Day 19: Galleria Visit and Delays, Disputes, and Arbitration Lecture

The day started off with a site visited to the Galleria Barsha Retail Center, led by Mr. Jihad. Since the project was already handed over, Mr. Jihad went over finishes, MEP works, and some challenges faced during the construction process.

Exterior Facade of the Galleria

Since we had just had the lecture on MEP coordination the day before, Mr. Jihad tried to point out where the coordination was evident.

Example of MEP coordination

Afterwards, we went back to the office. We had lunch, which consisted of pizza, lasagna, and marble cake. We then had a lecture on delays, disputes, and arbitrations given by Mr. Ian Harper in preparation for our upcoming case study.

Some of us went to the Mall of the Emirates to enjoy some Chinese food. We then tried some knefeh for dessert, and it was delicious!

The knefeh

Then some of the group went out to enjoy the nightlife before our day off to Abu Dhabi.

Day 17: Completed Site Visits, MEP Lecture, Basketball Championship, and Cheesecake Factory

 Today, the DSLIP 2019 interns attended got treated to an early bus time of 9:30 am! After the interns were done sleeping in, they headed off to two site visits. The first was to The Court Residential Building, where they were able to see what a building looks like in its final month of completion

On the roof of the Court Residential Building.

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The second site visit was to Seddiqi & Sons Headquarters. This project is fully completed and operational. The students were able to look through the indoor garden in the building’s lobby as well as the meeting rooms, and bending museum on the first floor of the building.

Indoor garden at Seddiqi & Sons Headquarters.

After the site visits, the students returned back to the office for lunch from Mr. Falafel. There was also a quiz on within the construction industry. After the quiz, the students were once again on the road, this time to Albonian International Electromechanical Works and Maintenance. Here, the interns received a lecture about the different MEP works carried out in the construction industry and their importance to the civil engineering profession.

After the lecture, the students went back to the hotel to quickly get changed and go to DSLIP’s basketball playoffs. In two exciting matchups, the Bulldozers won the tournament!

Finally, after the exciting basketball tournament, the students were treated by Mr. Abdallah to a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, were everyone ate entirely too much food. 

Delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory!

Day 18: United Precast Concrete Visit, Quizzes and MEP Lecture

Today started with a hot visit to United Precast Concrete, where we got the chance to observe and learn about precast concrete procedures, hollow core slabs, pre-tensioning and pre-cast concrete panels.

UPC visit

 After coming back to the office, we had Lebanese spinach fatayer, chicken biryani and delicious chocolate cake.

Chicken Biryani and chocolate cake

We had three quizzes, one was about our visit to Le Meridien Hotel site, the second was about our visit to One JBR site and the third one was about MEP works.

Later during the day, we attended a lecture given by Mr. Jihad Choueiry. Mr. Jihad highlighted the importance of coordination between the different entities of a project especially between the architect, contractor and MEP engineers. 

In addition, Mr. Abdallah Yabroudi and Mr. Bassam instructed us on how to receive our awards and diplomas at the end of the program. No margin for error! 

And lastly, Mr. Ian Harper gave us a small lecture about how to prepare for our final debate. Hoping it will not be too vocal!

Day 16: Site Visits, Lectures, 3D Printing

Today started out with a site visit to two different buildings. Team 1 went to One JBR and team 2 went to Le Meridien. We learned about the DOKA system at the Le Meridien and about automatic climbing systems. At the One JBR we we learned about waterproofing and how the building had a bunch of different exterior and interior finishes. These were the most developed and close to completed structures we have visited so far and were easily our favorites (especially the views).

Team 2 on the scaffolding at Le Meridien

Le Meridien from the outside

Team 1's site visit at One JBR

After we got back from the site visit, we began studying for what we assumed was coming, a quiz. And before our lecture, like any other day, we DID have to take a quiz but this time on insurance. Afterwards we were going to be given a lecture about BOQ’s and S-curves by Mr. Abdallah Yabroudi. We learned about monthly and cumulative cash flows and how to construct an s-curve, graphs we have seen before but have never constructed ourselves. 

After a long day, we went to lunch. For lunch we had sweet and sour chicken with spring rolls and custard as the desert. No pictures of the food unfortunately, we all ate it too quickly and forgot to take a picture beforehand!

After the lunch, we got ready as soon as we could and went on a site visit to a presentation by structural consultant e-construct. Here they gave us a presentation about the expo 2020 in Dubai along with 3D printed buildings. They went through the design of the expo buildings along with videos of what the structure should look like, some of which we were told might have been classified. By far one of the most interesting and unique subjects we were shown on a site visit.

The room where e-construct held their presentation

Unfortunately no basketball or fancy dinners tonight but be prepared for tomorrow and the basketball finals as well as Josh's birthday!

Day 15: Views and Basketball

We started our 15th day of DSLIP (exactly halfway done!) with site visits. Team 1 went to Le Meridian (a hotel extension) and Team 2 went to 1 JBR (a luxury residential tower). These two sites are some of the most daring and exciting projects that DCC is currently working on, and everyone loved to see the ongoing works and amazing views.

View from the roof of 1 JBR.

Current progress at Le Meridien.

Back at the office, we had two back-to-back quizzes on Cost Estimation and Sustainable Construction. After that we received an interesting lecture on Project Insurance within the civil engineering industry from an insurance broker from Alpha Lloyds.

After coming back to the hotel and relaxing for a bit, we went to a basketball game for the first day of playoffs. The Bulldozers are the current leaders!

Scenes from basketball.

Later that night, some of us got yummy Ethiopian food! Everyone also spent some time studying for upcoming quizzes.

Ethiopian food! Yummy and cheap.

We are all excited to see where the second half of DSLIP takes us!

Day 14 Work Life Balance

We started off the day with a nice breakfast at the hotel, we were served some delicious crepes.

Then we headed to the office where we got our midterms exams back and enjoyed “Work Life balance” lecture presented by Mr. Paul Jaoude  who gave us tips on how to delegate and manage our time properly.

We had some delicious hotdog sandwiches and chips, and a nice fruit salad for dessert.

Then we headed back to the hotel and we worked on our midterm reports and studied for the upcoming quizzes.

We had dinner at the Form Hotel’s Restaurant from the menu prepared specially for us.

Day 13: Enjoying the Day Off!

It’s the 21st of June!! Do you know what this means here? Flaaaaaash Saaaleee!! 5 of the girls headed to City Center Mirdif and spent the whole day shopping for themselves and their family. They also stayed safe inside the mall during the sand storm.

Stylish !!!

What do I choose?

The rest of the group went to the Jumeirah Public beach to go swimming and enjoy fresh juices on the sand. After, we relaxed inside the hotel during the sandstorm then went to Royal Budha for unlimited dim sum! in the evening, we all met up at the Dubai Opera for Fete de la Musique. We admired the beautiful opera house and music from local groups. 

Mango slushee by the beach

First plate of dim sum!

Night out at the Opera!

                                      

The first classical music performers.