Friday, June 29, 2007

SMART Tunnel Malaysia

Some info for Malaysia SMART Tunnel
The "Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel" or "SMART Tunnel", E 38 is a storm drainage and road structure in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a major national project in the country. It is the longest stormwater tunnel in South East Asia and second longest in Asia.

The main objective of this tunnel is to solve the problem of flash floods in Kuala Lumpur and also to reduce traffic jams along Jalan Sungai Besi and Lok Yew flyover at Pudu during rush hour. There are two components of this tunnel, the stormwater tunnel and motorway tunnel.

It begins at Kampung Berembang lake near Klang River at Ampang and ends at Taman Desa lake near Kerayong River at Salak South. The project is led by the government, including Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia (Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran = JPS) and also a company joint venture pact between Gamuda Berhad and Malaysian Mining Corporation Berhad (MMC).

Some Video Why SMART Tunnel Malaysia Leaking and Crack???

Steel Building Advantages

One reason for the fast growth of the prefabricated steel building industry is the fact that steel building manufacturers have created prefabricated systems for a wide range of applications. Steel buildings used to be limited to storage facilities and aircraft hangers. Now, steel is used very successfully for structures as small as toll booths and vending machine shelters, and as large as barns and agricultural facilities, work shops, sports facilities, even churches and retail centers. Steel buildings are frequently used in larger buildings like commercial aircraft hangers and sports arenas, where a large clearspan space is required. (Clearspan is an interior space of a building where the roof is supported by the bordering structural walls and framework, and not with columns.)

Steel provides some other benefits in many circumstances. Generally speaking, prefabricated steel buildings can also be erected more quickly than traditionally constructed buildings. Assuming that the prefabricated kit does not require significant customizing, the project's design phase is reduced considerably with the use of the steel building system. While this is true for the design phase, site preparation and construction phases for larger steel buildings are normally comparable with similarly sized tilt-up structures.

Perhaps the main reason for the expanding use of steel buildings is construction cost. Assuming that the building fits the parameters and limitations of what is appropriate for steel, prefabricated steel building kits are generally less expensive than custom-designed structures built using traditional construction or even tilt-up construction. Also, with the use of finishes, facades and other wall claddings, builders can craft beautiful facilities that avoid the traditional "tin shed" look associated with steel buildings.

For smaller warehouse, industrial and commercial projects, particularly those under 50,000 square feet, these benefits make steel buildings an extremely attractive alternative for the cost-conscious building owner. Also, steel buildings are frequently the right choice for larger buildings where a large clearspan space is required.

Malaysia Steel Structure Company:
Kemuning Structures Sdn. Bhd.
Kejuruteraan QKS Sdn. Bhd.
Vantage Holdings Sdn. Bhd.

A Grassroots Effort Bay Bridge Construction Project Incorporates Eelgrass Preservation

It will take steelworkers, pile-driver operators and hundreds of other construction workers in hard hats to build the $2.6 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge, lifting the concrete pieces into place and creating the signature single-tower suspension span.

But it will also take a group of underwater gardeners working on the bay floor in an effort to transplant and preserve an underwater plant -- eelgrass - - that many would simply dismiss as seaweed.

Eelgrass -- zostera marina -- is a thin-rooted plant that grows on the mucky bottom of the bay in shallow waters, typically keeping its flat, deep- green leaves, which can grow up to 3 feet long, beneath the surface. Beds of eelgrass provide valuable habitat for fish and fowl -- spawning grounds for herring, food for black brant geese, and shelter for shiner perch and other fish.

"It's an important resource for the bay," said Jeff Jensen, biological mitigation manager for the state Department of Transportation.

Which is why Caltrans is spending $1.2 million of its eastern span construction budget to study how best to transplant eelgrass.

"What we've been finding out," said Keith Merkel, chief ecologist for Merkel & Associates, a San Diego environmental firm hired by Caltrans, "is how little we know about eelgrass in San Francisco Bay."

The experimental eelgrass project is part of an approximately $20 million package of environmental mitigation projects that aim to help make up for the deleterious effects that construction of the new span will have on the bay and its flora and fauna.

Other environmental efforts include restoration of Skaggs Island; a program to encourage spawning of salmon and steelhead that uses special air-bubble devices to protect fish from the acoustic waves generated by pile driving; monitoring of the bay for marine mammals during construction; treatment of storm-water runoff from the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza and Interstate 80, and restoration of eelgrass and sand flats at the new Eastshore State Park.

Eelgrass is believed to have once thrived in the bay, but only 450 acres remain. One of the largest beds sits off Emeryville, where construction crews will have to rip up 3.2 acres of eelgrass to create a barge-access channel.

Caltrans hopes to replant the channel with eelgrass once the new bridge opens in 2006. But while eelgrass transplants have worked elsewhere, none has ever succeeded in San Francisco Bay, where the murky waters, wind and waves make for a less than hospitable environment.

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The Basics of Bridge

There are three major types of bridges:
  • The beam bridge
  • The arch bridge
  • The suspension bridge
The biggest difference between the three is the distances they can cross in a single span. A span is the distance between two bridge supports, whether they are columns, towers or the wall of a canyon. A modern beam bridge, for instance, is likely to span a distance of up to 200 feet (60 meters), while a modern arch can safely span up to 800 or 1,000 feet (240 to 300 m). A suspension bridge, the pinnacle of bridge technology, is capable of spanning up to 7,000 feet (2,100 m).

What allows an arch bridge to span greater distances than a beam bridge, or a suspension bridge to span a distance seven times that of an arch bridge? The answer lies in how each bridge type deals with two important forces called compression and tension:
  • Compression is a force that acts to compress or shorten the thing it is acting on.
  • Tension is a force that acts to expand or lengthen the thing it is acting on.
A simple, everyday example of compression and tension is a spring. When we press down, or push the two ends of the spring together, we compress it. The force of compression shortens the spring. When we pull up, or pull apart the two ends, we create tension in the spring. The force of tension lengthens the spring.

Compression and tension are present in all bridges, and it's the job of the bridge design to handle these forces without buckling or snapping. Buckling is what happens when the force of compression overcomes an object's ability to handle compression, and snapping is what happens when the force of tension overcomes an object's ability to handle tension. The best way to deal with these forces is to either dissipate them or transfer them. To dissipate force is to spread it out over a greater area, so that no one spot has to bear the brunt of the concentrated force. To transfer force is to move it from an area of weakness to an area of strength, an area designed to handle the force. An arch bridge is a good example of dissipation, while a suspension bridge is a good example of transference.

Meaning of Civil Engineering

What is Civil Engineering?

Civil engineering is a broad field of engineering dealing with the planning, design, construction, maintenance and management of physical infrastructure networks. This includes fixed structures, or public works, as they are related to earth, water, or civilization and their processes. Most civil engineering today deals with power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, the natural environment, sewer, flood control, transportation and traffic.

Engineering has developed from observations of the ways natural and constructed systems react and from the development of empirical equations that provide bases for design. Civil engineering is the broadest of the engineering fields, partly because it is the oldest of all engineering fields. In fact, engineering was once divided into only two fields - military and civil. Civil engineering was defined to distinguish it from military engineering. Within the US, some federal government funding and organization is still part of the United States Army as the Corps of Engineers. Civil engineering is still an umbrella term, comprised of many related specialties.

More Info From Wikipedia

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