Overview of Construction / Infrastructure Projects

Introduction

Construction has slowly evolved into an art & science over the centuries. Engineers are involved from conception to physical realization of the project. We shall first enumerate the different Construction and infrastructure projects, for general understanding infrastructure or construction projects are divided into following detailed categories, which will enable you to have an idea about construction projects.

Buildings
Transportation Systems
Hydraulic Structures
Power Plants
Offshore Structures
Space based and defence structure – Military Installations
Industrial Structures
Communication System
Water and Waste Projects
Special Projects

1. Buildings

Since the start of life, human being started to build houses for their living and protection purposes, day by day the construction of houses gains the popularity as a profession and shortage of land in cities gave birth to buildings which further expands into modern types of high-rise buildings and towers. After the industrial revolution building technology enters in new era where buildings were developed for industrial purposes.

Buildings are classified and designed with respect to their usage and function, which strongly influence its design and construction.

Why an engineer should be familiar with the Major Types of buildings?

Engineer needs to design the building architect, electrical, mechanical and other services, hence it is beneficial if engineer is aware with the basics of each type of building.
While designing any kind of structure, safety, basic functionality, cost, quality, reliability, local and international codes are kept in mind.

General Classification of Buildings

Residential Buildings
Commercial Buildings
Academic Buildings
Industrial Buildings
Agricultural Buildings
Transportation Buildings
Religious Buildings
Parking and Storage Areas
Military Buildings
Governmental Buildings
Cultural or Public facility Buildings
Other Buildings

Residential Buildings: are designed to be used for residential purposes e.g. Houses, Villas, Residential apartments. It is engineer’s responsibility to prepare a customize design by using his technical knowledge. We will discuss these all things in our course related to cost and estimation of projects while emphasizing on electrical technology.
Commercial Buildings: include but not limited to, shops, offices, hospitals, commercial centres, shopping complex, hotels, warehouses, industrial complex or industrial building.
Academic Buildings: include schools, colleges, universities or technical classroom inclusive of laboratories and other teaching facilities.
Industrial Buildings: are designed of industrial operations, examples can be manufacturing plants. Industrial buildings are designed to fulfil the necessary conditions for workers and the operation of the industrial plant.
Agriculture Buildings: are designed to fulfil the farming and agricultural requirements, this including but not limited to: growing (green houses) and harvesting of crops and raising livestock’s and to store the products, pesticides and other equipment’s.
Transportation Buildings: examples for this kind of buildings include but not limited to airports, railway stations, sea ports, bus stands etc. These Includes the facilities required for operation of transportation e.g., facilities to transfer passengers, machines for cargo services and other activities.
Religious Buildings: are public facilities, where people gather for religious activities.
Parking and Storage Areas: are common type of buildings, multi-story car parking is used to save space and crowd, while storage areas are common for storage purposes, which includes but not limited to storage of vegetables, fruits, industrial production items, oil storage terminals etc.
Military Buildings: are designed for Defence functions performed by military and armed forces. Design of Building very much influences by the usage of facility.
Government and Public Buildings: are constructed to fulfil day to day activities of government, this can include but not limited to ministries, passport office etc.
Cultural or Public facility Buildings: can include but are not limited to public libraries, cinemas, theatres, marriage halls, gathering halls, opera houses etc.
Other Buildings: A building that is not listed above

2. Transportation Systems

Transportation Systems include but not limited to;

Bridges over sea or rivers
Flyovers and underpasses to make smooth the flow of traffic
Roads
railways
airports
Mass transit system e.g., mono railway and ropeways
Town planning
Ports & harbour
Tunnel in crowded areas or mountains etc.

3. Hydraulic Structures

There are different kind of hydro structures exists, some of them are as follows;

Dams
Barrage
Canal
Hydroelectric power plant
Tunnel
Embankment
Food control system.

4. Power Plants

Power Plants are giant and complex construction projects,

Nuclear Power Plant
Thermal Power Plant
Renewable energy Power Plants (Wind/Solar/Tidal etc)

5. Offshore Structures

These are steel and concrete structures build in sea, mostly for petroleum Etraction.

6. Space based and defence structure – Military Installations

Défense and special needs projects are built to fulfil the unique and specialised requirement. Technology involved in these projects is very sophisticated. common examples are as follows,

Army Cantonment
missile launch pad
bunkers

7. Industrial Structures

Industrial structure and requirement vary with respect to the application and process of the industry.

Some common examples of industrial structures are;

Petrochemical refineries
Process Industries
small- and large-scale manufacturing plants
silos
mine developments

8. Communication System

Erecting of communication towers is the backbone of modern communication system. These projects need detailed study of environment and seismic effects as well.