Every Wednesday, our department conducts site visits on the various project sites our company's handling. Since I'm stationed in the office because I'm under the design team, I can only be exposed to the site every so often. And when such time arises, I take it as an opportunity to provide myself with additional learnings which are beneficial for future planning purposes (and when the time comes that I'll be needed on-site). In a way, I'd also like to impart the knowledge gained for some who aren't in the field of construction and for those who would probably want to study and be on the same field.

Since we went to one of our high rise projects, the fabrication and installation of Precast Concretes where highlighted.

What is a precast concrete?

A precast concrete is a prefabricated concrete which is typically the number one choice for high-rise buildings as it aids in lessening the time spent on the construction. Precast concretes can vary in kind depending on their place of fabrication, the case here in this post being that it's made on site, it is a cast-in-site precast concrete, and another which is made on a precast plant is called a Plant-Cast precast concrete.

To put it simply, a precast concrete is like a block puzzle piece.

What did we see on our Site Visit?

■ Fabrication of Precast Concrete

The photo shown is that of its steel casting bed which serves as the mold for the to-be poured concrete.

■ Precast Concrete Installation

A tower crane lifts the precast concrete up to its intended place, and then gets laid with the help of the manual workforce.

Once rightfully placed, it gets welded to the structural steel reinforcements, so as to secure its position.

■Filling The Gaps

To fill in the gaps between the precast concretes, a spray foam was used. Not only is it more cost-efficient than when using concrete to fill the gaps, it can also serve as some sort of insulation, which in a way, helps in the structure's overall temperature.

^{P.S. We actually had videos of the spraying process and the installation process of the precast concrete. It's just that it's on my workmate's phone and she's too lazy share it with me or even just upload it. Haha! I'll just try recording such next time we'll go on a site visit}