Srinagar: Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, on Thursday chaired a meeting of the Skills Development Department (SDD) to review the progress of projects undertaken under the CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) Budget 2021-22 at the Civil Secretariat here.

The meeting discussed final work details regarding physical and financial progress under central and state government-sponsored projects, including the status of new polytechnics in the department’s 2021-22 CAPEX budget.

The meeting was attended by the Principal Secretary, Skills Development Department, Dr. Asgar Hassan Samoon; Mission Director, Skills Development Mission, Shahid Iqbal Chaudhary; Director of Skills Development Department, Sudershan Kumar; R&B Chief Engineer Jammu, Chief Engineer JKPCC and other department officials while as R&B Chief Engineer Kashmir participated in the meeting via video conference.

The Advisor conducted a detailed, project-by-project review and inquired about the status of all work and the physical and financial progress of projects undertaken during the 2021-22 financial year.

He asked the relevant officials of the implementing agencies to expedite the remaining works so that the buildings are handed over to the department at the earliest.

Initially, the SDD Director made a detailed presentation of the progress of civil and non-civil works in the department during the 2021-22 financial year within the framework of the 2021-22 CAPEX budget.

The Advisor was informed that out of Rs. 27.63 crore approved under the 2021-22 CAPEX budget, Rs 23.81 crore has been released and Rs 18 crore has been spent by the various implementing agencies for the completion of various civil engineering works in identified polytechnics and ITIs.

Similarly, regarding the establishment of new polytechnics in UT, the meeting was also informed that an amount of Rs 234 crore was approved, of which Rs 190.72 crore was released and Rs 186 crore was been spent on miscellaneous completed work.

The adviser ordered the executive agencies concerned to spend all the amount released to complete the remaining works and then hand over the completed projects to the SDD, in addition to asking them that the residual works be completed by April.

He assured them of the availability of funds for the completion of all the original works and asked the agencies to complete the works such as administration, laboratories, workshop so that classes can start by now. July of this year in these new polytechnics.

ISLAMABAD – Capital Development Authority management is taking various measures to improve and strengthen health facilities for CDA employees and residents of Islamabad.
The Capital Development Authority hospital for the past two decades was not only short of capacity, but also faced a shortage of staff. In 2020, the CDA president ordered the construction of a new block with a capacity of nearly 200 beds. The project was started in 2020 and now it has been completed in record time. Moreover, the current management not only paid attention to civil works, but after 17 years, new doctors were appointed to increase the human resources of the hospital. According to the details, the newly appointed staff at CDA Hospital includes 33 nurses, 33 MOs while 12 specialists from various medical fields have also been appointed. The new hospital block will become operational from Thursday since the recruitment is already done and the equipment is installed. The civil engineering works had already been completed. The SAPM on CDA Affairs and its President addressed the newly recruited physicians. The CDA President welcomed the new staff members and motivated them to work to the best of their abilities.

If the application is approved by the City Council’s planning committee, the former Staples unit on Station Business Park will be demolished to create a new car park, facilitating the station’s £20million redevelopment.

The money for the Carlisle Station Gateway project was allocated under the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal.

A work plan document submitted to the city council reveals that Eric Wright Civil Engineering is the prime contractor.

Demolition plans submitted to City Council

In conjunction with Electricity North West, the contractor will set up demolition exclusion zones around the area, installing protective works around the northwest corner and others as required.

Access to the site will be via James Street, but the plan reads: “Other businesses operate along this road, including the Matalan store next door, all of which will require continuous access.”

“Bradley Demolition Ltd will monitor noise levels during the works. It is recognized that noise cannot be entirely eliminated, but reasonable measures will be taken to reduce the adverse effects of noise generated by the works on both local residents and occupants.

Leaders say Carlisle is entering an “exciting” time in its history as plans are also underway to redevelop the Grade I listed citadel buildings into a state-of-the-art campus for the University of Cumbria.

