Project: Woodlands Health Campus
Developer: Ministry of Health Singapore
Contractor: SDK Consortium
Product Supplied: MOMENT Hybrid Precast Connection
Project Description
With 246,000㎡ of the total ground floor area, the Woodlands Health Campus (WHC) which is the first smart hospital in Singapore, consists of an acute hospital, a community hospital, specialist outpatient clinics and a nursing home, connecting the four medical facilities with information and Communication technology.
It is a commonly known fact that precast column connection methods take around an hour to complete, hence crane time is a major cost. Not to mention, temporary propping is also needed for traditional precast column erection which creates additional difficulty of movement. WHC spans over a large surface area, requiring a large number of columns to be erected. Hence, making a choice between a slow-to-erect method or a fast but safe method can have a direct impact on the construction time and costs.
The Solution
Every minute saved translates into cost savings, therefore we proposed MOMENT Hybrid Precast Connection, the perfect combination of MOMENT Precast Shoe and MOMENT Grout Coupler to connect precast elements.
With this innovative precast connection, we succeeded in securing each precast column in less than 30 minutes. After the installation of MOMENT Precast Shoes, a column is immediately loadbearing with no propping required. Work can continue on the next precast element and then more than one assembly can be grouted, reducing both worker and crane time. The grouting of the column bases has been modified to ensure a speedy and yet effective method, without the need for pressure grouting.
With less worker and crane time, and the absence of props reducing site access, site safety, and storage space were immediately improved.
The Result
Approximately 2000 precast columns were installed using MOMENT Hybrid Precast Connections in this project. We were able to make precast connections 3 to 4 times faster when compared with traditional methods, reducing the assembly time and extending the working space. In summary, it means construction was completed faster but in a safer and more reliable way.
