Rehabilitation of Enugu - Onitsha express way

When I first raised an alarm about the deplorable condition of the above mentioned road, there was an outrage. Many respondents doubted the possibility of the road being really this bad. Some said I was just lying against someone, but others confirmed the horrible state of the road and we all implored the powers that be to look into the problem of this bad road, with a view to doing something positive about it.

Some people also pointed out that a contract had been awarded for this road and that the contractors has started work on the road, this I doubted seriously. True, there is a presence of RCC at Owa in Ezeagu LGA, but they have not started working on the road as at last week.

This week, a signpost was erected on the Enugu-Onitsha express detailing the award of another contract, different from the first, to rehabilitate the same road, and the first thing I asked was, what happened to the previous contract awarded some years ago? Even the signpost is funny, the title "The federal government of the federal republic of Nigeria" got me thinking if anyone is making a mistake, or misleading people.

The next puzzle is the appearance of CCC construction company, different from the name of the company on the signpost pictured, carrying out repairs (patching of the road) at the start of the express from the mammy market Enugu end of the road. Why CCC? Why not the RCC we saw their name? Is there another different contract for the patching of same road?

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures..........

Updated pictures of road construction works in Enugu.

Here are pictures of reconstruction works around airport bypass area,  Enugu.  Sullivan Chime is busy completing all the projects he started. 

Pictures of new buildings at Centenary city, Enugu.

These are the latest pictures of works at the Enugu Lifestyle and Golf City,  the Centenary city. It seems like the pace of work in this area is set to rise very soon.

Enugu-Port Harcourt express road construction in pictures.

The contract for the complete rebuilding of Enugu Port Harcourt road has been awarded and is  being carried out, Setraco and Arab contractors are hanging some sectors of the road this afternoon.  Pictures. 

Chinese workers doing manual labour in Nigeria

They should earn their money na? Lol...... 

The Decking Biscuit

You may be wondering what we mean by that term. Of course we all know what biscuits are in real life, but how could we associate it with the construction industry?
The term is coined from the look of the item we are describing.  The decking biscuit is a the little pieces of concrete we mix and cut in order to use them as spacers between the decking wood platform and the reinforcement rods mat. We do this because we need a space to allow us pass our plastic pipes used as conduit pipes for electrical wires. The plastic pipes are fragile,  so we need a sort of protection for it against trampling while the work is ongoing.
See pictures of the process on the decking.

The technology of block making

Some call it blocks while others call it 'sandcrete', this is an important building material which we get by mixing powdered cement, sharp sand and water in a ratio made to suit the job it was produced for. You might wonder why I used the phrase 'in a ratio made to suit the job it was produced for'? Okay,  there are many uses for blocks apart from using it to raise the walls in homes and fences. Blocks could be used for a variety of works, including

1. Walling of a house
2. Making a fence
3. Building a generator house or any other house that have vibrating machines inside it.
4. Toilet pits or soak away tanks.

Because of the various uses for blocks, the mixing ratio cannot be the same, we tend to reduce the ratio of sand to a bag of cement if we want a more solid mix or a block product which can do more than covering the walls in a house. I will like to mention here that most houses, especially those built with reinforced concrete columns and metal rods, blocks don't bear any loads, this is why you see houses built without blocks at first, the builder will first raise the columns and deck the first floor, then continue with another set of columns which will bear the next floor, and up and up we go.
There are many different types of blocks in modern building, these include

1. 9" hollow blocks
2. 6" hollow blocks
3. 6" solid blocks
4. 5" solid blocks

These blocks could be used according to the specifications of the building plan you are using. Most houses with more than one floors uses the 9" blocks on the ground floor and maybe the next few floors, but as a house rises in height, it is recommended that the weight of the blocks on the top floors be reduced, ie. If you use 9" blocks to do a ground floor, use 6" to do the top floors to ease the weight on the columns, beams and foundation.

 There are two major ways of producing blocks, the first is the older method of using manual labour. Skilled block makers using a metal contraption called a mold, they use this mold to compress mixed cement/sand/water to form blocks and leave them on the ground to set.
The second method was a product of industrialization and the need for increased output to meet builders demand. A machine was invented to help compress mixed sand and produce blocks. This is the type we call the machine made blocks. This machine uses vibration method to compress blocks as against the manual method.

Which one is the stronger? Well, it still depends on the mixing ratio, because it is what you mix that the machine will vibrate. I have seen many breakages among machine made blocks as well with hand made blocks.

More pictures and updates about block making, you can also call us on 08033350750

The steel parapet fascia, a replacement for the concrete?

In home building, the cornice or concrete fascia is a a well known addition to Nigerian architecture of recent years. In the last 7 years, a lot of new houses has been finished with various designs of parapet cornice of varying shapes and sizes, but there has been a lot of concern from new home owners, especially THE COST. Building a concrete parapet is expensive, its heavy and it takes time. This is why some researchers came up with ideas on how to solve this three problems. Their solution was to make the parapet with a prefabricated material which could be readily available and more affordable than concrete fascia. I will show samples of the new parapet made of steel, there are some others made with aluminium.

Adding pictures later........

Making a safe and durable home waste disposal system

The problem of waste generated by humans in their homes is huge.  The solution is about how to manage the human waste which might come in forms of faeces,  urine,  bath water and other liquids or semi liquids .

Because of this, the process of digging a space in the ground to pipe in waste emerged.  This is a system whereby

the waste generated from a house is absorbed into the pit made for it, buried in the ground around the household. 

Watch these pictures to learn more........