CPG Garners Two “Excellence” Awards at the Design and Engineering Safety Awards 2021

This year, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore has awarded three professional engineers with the BCA Design and Engineering Safety “Excellence” awards. The Award gives recognition to the Qualified Person for Structural Works [QP(ST)], QP(ST)’s firm and the project team for ingenious design processes and solutions in overcoming project challenges to ensure safety in design, construction and maintenance of building and civil engineering projects locally and overseas.

CPG Consultants Pte Ltd is honoured to be presented with two out of the three “Excellence” awards through outstanding work done by two of its engineers, Er. Joanne Ee and Er. Loh Kar Kheng.

Institutional and Industrial Category: State Courts, Singapore

Er. Loh Kar Kheng won the Excellence award for his engineering solutions in constructing the iconic State Courts (Singapore). The new 35-storey State Courts Towers comprises the 'Court Tower" and a slender "Office Tower". In constructing the challenging slender Office Tower, 39 link bridges were planned and span the Office Tower's circulation space to the stockier Court Tower. These link bridges, in turn, provided lateral stability to the Office Tower. Each link bridge was also prefabricated and delivered to the site as one unit before being hoisted and placed on temporary supporting corbels before final connections were made safely. Construction within a constrained space was thus possible and height work was minimised, improving safety for those on-site.

Link Bridge Erection (Illustration by CPG Consultants)

Left: Link bridges  Right: State Courts view (Image by Khoogj)

Another major challenge was the difficulty of the deep basement construction. The site is close to a conserved building, an underground MRT station, and a gazetted National Monument. It was critical to safely construct three basement levels for the State Courts without adversely affecting the neighbouring buildings. To achieve this, Er. Loh adopted a robust earth-retaining structure comprising Diaphragm walls and a semi-top down construction method for basement construction to minimise wall deflection, ground movement and water drawdown.

Institutional and Industrial Category: Eunoia Junior College

Another winner, Er. Joanne Ee was recognised for her innovative engineering solutions in the construction of Eunoia Junior College (EJC). EJC is the first project in Singapore to use a prefabricated hybrid Timber-Concrete Slab System (CREE) for slab construction and a Unitized facade system with internal Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) panels for external walls. As CLT panels have a lower carbon footprint compared to steel or concrete, it enhanced the project’s environmental friendliness.

Prefabrication of Hybrid Timber-concrete slab system (CREE) (Illustration by CPG Consultants)

MET used in classrooms  (Image by CPG Consultants)

 

In addition, with 70% of the project prefabricated before installation, productivity was increased by 55%, reducing the overall construction period. By relying on prefabrication with work done off-site, there was a reduction in dis-amenities in the form of reduced disturbance to the project’s surroundings, including the nearby Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. The prefabricated components were installed on-site with simple connections and were highly lightweight, environmentally sustainable, and met all strength, fire, waterproofing, and durability requirements.

Through the creative engineering design processes and solutions Er. Joanne Ee and Er. Loh Kar Kheng demonstrated to overcome project challenges, they contribute to inculcating a solid safety culture among building professionals in developing our built environment. Congratulations to both and CPG Consultants!

 

 

By CPG Editorial Team