Station Manager Matthew Byrne, MP for Carlisle John Stevenson and Matthew Wormand of Avanti

Carlisle MP John Stevenson said the redevelopment of the station will be positive “for the region if not for the South West of Scotland as well.

“Regeneration is part of the Borderlands Growth Initiative, it’s extremely welcome. The infrastructure is part of the regeneration of the area.

“It’s very exciting as this will be the station’s first refurbishment for many years and the station is in dire need of an upgrade.”

The redevelopment has been secured through joint work between Cumbria County Council, Carlisle City Council, Network Rail and Avanti.

Mr Stevenson said: ‘It’s been extremely collegial and it’s a really big investment in the city.

“For the first time in almost decades, there is a huge amount of investment in the city.”

Cumbria County Council Leader Stewart Young said: “Carlisle Station Gateway is an ambitious £20 million Borderlands scheme, and the demolition of the old Staples building is a major milestone – and I am delighted to see progress, as tangible proof of this transformation project for our region.”

AHRENHOLD, Henry

Henry Ahrenhold III, nicknamed “Captain” by his 8 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren, died peacefully at his home in Atlanta on February 27, 2022 at the age of 93. He was born October 13, 1928 in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Elma Altonen and Henry Ahrenhold Jr. Henry grew up with his sister Joan on Long Island in Manhasset. He graduated from Lehigh University in 1950 with a degree in civil engineering where he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Henry was a first lieutenant who served 3 years of active duty in the US Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War and one year in the active reserve in Okinawa. He was awarded the Bronze Star, Korean Service Medal, UN Medal and National Defense Medal, and recently Korea Service Medal from South Korea. Henry had a distinguished career as an engineer in the paper industry across NC, LA and GA and retired from the offices of Georgia Pacific. He was a registered professional engineer and life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Henry and his wife Marilyn (Lyn) have been married for 68 years. Henry was a dedicated carer for Lyn for several years before his death in 2019. He was a loving husband, father and grandparent, always with a gracious smile. Her hobby and love beyond her family was sailing. He raced sailboats at the Savannah Yacht Club and later became a licensed Coast Guard captain, often helping move boats around the East Coast during his early retirement. He loved taking his family on cruises on his boat, Moon River. Henry has sailed most of the East Coast and Gulf Coast of the United States, as well as Greece, Brazil and the Caribbean Islands. He also enjoyed traveling by air or sea and visited many countries on six continents. Henry’s last years of retirement at Sunrise Independent Living were filled with dear friends of dining, bridge, reading, bird watching and puzzles. He rarely missed his long daily walk in the open air.

Henry is survived by three children Peggy (Kevin) Gallagher and Kent Ahrenhold of Atlanta, and Lindy (Lee) Kneipp of Chatham, LA; as well as eight beloved grandchildren Courtney (Josh) Toney of Rayville, LA; Christopher Sanchez of Oxford, MS; Hunter Ahrenhold of Atlanta; James Gallagher (Meghan) of Charlotte; Ashlyn McLin of Shelbyville, Tennessee; Mary Grace Gallagher, Atlanta; Anderson Ahrenhold (Bronwyn) Atlanta; and Tripp Prestridge (Mary Kathryn) of Pineville, LA; and six adored great-grandchildren Brooklyn and Channing Toney of LA, Jacob and Jackson McLin of TN, and Maddie Claire and Addie Mae Prestridge of LA. His beloved daughter Wendy predeceased him.

Henry was a member of Mount Bethel Methodist Church in Marietta. His body was donated to Emory University Medical School; a private family service will take place later in collaboration with the service of the medical school. Memoirs may be sent to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation (www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org) or the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) in memory of Henry Ahrenhold III.

Indian researchers had thought of a unique method that tackles two of the biggest environmental problems: sand conservation and plastic reduction.

The team at Sona College of Technology, Salem, Tamil Nadu, have developed new technology that will both save the country’s second most used natural resource – sand – and help reduce the landfills created by plastic bottle waste, like hitting birds with a rock according to The Weather Channel.

