all are to left site early which is not my principles.
then i got married and move to stay in klang and travel every day to site. few time i fell asleep while drive and almost crash. i feel its time already  to move away from the company to accomodate new my new life without realise that construction world with contractor is same every where.
even the owner of company was so upset that i decided to left the company which they just give me new proton wira car.

on december 1995, i left the company which give me first oppurtonity and many experiance and friends which i still cherish  until today.

the beggining

Actually I never plan to be civil engineer or involved in construction when I was small.

Everything change after i been selected into engineering faculty after complete my pre-unvercity.
Firstly I plan to be electrical engineer but my friend just site behind me on the very first day during briefing session convince me to joint him in civil engineering. I know nothing about construction at that time.

For no reason I agree and  follow him and the rest are history.

Of course i had some regret few years later especially when i stuck in construction environment but i enjoy every minute of it. it was difficult, challenging and full of pressure.

anyway, thank you my friend Aspa.

lets start new

Iits had been so long that i didnt write here as planned.

I had been disturb by many this eventhough i had break from construction last year.

Hopefully this year of 2016, i can start write something about my experiance in construction which this year will be my 24th year of working in construction industry which all years been spend in contractors invironment.