BORED PILES

Bored pile is another type of reinforced concrete pile which is used to support high
building which has heavy vertical load. Bored pile is a cast-in-place concrete pile where
the bored piles have to be cast on construction site, while other concrete piles like Spun
Pile and Reinforced Concrete Square Pile are precast concrete pile which theyre cast in
the factory.
Normally bored piling has be to carried on those tall buildings or massive industrial
complexes, which require foundations which can bear the load of thousands of tons, most
probably in unstable or difficult soil conditions. Bored piling is cast by using bored piling
machine which has specially designed drilling tools, buckets and grabs, its used to
remove the soil and rock. Normally it can be drilling into 50metres depth of soil. The
advantage of bored piling is its drilling method, little vibration and lower noise level.
The drilling method is depending on the condition of soil, piling contractor has to do soil
investigation and decide which drilling technology has to be carried on. Piling contractor
decide the correct drilling technology and minimize disturbance of the surrounding soil.
For cohesionless soils such as sands, gravels, silts etc, whether its under the water table
or not, the pile bore hole must be supported using steel casing or stabilizing mud such as
bentonite suspension. After these, reinforcement bar will be put into the bore hole and
concrete will be poured into the bore hole.
Bored piling is popular to be used in construction as a foundation especially for bridge
work and tall building as well. Bored piling work has to be done by specialist bored piling
contractor, normal piling contractor cant be done without experience and knowledge
about bored piles.
In general bored piles offer the most economical foundation as they can be constructed
in a wide choice of diameters, typically ranging from 300mm to 1800mm, and to depths
of up to 70m at rakes of up to 1:4. They can thus be tailored precisely to the particular
requirements of the building or excavation. This flexibility means that bored piles can
provide solid foundation elements suitable for almost all site conditions.
Bored piles can be classified into two main groups, according to their load bearing
behavior: friction piles, which transfer loads mainly by frictional resistance along the
shaft; and endbearing piles in which load is primarily transferred to the surrounding soil
of through the pile base. Depending on the structural requirements, bored piles may be
constructed singly, in groups or as walls using secant, contiguous or king piles, with or
without infill.
Usually bored pile is used for those tall buildings or massive industrial complexes, which
require foundations which can bear the load of thousands of tons, most probably in
unstable or difficult soil conditions. The method of drilling bored pile is different from RC
Square pile or spun pile which are using driving method, the piling machine to be used
will be different too. Bored piling works required specialist bored piling contractor to
follow up instead of hiring general piling contractor. There is a simple step-by-step
method on how to drill the bored pile in construction site.

El Nio and La Nia

El Nio and La Nia are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean
temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific.
El Nio and La Nia are opposite phases of what is known as the El Nio-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. The ENSO cycle is a scientific term that describes the
fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central
Equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date Line and 120 degrees
West).
La Nia is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Nio as the warm
phase of ENSO. These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large-scale
impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate.
El Nio and La Nia episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events
may last for years. While their frequency can be quite irregular, El Nio and La Nia
events occur on average every two to seven years. Typically, El Nio occurs more
frequently than La Nia.

El Nio
El Nio means The Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish. El Nio was originally recognized
by fishermen off the coast of South America in the 1600s, with the appearance of
unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. The name was chosen based on the time of
year (around December) during which these warm waters events tended to occur.
The term El Nio refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to
a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central
Equatorial Pacific.
Typical El Nio effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming
winter season. Those include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and
central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average
conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-thanaverage conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest. The
presence of El Nio can significantly influence weather patterns, ocean conditions, and
marine fisheries across large portions of the globe for an extended period of time.

La Nia
La Nia means The Little Girl in Spanish. La Nia is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El
Nio, or simply "a cold event."

La Nia episodes represent periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across

the east-central Equatorial Pacific. Global climate La Nia impacts tend to be opposite
those of El Nio impacts. In the tropics, ocean temperature variations in La Nia also tend
to be opposite those of El Nio.
During a La Nia year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and
cooler than normal in the Northwest.

What Is the Greenhouse Effect?

While other planets in Earth's solar system are either scorching hot or bitterly cold,
Earth's surface has relatively mild, stable temperatures. Earth enjoys these temperatures
because of its atmosphere, which is the thin layer of gases that cloak and protect the
planet.
However, 97 percent of climate scientists agree that humans have changed Earth's
atmosphere in dramatic ways over the past two centuries, resulting in global warming. To
understand global warming, it's first necessary to become familiar with the greenhouse
effect, though.