To do this, “the invention of green technology” will replace up to 70% of the sand in the concrete with shredded plastic used in the construction of their infrastructure.

“Our invention successfully uses recycled plastic waste to partially replace fine aggregates or natural sand in the manufacture of paving stones and precast bricks,” said lead inventor Dr. R Malathy, also Dean (R&D) and Professor in the civil engineering department.

The technology has just been patented by the Indian Patent Office.

Turning plastic waste into usable building materials

Sand is an essential ingredient of our lives and the main raw material from which modern cities are made, which is why the most important but least appreciated product of the 21st century has sparked a “wave of violence” in the world. world, wrote the BBC.

“Believe it or not, the world is facing a shortage of sand,” the website says. “How can we run out of a substance that is found in virtually every country in the world and seems essentially limitless?”

In India, almost 70 million tonnes of sand are consumed every year to meet the country’s infrastructure needs, and this consumption is increasing by 7% annually, India Today reported. “At the same time, more than 5 million tonnes of plastic are consumed each year, of which only around a quarter is recycled and the rest ends up in landfills,” the website says.

As a basic element of construction, sand is indeed essential in all parts of the world, and in fact the planet is covered with it. However, the extraction of billions of tons of sand per year has aggravating impacts on the planet and therefore on people’s lives.

Also Read: Deepwater Horizon Disaster Spill Endangers Dolphins

Tackling the two global environmental problems

The team of inventors from Sona College have developed a technology that converts recycled plastic waste into a usable building material to partially replace the traditional concrete ingredient.

“This groundbreaking invention will hopefully help control the depletion of the global stockpile of sand and limit plastic waste,” said Chocko Valliappa, vice president of the Sona Group of Education Institutions. The researchers, including Dr. R Malathy, Dr. SRR Senthil Kumar, N Karuppasamy and K Dhinesh Babu, were granted the patent “Effect of Recycled Plastic Waste as Partial Replacement of Fine Aggregates in the Manufacture of Paving Stones” in 2019. The team won the patent final in early 2022.

Waste bottles (polyethylene terephthalate) collected in Salem were ground to a size below 4.75 mm in large machines. Engineers succeeded in replacing 70% of the natural sand while equaling the resistance of the tri-arch pavers according to the IS 15658-2006 code.

“By using plastic waste and dramatically reducing the use of natural sand, our patented technology offers significant environmental and cost benefits,” said Dr. SRR Senthil Kumar, Principal of Sona College of Technology.

Also Read: Regions Previously Untouched by Fires Face Extreme Risks by End of Century

President Prof. AKW Jayawardane (left) and Vice President Sharham Muhseen

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Commercial Bank PLC has announced the appointment of a new Chairman and Vice Chairman effective March 1. The current Vice President, Prof. AKW Jayawardane will be the new President, succeeding Justice K. Sripavan who is retiring, while Sharham Muhseen will be the new Vice President.

Justice Sripavan was appointed Chairman on December 21, 2020 as he joined the Board in April 2017. Prof. Jayawardane has been a member of the Commercial Bank Board since April 2015 and was appointed Vice Chairman in December 2020.

Jayawardane served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa until November 27, 2017 and is a Senior Professor of Civil Engineering as well as a highly regarded academic. He was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for six years at the University of Moratuwa.

He holds a PhD in Construction Management and an MSc in Construction from Loughborough University of Technology, UK and a BSc Eng. Civil Engineering degree with first class honors from the University of Moratuwa.

Also Corporate Fellow, Fellow and International Professional Engineer of Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka (IESL), CEng, FIE (SL), IntPE (SL), Fellow of National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, FNAS (SL) , Founder Member of Society of Structural Engineers Sri Lanka MSSE (SL), Fellow of Institute of Project Managers, Sri Lanka, FIPM (SL) and Life Member of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science.

Vice Chairman Muhseen was appointed to the Board in February 2021. He is a senior investment banker with extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital markets, which Has held a leadership position on the boards and management teams of financial institutions across Asia to help drive their corporate strategic agenda and roadmap.

