{"id":2317,"date":"2010-11-01T09:27:47","date_gmt":"2010-11-01T14:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/72.167.124.155\/tilt-uptoday\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2015-06-08T02:56:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T07:56:07","slug":"expanding-tilt-up-to-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/2010\/11\/01\/expanding-tilt-up-to-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"La expansi\u00f3n del m\u00e9todo Tilt-Up hacia Oriente Medio"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For nearly a decade, members of the design and construction community have been exploring opportunities to expand their business into the Middle East. While many have pursued\u00a0work in locations such as Dubai, one innovative Tilt-Up contractor, SiteCast Construction Corp. of Ottawa, Canada, chose to look at another location \u2013 Amman, Jordan. Home to more than two million residents, Amman is the capital city of Jordan and a tremendous center for culture, politics and commerce.<\/p>\n

While attending an industry event, Steve Kaminski, President of SiteCast Construction Corp., spoke with someone who was pursuing work in the Middle East. Naturally, he gained information about the experience and started to develop an action plan for how SiteCast could seek out opportunities. A chance encounter led to meeting an individual who was performing work in Jordan. After learning more about the country, culture and strong relationship between Canada and Jordan, Kaminski decided this would be a good opportunity for his firm and embarked on a test project with the Jordanian military.<\/p>\n

One of SiteCast\u2019s first actions was to set up an international construction division to tackle the Middle East projects. \u201cWe learned that nearly everything in the city is made of load-bearing masonry,\u201d said Shawn Hickey, Vice President of Construction at SiteCast. \u201cSite-cast Tilt-Up seemed a natural fit for this geographic area and would provide the durability and low maintenance that owners desired.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, embarking on a Tilt-Up project in Amman would certainly be a challenge since this would be the first Tilt-Up project in the country. To demonstrate all that Tilt-Up has to offer, SiteCast elected to do a prototype housing project for the military. The 1,765-square-foot structure was built in the Military Medical City in Amman as part of the military\u2019s plans to complete housing requirements for their personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire structure was built out of Tilt-Up panels, including the roof,\u201d said\u00a0Hickey. \u201cWe used 22 panels on the project and were able to demonstrate speed of construction, security and durability that are the hallmarks of Tilt- Up construction. We used reinforced insulated concrete panels that were load-bearing structural components for the exterior, interior and roof panels of the structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this project, SiteCast used\u00a0J.W. Lindsay Enterprises Limited\u00a0of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for the engineering. \u201cOne key to a successful project is having technical assistance available from the design office at all times while work is progressing on site,\u201d said Laurence Smith, P. Eng. and Vice President, Engineering at J.W. Lindsay. \u201cWith a seven-hour time difference between our office and the site, it was critical to be available by cell phone or e-mail at anytime in the event that a problem arose. As with any project whether near or far, proper\u00a0planning is the essential ingredient for success. We greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work with SiteCast and cross-train with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While the project was a tremendous success, SiteCast did encounter several challenges during construction. Since Tilt-Up was entirely new to the area, all employees had to be trained on the method \u2013 everything from finishing and laser leveling to panel erection and bracing. Local laborers and materials were used and SiteCast brought a superintendent to the region to assist with training. A crane was available for the project, but all lifting hardware had to be shipped. A large shipping container of materials was sent to Jordan and took nearly four weeks to arrive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlike North America, there is no apparent apprenticeship program for trade members to pass along their skills to the next generation. Unskilled labor is plentiful and safety standards are different than those expected in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most surprising things\u00a0to me is the leadership structure on projects in the region,\u201d said Hickey. \u201cIn Jordan, engineers are primarily the project leaders. While in Canada and the U.S., it is the superintendent who is the primary contact and leads the on-site construction of the project. Although engineers have the education, they may lack the skill-set to perform trade work, such as concrete finishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hickey further notes that most of the engineers are educated in the U.S. and Canada, so the language barrier was not as challenging as they had anticipated. Most laborers also spoke English very well.<\/p>\n

Although Jordan is one of the most progressive countries in the region, some cultural changes exist. The technology infrastructure is not as robust as in the U.S. and Canada, so Internet connections were intermittent at times. Unlike in some Western nations, armed soldiers are everywhere, which can be uncommon at first glance, but quickly becomes commonplace and reassuring. Friday and Saturday are the weekend and Sunday is the start of the work week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an extremely positive experience working in Amman,\u201d said Hickey. \u201cThe military officials see the viability of Tilt-Up and are interested in pursuing other projects using the method.\u201d The project generated such tremendous feedback that SiteCast has received interest from other Middle Eastern countries about constructing Tilt-Up projects in their nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits of Tilt-Up \u2013 speed, durability, low maintenance, security \u2013 are attractive to many entities, especially in countries dominated with concrete construction such as Jordan,\u201d said Hickey. \u201cWe were able to show them a new construction method that could save them money when compared to traditional masonry.\u201d<\/p>\n

As SiteCast continues to build its presence in the Middle East, they are actively canvassing with employment opportunities, from superintendents to project managers. Please visit their website at www.sitecast.ca.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durante casi una d\u00e9cada, los profesionales del sector del dise\u00f1o y la construcci\u00f3n han estado explorando oportunidades para expandir sus negocios hacia Oriente Medio. Aunque muchos han buscado trabajo en lugares como Dub\u00e1i, una innovadora t\u00e9cnica de construcci\u00f3n Tilt-Up Leer m\u00e1s\u2026<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[73,50,131,58,118],"class_list":{"0":"post-2317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-education-2","8":"tag-engineering","9":"tag-middle-east","10":"tag-sitecast","11":"tag-tilt-up"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7469,"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions\/7469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tilt-up.org\/tilt-uptoday\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}