Tuesday, September 6, 2016

3 Solutions for Building Mining and Construction Camps in Remote Areas


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Building mining and construction camps in remote locations are key to the delivery of major infrastructure projects in such areas. Much of the worlds resources are being accessed from extremely remote locations and teams of workers must be housed at or near the sites. Man camps are typically required for both the construction and operational phase of projects, and employees are demanding higher levels of comfort when living and working in such environments. Delivering a cost-effective, well-appointed camp is an important step to the success of a building project in such regions.
Getting a mining or sewer tie in Massachusetts camp built in remote areas presents unique challenges. These include logistics, transport, availability of skilled labor, soil conditions, sloping terrain and local availability of materials such as concrete. In very remote locations such as the highlands of Papua New Guinea these issues are exacerbated and must be effectively dealt with. The remoteness of many mining and construction projects simply means that all materials and labor must be brought in as there is often virtually nothing available in the immediate local area. So the decision becomes whether to bring in all the materials and construct the camp on site, or to have the camp pre-engineered or built off site and delivered to site ready for erection.
1. Conventional building on site - this requires all individual materials to be brought to site, often in many deliveries. Many more builders and trades people must be housed, and sewer tie in Massachusetts time is longer. If something is missing you cannot simply order from around the corner and go pick it up that day. The potential for construction delays is much higher.
2. Build off-site and transport - a very common solution and effective in locations where there are good roads to and from the site. These buildings are prefabricated off site to lock up or even to turnkey and then transported as a whole or in sections to site. The size of buildings is also restricted to the size of the trucks available and able to travel the roads. In most third-world countries roads in remote locations are not the best quality and prefabricated buildings risk significant damage in transport.
3. Pre-engineered buildings - a fast growing trend in mining and construction camps. Made with a modular building system, these buildings are pre-engineered and are flat packed into shipping containers ready for easy transport. Everything required to construct to lock up and turnkey can be delivered in one shipment.
These systems are generally very fast to construct and can be built easily with a minimum of skilled labor.
There are a number of modular building systems available on the market built from various materials - concrete, wood, plastic or steel. Not all of these are suitable to remote area construction. Some of the considerations when evaluating a modular system include - ease of construction, ability to be built on difficult soil types, ability to be built on sloping terrain, ability to withstand termites, borers and extreme weather conditions.
A pre-engineered building system, is ideal for mining and construction camps in remote areas. It is built from steel, has structural insulated panels, has a steel foundation and flooring system that can be built on difficult soil types or on sloping terrain, and can be built easily with a minimum of skilled labor. The result is well-appointed buildings that are cyclone, hurricane and earthquake-proof, that require minimum logistics to get them to site and be built without concrete.
A further benefit of Force 10 is that temporary construction camps with smaller quarters can be easily turned into larger homes for accommodating a permanent work force, delivering significant savings. Man camps that deliver employees superior levels of comfort in harsh environments can be delivered cost effectively with the correct selection of a pre-engineered building system.