Week 2: Day 11

For Wednesday May 28, the students were scheduled to have office study time in the morning for the midterm exam held in the afternoon. The students were thrown a curve ball when Mr. Bassam Haddad announced the exam would be brought forward to the morning and the afternoon could be used to work on the presentations to be given the next day.

Although the students may not have been initially happy about this decision, all students did well on the midterm with a class average of 58 out of a total 60 points.

One of the many fantastic grades

The afternoon was used to finish the PowerPoint each team would use the next day as well as rehearse with team members to make the presentations as good as they can be. The presentations are a representation of everything learned through this point in the internship. The presentations are expected to be 20-25 minutes maximum. Due to the extensive amount of information the interns have learned this far, editing the PowerPoint and working on the timing were focused on during this time in preparation for the next day.

Week 2: Day 10

It is day 10 of DSLIP Interns' adventure. The day was spent at the illustrious offices of Dubai Contracting Company learning many new things about contracting.

In the morning hours, Mr. Andrew McLeish effectively lectured the interns on Commercial Management of the Construction Process. Mr. Andrew was able to present the interns with a great overview of various types of contracts used in contracting. Further, he went on to talk about different scenarios that have taken place between the client and the contractor in the past and how they were resolved. The morning was finished off with Mr. Naim Mohamed coming in to the DSLIP classroom to finish the unresolved lecture on Cost Estimation and Pricing from Day 9 of the adventure.

After the noon, Mr. Chris Battle strolled in to the DSLIP classroom to instill the interns with more knowledge about Commercial Management of the Construction Process. The afternoon lecture focused more closely on the procurement.

Mr. Chris Battle lecturing the DSLIP Interns.

Week 2: Day 9

On Monday morning, the DSLIP interns ventured to the Ready Mix Beton, a concrete batching plant in Dubai. At the plant, the two teams listened to Mr. Adel William talk about the company, the components of concrete and their various properties, as well as the concrete batching procedure. After, the two teams went on separate tours of the site. During these tours, detailed explanations of the concrete testing laboratory, batching plant, and control room were given.

Interns getting a tour of the batching plant.

Aggregate being loaded into the plant.

The cement being prepared for testing in the laboratory.

In the afternoon, Mr. Naim Mohamed gave a presentation on cost estimation and pricing. This is a key component to contracting to ensure the pricing of work is accurate. Later that evening, Mr. Abdallah Yabroudi took the group out for dinner at Bahria. There was a surplus of food, that even Andrew Festa could not handle.

Week 2: Day 8

Block-work at the Four Villas

On Sunday morning, both teams returned to the site of the Four Villas to learn about and complete block-work. Our first practical experience of the day was making mortar by mixing dark sand, light sand, cement, and water in appropriate ratios. There are three main steps in conducting block-work: first, you must closely examine the construction drawing, then mark out the dimensions of the walls and partitions, and finally you may lay down the mortar and blocks. We learned that for every other layer of block-work there needs to be a galvanized mesh placed in a layer of mortar for added reinforcement. We toiled in the heat for nearly two hours to complete a small portion of the block-work. Mr. Hallak told us that the project would never be finished if we worked on it alone; we definitely need more practice laying block-work, but this was definitely a great hands-on experience. It gave us an insightful perspective on how difficult and exhausting this part of the job is, and accurate you have to be.

Bushra and Sarah mixing the mortar

Rami checking the drawing with the foreman

The team marking the block work

Mr. Hallak explaining construction drawings to us.

Laying block-work.

Placing galvanized mesh.

Lecture no. 6, part 1: Financials and Accounting in Construction

Mr. Kareem Abughazaleh spoke to us in the early afternoon about why it's important to follow appropriate accounting methods. He discussed income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, and metrics. He then expanded on financial products which include guarantees, bonds, letters of credit, and facilities and overdrafts.

Lecture no. 6, part 2: Project Insurances

Mr. Khaldoun Khartabil from Alpha Lloyds Insurance Brokers LLC., accompanied by Mr. Ibrahim, elaborated on the importance of having insurance due to all of the risks that accompany a construction project. Their lecture was very detailed. We learned about how the insurance market works and the different parties involved. In addition, they explained the claims procedures and actions.  Many various types of insurances were explained. They covered the Professional Indemnity Insurance and the Contractor's All Risk Insurance, among others.

Basketball Practice 

The evening finished off with several games of basketball in preparation for the upcoming tournament. Everyone played really hard and had loads of fun, and Mr. Yabroudi took us out to Johnny Rockets as a late-night dinner treat afterwards.

