Taman Ilmu, Besut - Elevated Water Tank Site Visit

Taman Ilmu is a government project where it will become the center of higher education for three universities. Currently the project is under the infrastructure phase where public facilities such as library, hall, stadium and mosque will be built first before the construction of the universities. As for my company, an engineer is responsible in the water reticulation system; she is to design a six floor elevated water tank where will be supplying water to the whole Taman Ilmu area and also a suction tank to pump water from the main pipe up to the elevated water tank. During the visit, we went there for two purpose; first is to solve the problem of perimeter drain at the elevated water tank area and second is to inspect the steel bars of the tower.

The objective my supervisor brought me there to let me see the field works and also learn some soft skills when dealing with problems and of course when dealing the people (government and site engineer). According to the my supervisor, the site engineer (Mechanical Engineering graduate and inexperience) employed by the contractor been giving them a lot of troubles; nevertheless my supervisor still have to teach some basic skills to the site engineer to make thing easier for everyone.

For that day, the site engineer requested them to the site to solve the perimeter drain problem. From our inspection, the invert level of the perimeter drain is lower than the main drainage. After some discussion with the site engineer and the JKR representative, they decided to not build some parts of the drain (least critical one) to raise the sump invert level before the main drainage. After that, we climb the elevated water tank to inspect the steel bars.

Some facilities view from 30m above ground:-

Hall

Library

Power Station

SMK WAKAF TAPAI - Structural Works and Infrastructure Inspection

This project is handled by my host supervisor before I joined the consultancy firm. So, at the first week I work there. He brought me to site and explained all the detail he worked on and all the works I am going to do soon.

Let me write a little introduction about the project. This is an enlargement project for the existing SMK Wakaf Tapai which consists of only four blocks of building. The project has been started since late 2008 and expected to complete by end 2010. So, most of the main structures like hall, canteen, water tank tower and classrooms have been raised and I am just be there to do some mid-end phase stuff.

Talking about the my involvement in this project; initially I just went there with my host supervisor to listen about the discussion regarding the drainage system which is not built according to the engineer plan. The improper drainage built has caused some part of the road became small (less than 6m) and some is the wider. And here I got my first task which is recalculate all the invert level, gradient and design of the drainage and prepare an as-built drainage design report. The second task I got from this project is beam inspection for a small post guard house.

First Month of Industrial Training

Initially, one month seems like a long duration for me, but here I am, completed the first month of my industrial training and without realizing the time passes so fast. In this very first month of industrial training, I have gone through a lot of feelings, from confusion, nervousness, enjoy and sometime guiltiness. But at the same time, I also gain a lot of new working (or engineer) experience through seeing, hearing, talking and of course involving myself in the working process. And not forget to mention, I also got myself some new friends in my industrial training workplace, the engineers, the office ladies, the draftsmen/women and the best part is having two industrial training peers from KLIUC and polytechnic school to accompany me.

Guiltiness, this is the most frustrated and annoying feeling I had. Well, the feeling always occur when I am too free and doing nothing, haha.. Every times I completed my tasks, this feeling will come and haunt me. Although I know I did my tasks, learnt something, still I couldn't cope with this feeling as I need to work nonstop to pull myself out of the hole. Another thing about the guiltiness, I also have this feeling when I asked questions to the engineers. I worry that I will disturb them doing their works or make them feel annoyed. Well, all I can hope is they understand that I am doing industrial training and my jobs is to ask nonstop till I am satisfied, haha..

Talking about the experience I gained, it varies from coloring to designing, haha.. Coloring is the very first thing I learnt when I start my training, which is quite interesting. I think this is a good basic for young engineer to test their intelligent, if you can do the color the construction drawing correctly, it means that you can do an engineer task, haha.. And the second thing is how to fold an A1 sized drawing to A4 size, this task really gives me hard time, haha.. All I can say is A1 sized paper is difficult to handle.

In this first month, I also learn to design some infrastructure such as sewerage pipeline, drainage and water reticulation system. Of course they won't let a young engineer to design the whole thing, just involving myself in the design process, learning through seeing, hearing, asking and do a little bit. I also went to a few sites for inspection such as sewerage treatment plant inspection, drainage inspection and site survey for construction planning.

I have gained a lot of new experience; engineer experience, working ethics, designing prospect and also valuable social skills. But still it is not enough, I have two more months to go, looking forward to learn more and be a better engineer and man.