The necessity of more structures warrants the demand of civil engineers who can guarantee standard services. Filipino civil engineers are known to be globally competitive. They exert full effort when doing projects to ensure their client’s contentment upon their performances. With this, vast number of Filipino civil engineers has achieved excellence advancing their trademark of their field of work nationwide and worldwide.
The success of engineers start at their training grounds. Civil engineers must practice their profession through quality education that they can get from universities that render the Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering Program. A lot of standard universities are available here in the Philippines such as the University of the Philippines (UP), De Las Salle University Manila (DLSU), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), University of Sto. Tomas (UST), and the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP). These universities are certified by reliable accrediting associations such as the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities (PAASCU). Also, they produce excellent graduates that are among the CE Licensure Exam passers with high-passing rate.
Underground Construction: Preparing the Philippines for the Future
Our world faces many problems that may lead itself to destruction. Most of it are caused by us humans, the ones living in it. Some have focused on bigger issues and forgot to solve the simplest yet the most destructive aspect of these problems; the population growth. According to Jean Paul’s research, the world’s urban population is expected to rise 3 billion to 5 billion in 2003 to 2030.Population growth is unstoppable nor curable. It’s like a disease that is lethal and kills silently. The world cannot cure itself, therefore humans should find a way to lessen the effects especially engineers. Population growth is directly proportional to the use of the surface of the earth. Underground construction could help solve this problem. Underground construction lessens the use of the earth surface. These buildings offer safety and energy efficiency. Building underground requires a lot of effort and money. Building it requires brilliant engineers. Underground plans are genuine and to be only made by engineers proven to have the skills and talents to make these buildings. Underground construction could help the world by its benefits. Our country, the Philippines, may face obstacles and challenges upon building it. Do we have what it takes to build our future?
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “underground” refers to the surface beneath the Earth. Therefore the Underground buildings are those buildings located beneath the surface of the Earth. Underground buildings have advantages and as well as disadvantages. They provide safe shelter from extreme weather such a tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. Underground structures have some advantages in resisting earthquake motions; surface seismic waves have effect on these kinds of buildings. Example of this is the Kobe Earthquake in San Fransisco and Mexico on 1995. The structural change effects are limited since they are restricted to move with the ground motion. Also, the soil that surrounded the building served as its natural protection. Underground structures also provides a quite living space with privacy due to the earth surrounding it. The soil or rock offers nearly constant thermal environment. This reduces the energy requirements because of the soil natural-insulation ability. Underground buildings are well protected from fire because it is made up of more than 90% concrete. And lastly these are environmental friendly, knowing the fact that the construction does little damage to the surrounding ecology. It minimizes the damage and preserves natural vegetation that also reduces the damage on the local and global ecological cycle. It also diminishes the risk to the environment caused by large cities due to the huge amount of polluted liquid and gas, and non-recyclable waste that they produce.
Underground buildings also have some obstacles that are needed to be focused. For example, the location of the construction site should be safe from some aspects that may affect the construction. It also requires complex ventilation procedures and should be planned carefully to secure the safety of the buildings. For all underground construction, it is particularly important to identify the properties of the ground because miscalculations and misjudgements can have serious consequences for the project. Sometimes the engineering process fails to account the impacts of geo-variability on Designed structures and Surroundings structures or environment. One mistake could take many lives. Beneath the surface of the earth is dangerous. The safety of construction workers and people that will be using what is built is at risk. According to Pavan Kumar, examples of these mistakes are 1999 Hull Yorkshire Tunnel, UK Collapse, 2000 Metro Taegu, Korea Collapse, 2004 Singapore Metro, 2005 Kaohsiung Metro, Taiwan etc. These incidents have taken thousands of people’s lives.
Making underground buildings is not easy. No underground space could be imagined without efficient and reliable construction techniques. Precautions are needed to be taken to guarantee its safety. Materials varies with the design and the construction method. According to Pavan Kumar N, examples of the processes and methods in making underground buildings are Pneumatic caisson method, Immersed tunnel method, wall and roof method etc. Technology advancements have led to high levels of safety in underground construction project. Geological surveys are therefore vital and should be included in the improvement of systems for the mapping of seismologic conditions, geological, hydrological and to build up plans for reinvestigations. And lastly, the use of Computer Aided Drafting and Design (CADDs) helps engineers to analyse and identify 3-dimensional plans.
Is Philippines capable of making underground construction? Philippines have several high lands that could be used in making underground construction. Although, most equipment are not available here, therefore it is necessary to find aid from foreign countries that have the materials and have already made an underground construction themselves.
What is about to happen is unpredictable but what will happen after that “unpredictable happening” happened is predictable. The truth is, population growth cannot be stopped. Underground construction has pros and cons but is worth the risk when it comes to securing our future. When we will start building what should be built? The time is now. Engineers should start building the future.