Week 1: Day 6

Arabian Adventure

Friday was vacation day! We all had free time before our desert adventure planned by DCC in the afternoon. At 4:30 pm four Jeeps arrived near the apartments to pick us up to start our adventure. The drivers introduced themselves on the way and told us the schedule that was ahead. The road took 45 mins to arrive at the Dubai National Park  just in time to watch the falconry show, which started with a small introduction about falconry history in the middle east and then a falcon show. We proceeded then to a thrilling dune bashing in the desert until we arrived  to a marvelous scene of the sunset.

After the sunset we rode the camels for a tour and headed to dinner with Arabian atmosphere all around: there were Hinna tattoos, arabic coffee, artistic sand vases, photographs with Arabic costumes, Sheesha, and the dinner was Mashawi and delicious arabic starters.

The dinner ended with a belly dancing performance and before leaving all the lights went down and we had a breathtaking star gazing.

Week 2: Day 7

Site Visit to Four Villas

On Saturday morning, the two teams headed to the Four Villas in Dubai. It's a project contracted by DCC for Seddiqi & Sons. The two-story villas include an outdoor terrace, a swimming pool, and a perimeter wall. The building lies on a raft foundation and is supported by reinforced concrete columns and load-bearing block-work. The project has a duration of 10 months, and is set to be completed by November 2014.

Team 1 went earlier in the morning, followed by Team 2 a couple of hours later. We were briefed by Mr. Mazen Hallak about what procedures we'd be doing that day when creating the concrete roof slab. First, the teams performed a slump test to measure the workability of the concrete from the transit mixer. The concrete was supplied by Readymix Beton with C40/20. In addition, cube tests were prepared to gauge to strength of concrete after 7 and 28 days. Afterwards, each team was divided into groups that would rotate once we got to the roof: There was checking the reinforcements, concrete pouring, vibration, and troweling and leveling. Each person had a chance to do every task under supervision of the safety officers and site engineers.

Edgar and Mr. Hallak showing the slump test.

Sjaak pouring concrete.

Bushra performing the vibration procedure.

The team leveling the slab.

In the late morning, we returned to the office to study for our quiz. It was a stressful three hours as we anticipated the arrival of Mr. Yabroudi from his meeting so that we could take the quiz.

In the afternoon, the groups had basketball practice at Willington School. It was a lot of fun, and afterwards, Mr. Yabroudi took us out for a delicious meal at Operation Falafel by the beach.

Week 1: Day 5

Lecture No. 5: Planning and Scheduling

Today was all about planning and scheduling. Mr Bassam Haddad, senior planner at DCC, took the lead in introducing us to the different planning phases. Our discussions included construction planning, types of scheduling, project general document PGD and its ten chapters, site booklet, and other progress and monitoring reports prepared by the planning department. In the second part of the lecture, Mr Haddad introduced us to the software used in planning: Primavera P3. He went through the different elements of this software and showed us how we input data and obtain charts and graphs.

In the afternoon, we had our first sports challenge: Rope pulling. Mr Yaboudi's team, also known as the A Team had a smash win, winning five out of five matches against the D team, who landed second place, and S team who came third.

Winning A Team

D Team

S Team

Week 1: Day 4

Visit to Erga Progress

The day started with a small lecture given by Mr. Mazen Hallak about concrete casting. He gave an example of a method statement for the casting of concrete, and he stressed on the importance of developing a QA/QC procedure to be carried out on site. This was a preparation for our upcoming site visit on Saturday, where we will be: checking reinforcement, casting, testing and vibrating the concrete on a slab of a four villas project.

After the lecture, we headed to Erga Progress Engineering Consultants' main office in Dubai. There Mr. Joseph Sawaya introduced us to the history of the Dubai Branch of Erga and how it started. Then Mr. Elio discussed the Procurement Strategy and contract selection. Later he spoke about the relationship between Erga and DCC explaining that Erga acts as the main design firm for most of DCC's design-build projects.

As an example, Mr. Sawaya explained in details the Emirates British Nursery Project built to accomodate about 450 children from 0-3 years; the project was to be completed within a year. It was a challenge for both companies that they were able to complete. He also spoke briefly about several projects in Dubai, Lebanon, Riyadh, Umman and Qatar that Erga took part of. After that, he showed us the offices and we ended the tour with nice refreshments and dessert.

