On January 7, 2021, to provide faculty members with the opportunity to enhance their practical knowledge, the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Department of Steel and Timber Structures, and PACIE Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company organized a site visit to the "LUXSHARE-ICT Van Trung Factory Construction Project" in Van Trung Industrial Park, Viet Yen District, Bac Giang Province.

The first site the department visited was Zone E, the production factory. The investor is Luxshare ICT (Vietnam) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Luxshare - ICT Precision Group, one of the top six electronic component manufacturers in China. Zone E consists of three blocks, E1, E2, and E3, with a total construction floor area of nearly 99,000 ^m² . Each block has three floors. The foundation uses D400 centrifugal piles for the column bases and D300 piles for the subfloor. The main structure uses a typical 10m x 12m reinforced concrete grid with a large factory load capacity of 10 to 20 kN/ ^m² (depending on the functional zoning). The roof uses a multi-span steel structure, each span 36m, with a suspended equipment load capacity of 8kN/m; continuous cold-formed steel purlins with a span of 10m. The construction method utilizes heavy-duty cranes operating directly on the attic floor to erect the steel roof structure. The consulting units include the University of Construction Technology Investment and Development Joint Stock Company (NUCETECH); the verification unit is the University of Construction Consulting Company Limited (CCU); and the supervision consultant is the PACIE Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company. The contractors are: Vinaco Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company as the main contractor; and Visicons, HCMCC, CDC, and Anpha as subcontractors.

This is a relatively large-scale factory project, built with 3 floors to maximize land use efficiency, and requiring a fast construction time (80 days). During the site visit, the roof structure of building E2 had just been erected and building E3 was in the process of being erected. This allowed a clear view of the load-bearing structure, connection details, etc., and a sense of professionalism in all stages, evident in the geometric accuracy, quality, and cleanliness of the construction site.

Visiting Zone E of the production workshop - LUXSHARE-ICT Van Trung Factory

Roof support structures

Faculty members from the Steel and Timber Structures department visited Zone E of the production workshop.

Representatives from the project team presented an overview of the project's scale, as well as the main features of the workers' housing area (the second item the department will visit). Here, the faculty also discussed new technologies, advantages and disadvantages, and solutions to problems encountered during construction.

Working with the consulting and supervision unit PACIE

Next, the department visited the F block of worker housing. The investor is Fuji Bac Giang Development Joint Stock Company. The scale of the F block includes one building block F1 with four 6-story buildings; and three blocks F2, F3, and F4 with two 18-story buildings, totaling nearly 150,000 ^m² of construction floor area. The foundation uses D400 centrifugal piles for block F1 (6 stories) and bored piles for blocks F2, F3, and F4 (18 stories). The main structure uses a typical reinforced concrete grid column structure (5.2m-7.6m) x 7.6m.

The workers' housing complex required a very fast construction time, 150 days for the rough structure. Therefore, to speed up the progress, the construction unit used aluminum formwork. The teachers visited building CT2, block F1, using an outdoor scaffolding system and observed firsthand the construction method of aluminum formwork for structural elements such as columns, walls, beams, floors, and staircases, as well as the method of dismantling and transporting the formwork to the upper floors. The use of aluminum formwork has many advantages such as light weight, simple shape, less prone to damage from impact, easy installation and dismantling, can be manually transported, does not rust, provides a beautiful concrete surface quality, can be dismantled within 48-72 hours after concrete pouring, and can be reused up to 100 times. The biggest disadvantage is the high cost because most of the aluminum formwork is imported from abroad. However, for this project, the investor's requirements for construction productivity were met. Because it is tall, choosing aluminum formwork is perfectly suitable.

Visiting the aluminum formwork system in Zone F of the workers' housing complex - LUXSHARE-ICT Van Trung

Wall formwork installation work

Structure of connecting pins and horizontal bracing bars for wall formwork.

Support columns for the floor after formwork removal.

Staircase formwork installation work