Energy in, energy out

There's a delicate balancing act occurring every day all across the Earth, involving the
radiation the planet receives from space and the radiation that's reflected back out to
space.
Earth is constantly bombarded with enormous amounts of radiation, primarily from the
sun. This solar radiation strikes the Earth's atmosphere in the form of visible light, plus
ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR) and other types of radiation that are invisible to the human
eye.
UV radiation has a shorter wavelength and a higher energy level than visible light, while
IR radiation has a longer wavelength and a weaker energy level. About 30 percent of the
radiation striking Earth's atmosphere is immediately reflected back out to space by
clouds, ice, snow, sand and other reflective surfaces, according to NASA. The remaining
70 percent of incoming solar radiation is absorbed by the oceans, the land and the
atmosphere. As they heat up, the oceans, land and atmosphere release heat in the form
of IR thermal radiation, which passes out of the atmosphere and into space.
It's this equilibrium of incoming and outgoing radiation that makes the Earth habitable,
with an average temperature of about 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius),
according to NASA. Without this atmospheric equilibrium, Earth would be as cold and
lifeless as its moon, or as blazing hot as Venus. The moon, which has almost no
atmosphere, is about minus 243 F (minus 153 C) on its dark side. Venus, on the other
hand, has a very dense atmosphere that traps solar radiation; the average temperature
on Venus is about 864 F (462 C).

The greenhouse effect

The exchange of incoming and outgoing radiation that warms the Earth is often referred
to as the greenhouse effect because a greenhouse works in much the same way.
Incoming UV radiation easily passes through the glass walls of a greenhouse and is
absorbed by the plants and hard surfaces inside. Weaker IR radiation, however, has
difficulty passing through the glass walls and is trapped inside, thus warming the
greenhouse. This effect lets tropical plants thrive inside a greenhouse, even during a cold
winter.
A similar phenomenon takes place in a car parked outside on a cold, sunny day. Incoming
solar radiation warms the car's interior, but outgoing thermal radiation is trapped inside
the car's closed windows.

INFORMATIONS ABOUT SAN ROQUE DAM

Project Description: The San Roque Dam is located on the lower Agno River of

Pangasinan Province, in the Cordillera region of Luzon Island in the Philippines. If

completed, the 200 meter-high San Roque would be the largest private hydropower
project in Asia. Electricity generated by the dam will be primarily used to power industrial
activity and the burgeoning mining industry in northern Luzon. Preparation of the site
began in 1998, and construction is slated for completion in 2003. San Roque is the third
dam to be constructed on the Agno River: the first two, Binga and Ambuklao, were built
in the 1950s.

Corporate Actors: The San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) is owned by a Japanese

trading company, Marubeni (41%); a subsidiary of US energy company Sithe Energies

Inc. (51%), which is 29% owned by Marubeni; and a Japanese utility company, Kansai
Electric (7.5%). In 1997, the Philippines National Power Corporation (NPC) gave the SRPC
the rights to build, operate and maintain the project for a period of 25 years. In April
1998, US-based Raytheon Company won a $700 million sub-contract to design and build
the facility.

Financing: The project cost is estimated at US $1.19 billion. In October 1998, the Japan
Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) approved a $302 million loan to the private
sector developers, and lent an additional $400 million to the National Power Corporation
in September 1999. However, due to public pressure in Japan and evidence that it may
have breached its own guidelines, JBIC has not yet disbursed all of its loans for the
project. Other financing has come from a consortium of Japanese commercial banks and
equity provided by the project sponsors.

Economic impacts: The cost of power from San Roque is hugely inflated, and the San

Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) stands to gain massive profits from the project, whether
or not it successfully produces power. The National Power Corporation (NPC) has agreed
to pay the SRPC between 13 to 21 pesos (US$0.32 to 0.51) per kilowatt hour of electricity
purchased. NPC has also agreed to pay over $400 million pesos ($10 million) per month
to the SRPC regardless of whether there is sufficient water available to generate power.
The Power Purchase Agreement forces NPC to buy San Roque power even if it doesn't
need it.

Displacement, Resettlement and Opposition: Already, more than 600 families

have been evicted to make way for the dam. Many are struggling to survive in cramped
quarters in a resettlement site, without any land to sustain them. The lives of another
200 families are being disrupted by excavation for the dam. They, too, will be forced from
their lands.
The project is fiercely opposed by thousands of indigenous Ibaloi peoples upstream of the
dam site. The Cordillera Peoples Alliance estimates that if the dam is built, more than
2,000 Ibaloi families in Itogon, Benguet will be adversely affected by the project. Many of
the people facing resettlement were forced to move once before to make way for the
Binga and Ambuklao dams upstream. The livelihoods of tens of thousands of downstream
residents will be affected due to erosion and destruction of fisheries.
JBIC's environmental guidelines state that people resettled by projects it funds must have
given their consent. Given the strident opposition of the populations slated for
resettlement, it appears that JBIC's support for this project violates its own guidelines.