Lecture No. 4: Introduction to IT Infrastructure and Building Information Modeling

After lunch and at 2:00 pm, Mr. Amir Kolahzadeh; ITWorks BDM, gave us a lecture about the importance of the IT infrastructure that consists of the equipments, systems, software and services. As the Data and Internet connectivity became the 4th utility in every home, it is important for the contractor to include them in his projects. Hence, the installation of advanced IT services has various significance in commercial and residential development, hospitality, healthcare and education.

Moreover, Mr. Amir introduced the concept of data centers and its role in hosting and storing information, emails, websites, etc.

 

Rolex Tower Visit

To further elaborate the concept of IT infrastructure, Mr. Amir and Mr. Bassam accompanied the students along with Dr. Clemence to the Rolex Tower which is developed by DCC. 

This tower consists of 63 stories divided into offices and residential floors.

 

The visit started in the BMS room in the basement of the Rolex tower where all information are stored and serviced. Then the students went into the Telecommunication room and witnessed all the electrical telecommunication wires from the optic fibers to the copper wires. This was followed by a visit to the telephone room, the IT room and one of the mini data centers present in each other floor.

 

Week 1: Day 3

Palace Of Sheikh Mohammad

In the early morning and on our way to the office, we took a detour to look at the palace of Sheikh Mohammad and the beautiful peacocks surrounding it. Everyone took photos and kept a memory of the moment.

Lecture 3 : Construction Management

Upon our to arrival to office, Mr. Yabroudi discussed with us the site visit of the previous day and answered some of our questions concerning details about the private villa. 

At 9:30 am, we moved to the lecture room and started our third lecture on construction management presented by DCC contracts director: Ian Harper in the presence of Mr. Yabroudi and the SU Chancellor. The lecture tackled the fundamental aspects of construction management: Time, cost, quality, safety and health as well as environmental concerns. Moreover, labor flow, material and shop drawings submittal schedules were also discussed.

After lunch break, lectures proceeded and we learned all about the Construction Management Team CMT at DCC. We read typical job descriptions of the project director, project manager, contract manager, planning engineer and QA/QC engineer and knew the exact tasks and responsibilities of each member of the team, and we learned that the secret behind the success of a Construction firm is teamwork and leadership skills inherent in every manager.

Week 1: Day 2

Lecture No. 2: Construction Drawings

Our second day at the office started with a very interesting introduction to construction drawings given by Mr Mazen Hallak, a project manager working with DCC for the past 14 years. We learned the types and stages of construction drawings, the layout and information it includes. After a one hour workshop we were all able to read construction drawings, and understand what each element meant. We became familiar with many different terms, these included:  elevations, sections, levels, clouding and revisions. Mr. Yabroudi also made a special appearance with Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud. Mr. Yabroudi also assisted us in reading the many aspects of the construction drawings. 

Special visit from Chancellor Kent Syverud 

Today was a very special day for us.  Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud and his wife Dr. Ruth Chen followed us around for the day.  At 9 am we attended a lecture taught by Mr. Hazen Hallak, a project manager with DCC.  In the lecture, we were taught how to read architectural drawings.  We looked at drawings from a DCC past project which was a villa constructed for the son of the ruler of Dubai.  After this lecture the interns, Chancellor Syverud, Dr. Chen, Mr. Abdallah, Dr. Clemence and some other DCC employees were brought into the DCC conference room where we were all introduced to the chancellor and had some open discussions with him.  

Site Visit No. 1: Private Villa in the Palm

At 2:15, the buses left for Palm Jumeriah, taking us on our first site visit. The project is a private villa for the son of Sheikh Mohammad. The scope of the project consists of a main villa, a gymnasium, a staff block, some exterior work and a security post. 

The main villa includes a basement with a private night club, a ground floor, a first and second floors all connected by a panoramic glass lift; the ground floor has access to a living/dining/ bar room with a show kitchen, an TV room and a home theater. The first floor mainly consist of one master suites, two suites and a number of guest rooms. Each room has a breathtaking view over the coast. The last floor is mainly an entertainment and play room, with an outside secured area.

We toured the site with the project manager, Mr. Mazen Hallak, who explained to us the different stages of construction. During our tour, we were introduced to the different types of finishing works, labor forces, material used along with some construction tips and guidelines that a responsible manager should be aware of. 

Our tour ended at 5:00pm, where we accompanied Mr. Hallak to the meeting room and saw the perspective pictures, which showed how the villa will look once it is complete. We were very engaged and asked as many questions as we could, because the project captured our entire attention with all its details, plans and accuracy in work.