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.