CW Milestones Part-4 – Excavation, Layout and Lean concrete

When site is being kicked –off, the site becomes the responsibility of Civil Works. And the period between Kick-off and RFI becomes very crucial for maintaining overall project speed because during this time only one department (i.e. Civil Works) is working on site. For the telecom rollout projects,  this period normally becomes among major bottlenecks, if not handled or planned properly. And the sales and management team has to be thoroughly worked out this period and need to identify for any manageable (contract negotiation/finalization of subcontractors, Sub-con preparedness and their relative brainstorming and trainings in order to be synchronized with targets etc.)  and unmanageable constraints (like offshore supplies of masts or generators etc., shortage of construction material etc in market), before finalizing and sharing targets and deadlines with customers.

The first thing after kick-off a civil subcontractor has to do is to mark boundaries of site, and clear or demolish (if required) the things within parameters.

CW Milestones Part-3 – Site Kick off

After Work Package approval, a formal hand over meeting is being arranged by Site Acquisition department, called site kick-off. This is the first and most important step which counts towards start of construction works on site. Normally the participants of the Kick Off meeting includes

• Site Acquisition(SA) Representative
• CW representative
• Actual Owner or his representative of leased property of site
• CW Sub Contractor’s team lead/site supervisor (along with his team , with all measuring and marking tools)

CW representative have to understand that once s/he will have accepted the site at the time of kick-off, without any report, CW is going to be responsible

CW Milestones Part-2 - Work Package Status

Work Package (WP) is set of documents mainly containing following documents

• Detailed Engineering Drawings (DEDs)
• Civil Works' Technical Site Survey Report (CW TSSR)
• Radio Frequency and Transmission Planning Technical Site Survey Report (RF-TR TSSR)
• Site Acquisition Report
• Geotechnical or Soil Investigation Report (If applicable)
• Structural Feasibility Report (If applicable – Required for Rooftop sites only)
• Any other document as mutually agreed after negotiation

WP should be approved by customer's Site Design Team before

CW Milestones Part-1 - Technical Site Survey from Civil works and Site Design Prospective

Technical Site Survey is an important milestone, to be achieved before land/building for Site is being leased or purchased. TSS component of a Network Rollout Turnkey Project is normally owned by Site Acquisition however a CW/SD representative is also part of TSS team. Here CW representative finalize the site and confirms as if site is initially okay from Design, Material transportation and Power availability point of view. In addition to CW representative there are normally three other departments to be represented, which include RF Planning, MW planning and Site Acquisition. It is important that

Milestones of Construction Work On Network Rollout Turnkey Project

On a GSM (or any other Telecom) site there are some activities in which Civil Works team is either fully involved or at least participated (or represented) in the activity.  Those activities in which civil works is only represented is basically the one which have ownership with other departments. But due to some sort of support work or participation is required from civil works, so it has to spare its resources for those activities.

1.       Technical Site Survey (CW+SA+RF+Transmission) (Normally owned by Site Acquisition )

2.       Work Package Approval (Process is owned by Design Department or by CW if design is totally externalized/outsourced)

3.       Site Kick off (The process is owned by Site Acquisition, however this is the activity in which site location is handed over from Site Acquisition to Civil Works, so in order to rule out the waste of money time and resources and chances of not meeting the target, at some later stage, CW representative has to take necessary measure. He/She has to mark all area which will be included in Construction, has to clearly tell site owner if any destruction is required, estimated time of construction etc.etc. )

4.       Excavation + Layout + Lean concrete (Complete CW Activity)

5.       Concrete Pouring (Pad + Columns) (Complete CW Activity)

6.       Backfilling + Top slab concreting (Complete CW Activity)

7.       Boundary wall (Complete CW Activity)

8.       Tower Erection + Accessories installation (Complete CW Activity )

9.       Generator installation & commissioning (Complete CW Activity)

10.   AC Power Inspection (Power Meter+ ACDB+ Intake box) (Complete CW Activity)

11.   Shelter or Sunshade Installation and (if applicable) Guardroom Installation (Complete CW Activity)

12.   Declaring site RFI (Ready for Installation) (Complete CW Activity, The activity is important in a sense that normally time from Kickoff to RFI is an important KPI among other indicators. This is because during this time only civil works department can do work on site and  is considered one of the main bottle necks in such projects. Once the site is declared RFI other teams of project like Telecom Implementation, BSS, Care can also do their due work on site along with other minor civil works which are being carried out on site. )

13.   Finishing Works (Complete CW Activity)

14.   Red – Line/As – Built Drawings preparation (Complete CW Activity)

15.   Acceptance from Customer (The activity is owned by project as a whole)

Applicable Health and Safety(HSE) Documents on Telecom Projects

The previously mentioned HES guidelines have normally been enforced by either a Client or vendor (or sometimes by both). And have to be followed in general by all vendors and its Partners’ employees. However if this would not be the case, the  each person who is involved in decision making and implementation, either as manager or junior engineer or worker or supervisor at the site have to follow all possible guide lines. In addition to these, project specific documents related to HES will also be applied after getting approval from Project Director. The following documents may normally be applicable, and are vital part of Partial/Final Acceptance Documents folder.

•  HES Checklists
•  HES Handbook
•  Incident-Near miss Report
• Risk Assessment Forms

In order to ensure that a fair deal of HSE compliance is on work, a vendor would have to conduct various audits and visits in order to verify that all its local and global conditions are being followed by its Partners during work on sites and/or at factories.

HSE Checks Related to Telecom Implementation

Although principally Telecom Implementation does not come under the domain of Civil Works Department of a telecom company (either vendor or client or operator), however working in telecommunication industry really demands muti – functional and cross – functional skills to have, demonstrate and at times even to practice. So therefore it is good to know at least some basics of other functions/departments you are working with in project. And some telecom organizations have even trained their staff for cross – functional training to utilize the same work force to work on different type of assignments even out of their main area of expertise.  (I am planning to cover this topic of x-functional training in detail in some other post later).

So in view of above details, now I think you be more interested in following some HSE Checks related to TI.

1. TI Equipment transportation should be carried out keeping in view the safety aspects so that risk of injury could be avoided.
2. Trained Riggers are required with proper Ropes & Pulleys to pull Feeders and Antenna Dish movement above tower.
3. Correct Polarities to be used while Installation of Power system/battery. Wires with proper Gauge are required. 
4. Anti Static Strip Should be used by personnel, plugging in modules. 
5. Proper coring & mid spanner Stripper Tool Is required for making on site connectors.