Gulf Construction Online - Shuwaikh campus jobs keep

Kuwait

A view of construction work on the project.

Shuwaikh campus jobs keep

01 December 2001

Recafco busy Real Estate Construction & Fabrication Company (Recafco), a leading Kuwaiti contracting firm, is currently engaged on two projects worth KD14.52 million ($48.72 million) for the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET).

The projects currently taking shape at PAAET's Shuwaikh Campus, between Al Sabah Hospital to the west and Shuwaikh Industrial Area to the east, are the College of Health Science for Boys and the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) buildings.

Recafco started work in July on a KD5.87 million contract for the construction of the College of Health Science for Boys and is expected to complete it in June 2003.

Commenting on the status of the project, Reda Al Ramady, construction managers says: ''We already completed excavation, shoring, dewatering and footings works. Waterproofing works are in progress. Site mobilisation is also completed.''

The consultant on the project is Bonyan Design while the construction manager is Turner-Projacs.

The project involves the construction of a main building and an administration building complete with mechanical and electrical services, infrastructure, utilities and hard and soft landscaping works. It also includes a substation, an amphitheatre over an area of 3,300 sq m and surface car-parking for 340 vehicles.

The three-storey main building has a footprint area of 7,000 sq m while the two-level administration building covers 600 sq m. These two buildings are linked by bridges and served by five elevators. The main building opens into an atrium area which is covered by steel trusses and skylights and clad in sandwich panels.

The M&E services include complete plumbing and fire-fighting systems, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems with chilled/hot water pumps, air-handling units, piping and ducting and complete electrical, fire alarm and telephone systems.

The external facade will be clad in precast concrete with glazed curtain-walling around the main entrance area. The walls around the atrium are composed of glass blocks, while the other internal walls are plastered and painted. The floors will feature marble, ceramic or vinyl tiles and carpet, while the ceilings comprise painted gypsum tiles, with GRC panel ceilings in the main entrance area.

ITI buildings

Recafco started work in August on a KD8.65 million contract for the construction of Industrial Training Institute (ITI) buildings and a two-storey car-park.

The project entails the construction and maintenance of an administration building, the ITI complex and the car-park, encompassing a main entrance plaza, administration offices, a multipurpose hall, library, a cultural and social club with an auditorium, sports halls with a gymnasium, squash courts, cafeteria with a kitchen and servery, a maintenance building with stores and offices, classrooms, staff rooms, a clinic, workshops, laboratories, a substation, internal roads, pedestrian walkways, signage and temporary facilities.

The scope of works covers demolition, shoring, excavation, dewatering, civil works, architectural finishes, electrical, telephone, lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning), plumbing, fire-fighting, irrigation, drainage, elevators, infrastructure and soft and hard landscaping works.

The consultant is Industrial and Engineering Consulting Office (Inco) while the construction manager is Turner Projacs.

Externally, the building will have a sand lime brick facade with aluminium composite panels.

The buildings have reinforced concrete foundations, and are being built with a reinforced concrete frame of columns, beams and slabs. The workshops areas will be covered with steel space frames of the bolted and coaxial nodel type. The car-park building will feature entry and exit ramps and steel-framed canopies dressed with fabric.

The floors will feature terrazzo, marble and ceramic tiles, concrete with floor hardener, carpet and resilient flooring and wood flooring. The walls will be plastered and painted and have ceramic and marble cladding in certain areas.

On site, work has been completed on site mobilisation as well as on the excavation, shoring and dewatering works for the ITI buildings. Work on the footings, waterproofing and backfilling is in progress for these buildings. Meanwhile, excavation, shoring, dewatering and footings works are in progress for the car-park.

When completed in July 2003, the ITI buildings will offer a built-up area of 21,100 sq m over a 70,000 sq m site. The car-park will have a built-up area of 22,248 sq m, while other external areas will cover 26,652 sq m.

Salmiya Market

Besides work at the PAAET Shuwaikh Campus, Recafco is involved in a number of other projects in Kuwait. These include the Salmiya Market where it is close to completing work on the project.

Recafco was awarded work on two packages of the project. It is set to complete work on the external works package this month having completed the structural works on the project and handed it over to the client in August.

Located on a 83,254 sq m site between A1 Khansa Street and Qatar Street, adjacent to Hawalli Immigration Department in Salmiya, the two-level market complex comprises shops facing these two streets, a main building, a fish auction building, three market squares, and an external substation building. The project has a main gate and six entrances.

The ground floor has a built-up area of 39,411 sq m while the first floor covers 31,168 sq m.

The owner is the local Nouf Real Estate Company, the consultant is OHA Engineering Consultant of Kuwait while the construction manager is Project Analysis & Control System Company (Projacs), also of Kuwait.

Recafco started work in July 2000 on the structural works, which was package one of the project, under a KD2.68 million contract. The project also included installation of the roof waterproofing system and plumbing works for all the buildings.

The buildings sit on a reinforced concrete raft foundation and comprises castinsitu concrete columns and beams and precast double-tee slabs/beams. They have a Kirby structural steel roofing system interspersed with huge skylights (7 metres square and 7 by 22 m in dimensions) and domes of 16.8 m diameter and 6.94 m height.

Recafco was subsequently awarded package five, comprising external works covering an area of 43,843 sq m, under a KD504,000 contract.

The firm, which started work on the contract in September last year, is scheduled to complete it this month.

A total area of 31,693 sq m will be asphalted to provide parking for 1,000 vehicles, while 12,150 sq m will be landscaped. Work also includes execution of all infrastructure works, storm water works, sanitary works, water supply and irrigation works, kerbstone works.

Boys school in Qurain

Recafco is also working on a KD1.17 million turnkey contract for the design, construction and maintenance of a secondary school for boys in Qurain for the Public Authority for Housing Care (PAHC).

Work includes all civil works, earthworks, castinsitu concrete for all foundations, ground beams and slab on grade, precast work (production and erection) for the entire structural skeleton above ground and Kirby structural steel and roof system for the 1, 322 sq m multipurpose hall.

Work started in February this year on the 20,820 sq m site in Mubarak Al Kabir area of the Al Qurain housing project and is to be completed in one year. ''About 65 per cent of the work has been finished on the project with the main skeleton is already completed,'' Ramaday says. ''Finishing activities, including painting, false ceiling and flooring works and installation of doors and windows, are in progress. Work is also under way simultaneously on the installation services (electrical, HVAC, plumbing and fire fighting).''

The building will have a built-up area of more than 11,000 sq m, with 2,978 sq m of playgrounds. Landscaping and yards will cover 9,642 sq m.