full-time structural designer Yangon-Mandalay Railway Improvement Project Phase 2 aims to renovate and modernize the old railway facilities building. The project covered in the railway section between the city of Yangon and the city of Taungoo. The Project includes civil and track works, installation of signal & telecommunication systems, procurement rolling stock and consulting services.

Project Duration

19 April 2018 – 30 June 2019

Contract Value

JPY 25 Billion (Approx. USD 250 Billion)

Project Owner

Myanmar Railways Authority

Main Contractor

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); Oriental Consultants Global

Accomplishment

I was assigned to design more than 10 small buildings: Fuel Pump House, Oil Storage House (DEMU), Oil Storage (FC), Running Room (Driver’s rest), Yard Master House, Flotation Equipment House, Garbage Disposal House, Water Pump House, Water Pump House, Fire Fighting Water Pump House, Overhead Tank and Ground Tank; and 2 large buildings: Wagon Sick Line Shed and DEMU & Locomotive Shed but unfortunately the last one I had to share responsibility to my senior employee due to deadlines.

When I was working on this project, I experienced many valuable work for instance Fire Fighting Water Pump House included a 10x15x2 m3 (32x50x6.5 ft3) underground concrete water tank; however, the most in design a 25 meter-span wagon including a 5 ton overhead crane, 40 ton lifting jacks, maintenance pits, continuing wall footings which some of them were acting as sick lines. My responsibilities in every building covered steel design and concrete design from the top of the roof to the bottom of its footing.

I had a chance to work at Naypyidaw, the new capital city of Myanmar. Working and learning from Japanese designers are a rare opportunity, so I did my best every time preparing essential documents before having a progress meeting with them. Those documents were calculation sheets, from designing program or designing worksheet, and drawings. Although it was hard work, I appreciate their effort on commenting on our work and explaining how to improve.

The image below show Wagon Sick Line Shad, one of the biggest building I designed.

Challenge

The challenging parts were the complication of building design and communicating with the Japanese consulting designers. The fact that this was my first project, and every building must resist earthquake loads and wind loads, both of which were beyond my knowledge, acknowledged me to realize that I needed to learn from a good mentor to achieve this work.

Therefore, I dedicated one hour a day over working time to acquire essential knowledge then testing this theological knowledge with a designing program and later consulting the results with seniors. As the billion-dollar infrastructure implementation has not happened frequently, the achievements in this project enhance my work experience leading to the scholarship award.