During his more than 20-year career in investment banking, he has completed landmark mergers and capital-raising transactions of more than $100 billion. Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse’s Asia FIG sector team won Asset magazine’s “FIG Asia House of the Year” award for several years under his leadership. Several transactions he has led have been awarded as the best national transactions and the best capital-raising transactions in the financial sector.

He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Colombo, a bachelor’s degree in business administration (Hons) from Western Michigan University, and completed the corporate finance training program at JPMorgan in New York. .

Previously, Muhseen worked at top global investment banks, Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan in top regional coverage roles. His most immediate previous role was as Managing Director, Head of Southeast Asia Financial Institutions (FIG) Group and Head of Asia Insurance at Singapore-based Credit Suisse. He was associate director of Deloitte.

Heathrow Airport is Britain’s busiest airport, with over 80 million passengers a year and a plane taking off approximately every 45 seconds during peak hours.

It has four terminals accessible from London by train, bus or underground, with the Heathrow Express rail link connecting the transport hub to London Paddington.

This high-frequency public transport system works like clockwork – but its construction has gone rather less smoothly, putting parts of the airport and even the nearby Piccadilly line at risk.

READ NEXT – The story behind one of the UK’s shortest motorways

In 1994, engineers drilling tunnels for the Heathrow Express under the airport apron experienced three cave-ins in three days, opening huge holes in the tarmac above.

The disaster nearly spelled the end of the Jubilee Line Extension, which was to be built using the same tunneling technique.

So what happened?

Tunnel collapse

Balfour Beatty, a major construction company then and now, submitted the lowest bid for the project and, with the UK economy in recession, they were allowed to proceed.

On Friday October 21, 1994, work on the Heathrow Express had been going on for a year. Engineers had started drilling two tunnels under the airport so trains could reach Terminal 4.

As the canals were drilled, liquid concrete was sprayed on their walls to stabilize them. The shotcrete coating technique is still used, including on the Crossrail project.

But this project was the first time the “New Austrian Tunneling Method” (NATM), as it was then known, had been used in the UK.

And “poor design and planning, lack of quality during construction, lack of technical control and…lack of safety management” at Heathrow would pave the way for disaster.

Only one NATM expert, a consultant from Austrian firm Geoconsult, was recruited by Balfour Beatty instead of the three recommended, to help keep costs down.

He noticed a number of small errors in the work in progress, raising concerns about its quality – but was largely ignored, despite signs of an impending collapse being visible.

Early on October 21, the first of the tunnels collapsed.

Piccadilly Line was in danger

Workers had only minutes to evacuate the excavations after large cracks appeared and concrete began to fall from the ceiling – miraculously no one was injured.

Over the next three days, tunnels continued to collapse around the airport, causing sinkholes to open in the apron and between the two runways.

Buildings collapsed as the ground gave way and a concrete plug was hastily installed underground, preventing the underground instability from spreading further.

The health and safety manager told a month-long trial at The Old Bailey that without this action the collapse could have ‘decompressed’ the Piccadilly line and crushed Tube passengers to death.

Other projects using the same liquid concrete spraying method – including the Heathrow baggage tunnel and the Jubilee Line extension – were quickly halted pending investigations.

These confirmed that sub-standard construction work had not been checked against deadlines, with managers relying on ‘good fortune’ rather than ‘effective risk management’ to prevent disaster.

Additionally, grouting – whereby grout is injected under the concrete to provide additional support – had damaged the tunnels and adequate repairs had not been carried out.

UK’s ‘worst civil engineering disaster’ for a quarter of a century

Geoconsult and Balfour Beatty have been fined a total of £1.7million over the disaster, the highest health and safety fine ever imposed to date.

The contractor has admitted failing to ensure the safety of its employees and the public, after coming under fire from the HSE for putting results ahead of its responsibilities.

Experts called the collapses “the UK’s worst civil engineering disaster in the last quarter century”, bearing “all the hallmarks of an organizational accident”.

