In anticipation of the segmental tunnelling to be completed in Singapore over the coming decades, Sembcorp established a casting yard on a large site of a disused shipyard that it owns on the north side of the island. Its first supply contract was for one of the North East MRT tunnels for which it produced 3,084 rings of 5.8m id x 250mm thick segments using Euroform moulds. The cement for the project was imported from Japan and aggregate and sand was imported from a quarry in Indonesia owned by a Sembcorp subsidiary. The quality of these materials was subject to quality control inspections at source, and the casting factory itself is ISO9002 certified to assure specified quality of its products. With segment requirements for the MRT contract now finished, the factory will now produce the segments required on the contract T-05 sewer contract.
Production for the metro contract was nine rings of seven segments/ring/day. With very little room on site for segment storage, segments were stockpiled at the available space at factory and delivered almost on an "as need" basis.
"For the sewer projects, production will be more intense," explains David Mileshkin, manager of the factory. "The sewer projects are bigger and progress rates will be faster than the MRT contracts and we will have to work double shifts to keep pace with the programme of the two TBMs on contract T-05. A single shift/day produced the 63 segments required for the nine rings/day for the MRT contract. Babtie of the UK designed the segments for the MRT design-and-build contract and will also design the segments for the Philipp Holzmann/Sembcorp T-05 sewer contract."
