Report on Field visit to Andrew Commscope Telecom R&D Plant, Verna

A field visit was conducted by the Department of Civil Engineering, Don Bosco College of Engineering on 27th September 2017 to Andrew CommScope Telecom R&D Plant, to study the Post-tensioning work being carried out on site. Six students from the final year Civil Engineering visited the site, accompanied by Assistant Professor Kaushik V. Pai Fondekar.
On visiting the site the students met Consulting Er. Shekhar Panandiker and Er. Aravind Nayak from Shekhar Panandiker and Associates who are currently executing the structural design for the project, while M/s RBS Candiaparcar is the contractor.
Er. Shekhar Panandiker explained the technical details on the site where he also mentioned the necessity of carrying out post-tensioning for the first floor slab stating that the height was restricted for placing the machinery if beams were provided.
Er. Shekhar explained that the slab was 225mm thick which is more than the conventional slabs to avoid crushing of the slab while stressing the tendons. A column drop of 500mm was also provided to take case of punching shear. The concrete was already laid on one side of the slab including the post-tensioning beam, but through the exposed steel skeleton the students were shown the conduits of the tendons along with the conventional steel for slabs. The tendons were placed according to the bending profile prepared by UTRACON, a Pune based PT Expertise Company.
The students also saw how one end of tendons were locked in the slab while the other end was left open for post tensioning. They also saw the placements of the tendons and steel in the slab after which concreting was done. Er. Shekhar also stated that after the concrete gains 75% of its strength, grouting is done in the conduits and after the grout sets the tendons are stressed using special machinery brought by UTRACON.
After visiting the construction site, the students were also taken to the site office where they got to see relevant structural drawings, bending profile of conduits and tendon detailing. Er. Shekhar concluded by enlightening the students about the various structural designs in India and how Industry functions.
This is one of the few sites in Goa where post-tensioning is carried out for the slab.