Prefabricated steel to herald a new era

Innovative use of prefabricated steel may help start a new era in Bangladesh's infrastructure sector, experts said yesterday.

Local technology and product of prefabricated steel can bring a significant change in the shape of structures in the country, said Ahsanul Kabir, head of the civil engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology.

He spoke while delivering a keynote speech at an international seminar on “Construction and innovation 2018” at the Westin Dhaka.

The event was jointly organised by Meinhardt (Thailand) Ltd, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation of Japan and McDonald Steel Building Products Ltd of Bangladesh.

It would need 25 percent less time if steel is used in place of concrete to build any structure, said Kabir.


However, there is a huge challenge for the buildings made of prefabricated steel, as possibilities are there for the steel structure to melt down and collapse in case of fire incident, he said.

Steel structure allows the project architects to clearly highlight what they want to express and show creativity, Rakesh Rahmatullah, senior design engineer of McDonald Steel Building Products Ltd, said in his presentation.

Rahmatullah said his company is renovating old steel infrastructure, including age-old railway bridges, keeping the original structure intact with local products and technology.

Besides, McDonald Steel Building is also constructing hundreds of infrastructure across the country using steel structure.

Steel structure along with modern technology helps the architects cut the time needed for designing and drawing of any infrastructure, clear representation of customers' requirements and faster completion of a construction work, he said.

Masanobu Okamoto, a representative of Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation, said their steel sheets are used in many fields, like port and harbour structures, river revetments, retaining walls and cofferdams etc and have acquired high market acceptance globally.

He said Bangladesh has good potential in this sector.

Harold Huang, country representative of Beijing Urban Construction Group Bangladesh, said they have constructed many eye-catching projects across the world using steel structure.

Some of them are: the Bird's Nest, the national stadium of 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic, and Ice Ribbon, the national speed skating oval of 2022 Beijing winter Olympics, he said.

Singapore Changi Airport and Marina Bay Sands are some of the big projects of Huang's company that were constructed using steel structures with the cooperation of Yongnam Engineering & Construction Pte Ltd, Singapore, he said.

The event was moderated by Mushtaque Habib, project director at North South University.

The programme was also addressed by John Pollard, regional CEO and managing director of Meinhardt Thailand, and Matthew Silvester and Praween Chuslip, associate directors of the company.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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