BLDG1001 High Rise Construction

Assessment 2 (30%)

Due – end of Weeks 6 and 13 (11:59PM Sunday)

Assessment Description

This assessment must be submitted by students individually. It provides responses to a series of tutorial exercises based on the content of the weekly modules. Students will firstly work on the exercises with a tutor during the tutorial slots. Based on this understanding, students are supposed to do further research to complete the exercises.

The required weekly tutorial exercises are mentioned in the table below. You will need to find these worksheets under ‘Study Topics’ (within the appropriate module) in Blackboard.

Assessment Procedure

Your written responses and drawings (if required) about the problem should be written on the worksheets sourced from Blackboard.  The use of graph paper is allowed for the drawings. All written and diagrammatic material sourced from books, journal articles and websites MUST be referenced and acknowledged and any form of plagiarism will result in the appropriate actions being taken (see Unit Outline for more details).

Your assessment must be submitted as a single PDF, online through its correct Turnitin drop-box on Blackboard no later than the due dates above.  Submissions not complying with Curtin’s Late Submissions and Plagiarism policies will be penalised as per the Unit Outline.

Marking Criteria

• The allocated marks for each individual question are given in the tutorial worksheets.
• The following criteria (see the table below) will be applied within individual questions APPROPRIATELY.
• If you consider an individual question, some criteria may be irrelevant. For example, the criterion – “Quality of diagrams and drawings” – will not be applicable if only written responses are required.
• When diagrams are mandatory, it will be clearly mentioned in the tutorial worksheet.
• If a scaled drawing is required, that will be clearly mentioned in the tutorial worksheet too.
• Although diagrams are not specifically requested, students may use sketches to explain their answers; this typically enhances the clarity of your answers. In such situations, a scale is not required but ensure that the sketches are neat and informative (for example: annotated), to communicate your message clearly.

This tutorial worksheet forms part of Assessment 2 – Folio 1.

Introduction

Assume the following:

You are a construction company employed to design and construct a new 20 storey office building which will include an additional two storeys below ground level.

The site is in the City of Perth and is bounded on the North by Terrace Road and on the South by Riverside Drive (see Figure 1).  The site is 50 m long by 50 m wide and is next to Riverside Drive.

It is essential that the building be designed to use as much of the site as possible in order to maximise the financial return on the investment.

Initial designs by the Structural Engineers indicate that they prefer a concrete framed building with a “retaining wall and raft” type basement.

You are to attend a preliminary meeting with the client organisation at which they will expect a description of your proposed basement design with justification.

Figure 1: Location of proposed office building on existing vacant site

Sequence of Tasks

In order to provide the required information you will need to undertake the following tasks:

1. Identify facts known about the site and seek additional information (as appropriate).                                                                                            (10 marks)

2. Identify the problems to be considered when designing the basement. (15 marks)

3. Choose the most appropriate construction method: (25 marks)
   1. Decide on the method; and
   2. List how this deals with the site problems.

4. Choose a method of waterproofing the basement: (20 marks)
5. Decide on the method; and
6. List how this deals with the site problems.

5. Choose excavation plant to be used and provide reasons for choice. (10 marks)

6. Provide a scale drawing of the site and basement to illustrate your proposal. (20 marks)

This tutorial worksheet is a part of Assessment 2 – submission. The worksheet includes questions in general and relevant to a case study (link is provided below).

Section 1 – General

Answer the following questions.

1. For a selected Australian state, list out the reliable resources that could be used to conduct a desk study in the preliminary ground investigation stage. You will need to list out the type of information obtained from each resource. (05 marks)

2. Below is an extract from a field book of a geotechnical engineer. These observations were made during a field visit of the preliminary ground investigation stage. Briefly mention how these observations impact on detailed ground investigation, construction and project cost.  (15 marks)

3. On pages 29 and 30 of the resource below, you will see a borehole log taken from the Gold Coast Light Rail (GCLR) Stage 2 Project. Outline how you will obtain samples for these layers to obtain the required strength parameters. (15 marks)

4. Figure 1 shows a situation where the assumed bedrock profile (based on the detailed ground investigation) is different to the actual bedrock profile. Considering that end-bearing pile footings are used in this project, explain what challenges that the pile contractor will face during construction. Explain how you should negotiate with the relevant parties to manage variances. (15 marks)

Figure 1: Mistaken bedrock profile (Builder’s Engineer 2012)

Section 2 – Case Study

In Figure 2, you will see a site where a 10 storey building construction is proposed. Your company is hired for the ground investigation. You are at the beginning of the preliminary ground investigation stage.

Figure 2: Proposed building site (Adapted from Landgate 2019)

1. Launch ‘Map Viewer Plus’ by Landgate (see below) and conduct a desk study to identify features that influence the detailed ground investigation stage, construction and project cost. Use the address: 21 Riverside Drive East Perth WA 6004.                                                                       (15 marks)

Important

After releasing this worksheet, we realized that Map Viewer Plus was not free anymore. Therefore, site features are provided to you in BB in the file entitled ‘Case study (Part 2) Site features.pdf’ (these features are just made up to facilitate this exercise). (File path: Study Topics à Topic 1 – Site Investigation). Students are requested to complete this exercise, assuming this file as your observations taken from ‘Map Viewer Plus’.

2. After the desk study, you are about to proceed to the site reconnaissance stage. Before the field trip, what additional details should you obtain from the other stakeholders? (15 marks)

3. During the field visit, you are advised to obtain soil samples from a few boreholes to plan the detailed ground investigation. Explain how you will decide the number of boreholes required and distribute them over the site (12 marks). What equipment will you use during this preliminary ground investigation (08 marks)?                                                  (20 marks)

References

Builder’s Engineer. 2012. “Soil Samples and Soil Profiles,” Builder’s Engineer (Blog), December, 2012. http://www.abuildersengineer.com/2012/12/soil-samples-and-soil-proles.html .

Landgate. n.d. Landgate Map viewer Plus (website). Accessed February 22, 2019. https://maps.landgate.wa.gov.au/maps-landgate/registered/