The catastrophe “could have been avoided”, they added, if “the cultural mentality had not focused on apparent economies and the need for production rather than particular risks”.

Repairs to the damage amounted to £150million, triple the expected cost for the boring Heathrow Express project.

Piccadilly Line services to Heathrow have been halted while the route is stabilized. With underground transport disrupted, Heathrow Junction station was hastily built to accommodate passengers.

The station was located in Stockley Park, with a track laid along the route of an old canal. It was used until June 1998 when the Heathrow Express was finally opened.

Balfour Beatty’s reputation was damaged by the disaster, forcing them to adopt new management practices. In 2018 they were ranked as the UK’s largest construction company, with an annual revenue of around £30m.

UK building legislation has been tightened, while the Institution of Civil Engineers has issued new guidance on the use of NATM in soft soils.

Today, the Heathrow Express delivers five million passengers a year to Heathrow Airport – which has almost disappeared in the holes left by its construction.

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Filings for intellectual property (IP) protection rose 11.6% in 2021 to a total of 46,496, recovering significantly from the 2020 decline as lighter quarantine restrictions last year revived commercial and IP-related activities.

After being the hardest hit in 2020, utility model (UM) filings saw the strongest recovery, registering a 20% increase to a total of 1,588. The rebound, which was faster than the growth of 4% from the pre-pandemic year 2019, was driven by residents whose UM filings rose 24.4% to a total of 24,015. Non-resident filers fell 44% to 48 .

Food chemicals contributed the most to the sum, with 815 UM deposits. Then come the fundamental chemistry of materials (with 92 deposits made); other special machines (77); handling (75); and civil engineering (57).

Trademark applications jumped 12% to 39,616, with resident applicants accounting for the bulk at 24,015 and rebounding with 14% growth. Deposits from non-residents also rebounded by 12%. In total, trademark filings last year grew at a faster rate than the 10% annual growth in 2019.

Growth in trademark filings was largely driven by filings for pharmaceuticals, healthcare and cosmetics, which totaled 11,360. Agricultural products and services (10,977) came second, followed by scientific research, information and communication technologies (8,946); management, communication, real estate and financial services (7,624); and textiles, clothing and accessories (5,843).

Meanwhile, patent filings rose 10% to 4,031. Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) filers, which propelled patent filing activity, rose 12% to 3,344, while resident depositors increased by 9% to 455.

Pharmaceutical patents pushed the increase (with 3,170 filings), followed by organic fine chemicals (1,562); biotechnology, (994); basic materials chemistry, (614); and food chemistry, (443).

Industrial design (ID) filings, meanwhile, continued to decline, albeit at a slower pace from 2020’s 37%. ID requests fell -0.2% to 1,261 Resident ID filings contracted -0.3% to 644 while non-resident filings were flat at 617.

A total of 152 filings under the conveyance classification constituted the majority. Behind, packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods (95); recording, communication or information retrieval equipment (64); furnishings (62); fluid distribution equipment, sanitary equipment, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, solid fuels (54).

Copyright filings, meanwhile, climbed 123% to 2,086 from 940.

Last year, the top five areas for copyright filings were in the category of other literary, scholarly, scientific and artistic works (709 filings); books, brochures, articles, e-books, audio books, comics, novels and other writings (439); musical compositions with or without words (281); drawings, paintings, architectural works, sculptures, engravings, prints, lithographs and others (236); and computer programs, software, games, applications (137);

“This significant rebound, especially in UM, trademarks, patents and copyright, has been made possible by our aggressive IP promotion campaigns to reach more inventors, artists and contractors. Added to this is our ongoing work to upgrade, streamline and digitize our services to attract more customers,” said Managing Director Rowel S. Barba.

“Our success in reviving demand for the creation and protection of intellectual property has further motivated us to maintain our momentum of rebuilding the economy with intellectual property,” he added.

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British researchers have created a new style of vaulted floor that could reduce the use of concrete and help reduce the construction industry’s carbon footprint.

