What's New

Penta-Ocean Construction Co., Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan - March 18, 2024 -Penta-Ocean Construction Co., Ltd. (President Takuzo Shimizu, hereinafter POC) received the Excellent Award(construction and operations category) at the Reiwa 5 (2023) Infrastructure DX Awards, presented by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, for its “Niigata Airport Approach Light (10 side) Bridge Construction Project”. The purpose of the Infrastructure DX Awards is to recognize outstanding achievements which involve active utilization of data and digital technologies in the infrastructure arena, to prompt sophistication/productivity improvement of construction production processes and enhancement of public services, in an attempt to adopt them as best practices in the industry and encourage their broad application to other projects. Mr. Toumine, Head of POC Hokuriku Branch and Mr. Demura, the supervising engineer of the project, attended the awarding ceremony held at the Ministry on March 6, 2024. The two were awarded the commendation certificate by Mr. Doko, the State Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The project involves extension work of the approach light bridge on the west side (10 side) of the runway by 60m in order to secure the Runway End Safety Areas of Niigata Airport. Due to its site location in the restricted area of the airport, work vessels were required to exit the site during airport operation hours. Thus, the construction of bridge piers had to be carried out during the night at elevated heights at sea. In order to ensure smooth project execution, construction quality and safety, we adopted precast concrete bridge piers and utilized BIM/CIM (3D modeling data) for the construction planning.

Pre-casting of concrete bridge piers allows for the fabrication of their components in a land-based yard during the day, followed by bulk installation at the site, thereby minimizing nighttime operations at high elevations over water. This method reduces the total number of skilled workers by 822 people (approximately 46%) compared to the cast-in-place method. Furthermore, we achieved a reduction of 52 days (approximately 47%) in construction time at sea, which resulted in a decrease in the likelihood of occupational accidents by minimizing nighttime operations over water. In addition, by implementing a 3D model-based installation mechanism aligned to the dimensions of the pier precast members on the head of the steel pipe piles, highly precise installation of pier precast members was achieved during the nighttime operations, where guiding systems using surveying equipment are not readily available. Simultaneously, we have achieved a reduction in the duration of the construction process.

Going forward, we will strive to actively promote the use of precast concrete to further improve productivity at construction sites.