Concretes Effects on the Environment

Concrete is the most widely used building material today as a result of its strength and
its durability. It is used in homes, airports, skyscrapers, tunnels and pretty much every
other type of construction you can think of.
Concrete and cement are terms that are often used interchangeably, however cement is
actually an ingredient that makes up concrete, along with water, sand and gravel.
Cement acts as a hydraulic binding material, hardening with water and tying together all
the aggregate materials.
The 20 billion tons of concrete produced around the world annually account for an
estimated five to 10 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Concrete is one of
the most widely used materials in the world, and the energy-intensive process to create it
is the third largest source of planet warming CO2. According to a 2012 study from
Scotlands University of Aberdeen, making a ton of concrete releases about a ton of CO2
into the atmosphere. While the concrete industry has actually reduced its carbon
emissions by a third over the last few decades, it still has a long way to go before
becoming part of the solution to our collective climate woes.
Part of the reason concrete is so energy- and CO2-intensive to make is that it requires
heating the mineral feedstock, alite, to 1,500 degrees Celsius in order to make it
malleable. Researchers are working to develop mixtures using alternatives to alite that
do not require such high temperatures during processing. The leading contender, belite,
has a much lower temperature threshold while maintaining similar strength. But belite
takes months to set completely, while alite sets in just a few hours. Concrete makers
continue to tinker with the mix as well as with other chemicals and additives in search of
greener alternatives to alite.

Dust pollution generated by concretes manufacture and disposal is another big concern.
Quarrying entire mountainsides worth of rock for the aggregate that makes up the
majority of concretes material sends massive amounts of rock dust into the atmosphere.
The back end of concretes lifecycle is similar as demolition of buildings emits large
amounts of concrete dust into the air. New technologies that trap and reduce dust
emissions are making inroads, but not nearly fast enough, say environmental leaders.

How is Cement Made?

To make cement, limestone (calcium carbonate CaCO3) is heated to temperatures
approaching 10000C, along with other feedstock materials such as clay (which contains
silicates). At this temperature, the limestone (and other feedstock) breaks down into
Calcium Oxide (known as Lime CaO), Silicon Oxides and Carbon dioxide. The two oxides
then combine to produce di & tri-calcium Silicate, which is then ground to a fine powder
producing a product known as clinker.
Finally Gypsum is added to the clinker (to prevent flash setting of the cement), and this is
ground to produce the cement, which can then be used as the main ingredient to make
concrete.
There are two ways that making cement releases CO2:
Burning fossil fuels to heat the kilns to achieve the reaction temperatures
Breaking down calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and CO2
The burning of the fossil fuels accounts for about 30% of the total CO2, while breaking
down the calcium carbonate accounts for 70%.

GREEN ARCHITECTURE
Green architecture, philosophy of architecture that advocates sustainable energy
sources, the conservation of energy, the reuse and safety of building materials, and the
setting of a building with consideration of its impact on the environment.
In the early 21st century the building of shelter (in all its forms) consumed more than half
of the worlds resourcestranslating into 16 percent of the Earths freshwater resources,
3040 percent of all energy supplies, and 50 percent by weight of all the raw materials
withdrawn from Earths surface. Architecture was also responsible for 4050 percent of
waste deposits in landfills and 2030 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
Many architects after the post-World War II building boom were content to erect
emblematic civic and corporate icons that celebrated profligate consumption and
omnivorous globalization. At the turn of the 21st century, however, a buildings
environmental integrityas seen in the way it was designed and how it operated
became an important factor in how it was evaluated.

Principles of building green

The advances in research and in building techniques achieved by the above-mentioned
green design luminaries have been compiled into a reliable database of environmental
construction methods and sustainable materialssome of which have been in use for

thousands of years yet remain the basis for contemporary advances in environmental
technology. For private residences of the 21st century, the essential green design
principles are as follows:
Alternative energy sources. Whenever feasible, build homes and communities that
supply their own power; such buildings may operate entirely off the regional power
grid, or they may be able to feed excess energy back onto the grid. Wind and solar
power are the usual alternatives. The quality of solar collectors and photovoltaic
panels continues to improve with the advance of technology; practical
considerations for choosing one supplier over another include price, durability,
availability, delivery method, technology, and warranty support
Energy conservation. Weatherize buildings for maximum protection against the
loss of warm or cool air. Major chemical companies have developed responsibly
manufactured, dependable, moisture-resistant insulating materials that do not
cause indoor humidity problems. Laminated glass was also radically improved at
the end of the 20th century; some windows provide the same insulation value as
traditional stone, masonry, and wood construction. In regions that experience
extreme heat, straw-bale or mud-brick constructionused since ancient timesis
a good way to save money and energy.
Reuse of materials. Use recycled building materials. Although such products were
scarce in the early 1990s, since the early 21st century they have been readily
available from a burgeoning number of companies that specialize in salvaging
materials from demolition sites.
Careful setting. Consider using underground or earth-sheltered architecture, which
can be ideal for domestic living. Starting at a depth of about 1.5 metres (5 feet)
below the surface, the temperature is a constant 52 F (11 C)which makes the
earth itself a dependable source of climate control.
Individual, corporate, and governmental efforts to comply with or enforce LEED standards
include recycling at household and community levels, constructing smaller and more
efficient buildings, and encouraging off-the-grid energy supplies. Such efforts alone
cannot preserve the global ecosystem, however. On the most basic level, the ultimate
success of any globally sanctioned environmental movement depends as much on its
social, psychological, and aesthetic appeal as on its use of advanced technologies.