The ‘thin shell’ vaulted floor was developed by a team of structural engineers, mathematicians and manufacturing experts from the universities of Bath, Cambridge and Dundee. Compared to a traditional flat floor, the innovation would use 75% less concrete and 60% less carbon in its construction.

The curved arch-like structure is covered with standard raised floor panels to create a flat surface. Created by the UKRI-funded ACORN (Automating Concrete Construction) research project, the arch-shaped floor design takes advantage of the “inherent natural properties and forces” of concrete, the team said.

Dr Paul Shepherd, Principal Investigator for ACORN and Reader in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath, said: “Achieving the net zero targets recently ratified at COP26 will require significant changes to the share of the construction industry, which is responsible for around half of the UK’s total emissions.

“Given that concrete is the most consumed material in the world after water, and its production contributes more than 7% of global CO2 emissions, the easiest way for construction to begin its journey to zero net is to use less concrete.”

Currently, most building floors use thick flat slabs of solid concrete, which rely on the flexural strength of concrete to support loads. Concrete is not good at resisting the stress induced by bending, so these floors need steel reinforcement. Instead, ACORN’s approach is to use concrete for what it does best: resist compression.

By placing the material only where it is needed and ensuring that it works in compression, the ACORN design uses less concrete. The researchers noted that the form may prove impractical to achieve using traditional temporary forms, so they also developed an automated adaptable mold and robotic concrete spraying system that can be used in a construction environment. off-site factory.

MORE CIVIL AND STRUCTURAL NEWS

Along with this new style of manufacturing, the team developed bespoke software to optimize floors for a given building design and control the automated manufacturing system to produce them.

Since the floor is fabricated off-site, it must also be transported to the site and then assembled. The team divided the large floor into nine transportable pieces and developed a connection system to fit the pieces together.

The ACORN team said they have also incorporated reversible joints, so the floor can be dismantled and reused elsewhere at the end of the building’s life, promoting a circular economy in construction.

The practicality of the system has been demonstrated to industrial partners ACORN realizing a building shell thin-size of 4.5 mx 4.5 m in NRFIS Laboratory of Civil Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge.

According to the team, early results suggest that ACORN’s approach can generate “significant carbon savings”, with future research likely to lead to more as processes are optimized. Each piece took only half an hour to make despite being the first of its kind, and the whole floor took a week to assemble – future commercial versions could be made faster in dedicated industrial facilities, according to the researchers.

Rishi Sunak is urged to delay a ban on the use of ‘red diesel’ on construction sites and in factories when it will cost businesses hundreds of millions of pounds and trigger a wave of business collapses.

The Chancellor has pledged to end the use of low-tax fuel in construction and manufacturing from April this year as part of the government’s push to cut carbon emissions.

But construction industry groups and MPs warn it will lead to up to £500million in additional costs for businesses and jeopardize economic recovery.

Ministers insist the shake-up will spur the development of greener technologies such as the hydrogen fuel cells being developed by JCB – but the companies have stressed there is currently no realistic alternative to diesel more expensive white.

Alasdair Reisner, chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, warned that larger companies would be able to absorb the extra costs, but many smaller businesses that have been battered during the pandemic will go to the wall as a result.

The association estimates the hit to businesses could be between £300m and £500m. A survey last summer found that a fifth of construction companies feared the added burden would make their business unviable.

Mr Reisner said: “There are serious concerns about this change – it is the number one issue we are hearing about at the moment.

“The changes to red diesel will cause very significant cost pressures for construction companies, at a time when they are already facing a series of other cost increases.

“Our members know they have to play their part in getting to net zero, but for the green revolution to be sustainable you also need a sustainable industry – you have to ask yourself if that will be the case if we have a big number of failures as a result of these changes.

“At this time, I think there is reason to delay the introduction of change, due to the economic circumstances we find ourselves in at the moment.”

He said that while some companies passed on the costs by charging customers more, others would not have realized the increased costs until too late and would find themselves having to take a financial hit on projects already agreed for this year. .