Hello everyone today's blog will be shorter due the entire day spent in the office learning about the intricacies of construction planning and scheduling. This topic is of great importance in the construction process. The numerous computer programs and graphs can seem to get confusing and puzzle like at times. Successful planning and scheduling will ensure the completion of a project is both on time and within budget.
On to some more fun stuff. After my long day, I gathered the strength to head to the gym for a good workout. I was quite tired after my workout but my curiosity of the city life here in Dubai gave me some energy. After a quick dinner of mushrooms dipped in hummus with a cold class of V8, me and four other interns went out to explore. We found a local lounge where we shared a fun conversation over a few drinks. We sat outside thinking the heat would be less intense as the night went on....WHAT WERE WE THINKING! It stayed quite hot through the night. We made our way home early enough to watch a movie at the apartment before bed time rolled around. Thanks for following, talk to you soon.
Hey Sean,
ReplyDeleteProject plan, flow charts, critical path, main sequence – is that really needed? Are you saying that you can’t build the Dubai’s Pentominium by using just a few scrawls on the back of a cocktail napkin, calling a few guys over to site who own excavators as their recreational vehicles, dig a few holes, do a little pile driving and build a tower before the week is over? Which make me wonder – what happens if you uncover ancient Persian treasures dating back to antiquity while digging the foundation? Then what – an all-out scrum for ownership?
I saw the DCC posting with flowchart and project plan – very cool. I have a lot of experience working with project plans and flow charts. I did notice one critical element that was missing from the team’s flow chart. Typically along the main sequence and quite close to the end of the project, there is a box called “Miracle Happens Here.” Haha.
I was reading that the Pentominium had one of the largest excavations – of all time – done by a Swiss Company with the largest concrete foundation-raft pours – of all time – well let’s say largest in the Middle East - of all time. I thought it was interesting that it is the tallest residential building – of all time – but more surprising that it has just one residence of 6,500 sq. ft. per floor and that there are residences along the side of the building. Awsomeness – of all time.
Hey Dog, I was wondering - how interactive are the various players / contractors / vendors, etc. while everyone is on-site in the midst of work? Constant communication and regular meetings? I was reading in the DCC blog about on-site conflict resolution (as opposed to an all-out scrum). I presume that there is a group of folks from Aedas on site. Are they the referee or just an equal voting member on the resolution board? Do the Aedas folks work directly with DCC at any point? Are the engineers pals with the architects when they’re on site? You and I have had those some of those discussions in the past: architects vs. engineers, form vs. function, genetics vs. environment, the Empire vs. Jedi, SF Giants vs. LA Dodgers, Coke vs. Pepsi, the Pirate Lords vs. the East India Trading Company. Haha.
It might be interesting if you could make contact with one of the Aedas employees. The firm is impressive: http://www.aedas.com/About-Aedas. They are the architects behind the Dubai Metro, the Kowloon Airport extension, the 9/11 Memorial, the Abu Dhabi Investment Headquarters (just up the road from you), and they submitted a proposal to build the preeminent soccer stadium in Qatar (just down the road from you) for their 2022 World Cup bid. Cool! Maybe you can get them to design those bus stops in Syracuse. Haha.
Thanks for writing. Always great hearing about what you’re up to on the other side of the planet.
Love you.
Dad