MULTI SKILLED CONSTRUCTION IN A HIGHLY CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT

Construction on an active military base is not like building a new commercial development. The construction process must conform to the security requirements as well as the strictly controlled document, material and personnel movement and the base’s operating procedures. Due to confidentiality issues, specifics could not be given, but the level of control and oversight required on the project was significantly more stringent than that typically encountered in ISO-conforming environments.

Every item of material, plant, and personnel required to support the construction of the new facilities on the airfield had to go through extensive clearance prior to entry on to the facility. The movement of all cargo and personnel was itself a complex problem. The fact that all flights and ship movements were under military control and fixed to a number of rigid schedules created many issues; the military often prioritized the movement of their resources and manpower, which meant DMCI’s engineers would have to wait 2-3 days before being approved to fly to the island. All flights for manpower were coursed through Singapore.

Each flight for one worker costed around 2-3,000 USD per person, round trip, for a ride in the seating area of the cargo hull of an airplane. Due to the cost, it meant that a lot of manpower could not be deployed, and came with its own set of constraints.

Normally, in Metro Manila, workers are divided into categories based on their trade; mason, carpenter, steelman, etc., and do not mix trades. However, due to the high cost of mobilization, DMCI had to bring workers and operators that knew multiple trades and equipment. A worker one day might be cutting formworks for a concrete pour, and the next day laying rebar for the structural columns of a building. This type of worker, called a “general operative” by San Juan Construction, had not yet existed before in the eyes of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the government agency that manages programs for Overseas Filipino Workers. This draws some parallels to the unique challenges of construction even until today.

LASTING IMPRESSIONS

DMCI’s experience with general operatives gave it some foreshadowing of the challenges that the construction industry is facing today; namely a shortage of skilled workers. A multi-skilled worker, or general operative, does not really exist in large construction companies in the Philippines. Due to job descriptions, the scope of work for workers is clearly defined and normally do not mix between trades. However, for one example, this means that carpenters would lose productive days at work if the concreting and steelmen cannot keep up with pouring new floors. With these issues today, DMCI is applying the same concepts from their experience in Diego Garcia and actively trying to multi-skill workers so that jobsite productivity remains the same.

Even at the engineering and managerial level, creating multi-skilled construction professionals will enable them to gain more from their work and increase their potential for career development. It is important for construction professionals to understand how their scope interfaces with other trades; while a civil engineer may only be focused on concreting, they cannot forget that there are MEP conduits and stub outs that run through walls and slabs. If these are missed, one must drill through the concrete retroactively which means consulting the structural engineer and delaying the project timeline.

CONCLUSION

DMCI brings to bear more than just construction of buildings and facilities in handling very specialized projects such as the Diego Garcia project. Very specialized projects need to be operated within very strict technical and operational parameters; their logistics need to be managed very well; the various disciplines need to be coordinated very well; and the construction methods need to be adapted to the project construction conditions.

DMCI can apply its expertise in handling specialized infrastructure development projects to current high-end and critical projects for the country’s growing and strategic infrastructure development. This includes high-end and high-tech infrastructure development, requiring cutting-edge technology and mission critical facilities to be completed within strict parameters and completed on time. All of these projects are to be constructed within very controlled environments to ensure quality and require effective coordination of several engineering disciplines.

These experiences of DMCI in Diego Garcia provided valuable lessons to the company on how its engineers and construction workforce could view things from a ‘total project’ perspective. Construction workers and engineers should be able to function competently within their respective fields of expertise but also able to appreciate the inter-relationship of several systems in a project. In a project, for instance, where the structural and architectural systems are complex and interwoven, the mechanical, electrical, and other systems require equal expertise and coordination. The lesson from Diego Garcia serves as a reminder to DMCI of this crucial aspect in its construction projects.

Engineering requirements for different technologies used in various projects remain fundamentally the same: to translate given technical requirements into physical structures that are safe, efficient, and of quality. Lessons learned from Diego Garcia are relevant to DMCI’s future projects that are complex, technologically driven, and critical in nature and require high level of skills and expertise in meeting project requirements.

Watch out for our upcoming interview feature with Engr. Ronaldo R. Elepaño Jr., where he shares more firsthand insights from DMCI's experience in Diego Garcia and the lessons that continue to shape the industry today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christine Ave V. Tragura, MBA, CLSSYB

Ave is a licensed Civil Engineer with over 16 years of international engineering and infrastructure experience across the construction, oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, and energy sectors in the Philippines and Singapore. She is currently serving as Digital Communications Senior Supervisor at D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI).