WIMPEYS
IN THE
FAR EAST
During recent years the firm of George Wimpey & Co.. Limited. Builders and Civil Engineers. has carried out a considerable volume of work in the Far East. One of their most notable contracts is that at Seria on the Northern Borneo coast- line, where a complete township is being built for the British Malayan Petroleum Company, an associate of the Shell Group.
When the first Wimpey staff landed in Borneo about five years ago. the Oil Company's engineers were starting on the arduous task of clearing the jungle from the site of the future town and consolidating the swampy ground. The first per-
manent house of the new town was erected in January 1949, and when the area is fully developed similar houses will stretch for five miles
task.
HEL
A view of Hong Kong Harbour showing the Bank of China in the foreground. along the coast. To date about two and the training of the Dyaks and is pumped under pressure through a thousand detached and semi-detach- Malays in the use of modern building pipeline from the mixing plant direct ed bungalows have been completed, all within easy distance of the oll- equipment was a slow and laborious to the formwork, and by skilfully
some To help overcome field. Each dwelling has at least two these difficulties, George Wimpey & for an ordinary bungalow can be of organised teamwork, the formwork bedrooms. a kitchen and a living Co. used a system of construction erected, filled and dismantled in a room, and is serviced with gas, elec- which not only reduces the demand matter of two or three days. Special tricity and piped water supply. They for skilled craftsmen but makes the cores are fixed in position between are arranged in orderly rows and maximum use of the readily available the inner and outer leaves of the groups and are surrounded by gene- sand. The system is known as formwork to produce the door and rous spaces and recreation grounds.
“SITUFOAM" and the technique is Many problems were involved in to pour a foamed mixture of sand the building of so many houses in and cement, in a fluid state, into so short a time with the material aluminium formwork, which is pre- and labour available in Seria. Tim- fabricated in "wall-units" and, when ber and sand were practically the fully assembled. forms a mould for a only materials in plentiful supply complete house. The "SITUFOAM"
A corner of the SITUFOAM Duplex housing estate completed in Sumatra for the Standard Vacuum Petroleum Maatschappij.
window openings, so that when the formwork is dismantled the complete skeleton of the house is ready to receive the door frames. windows and roof timbers. The structure is then completed in the ordinary way. and the result is a light, cool, dry. spacious house comparable in every respect with its European equivalent.
In addition to the building of houses, a wide variety of engineering works has been carried out. A wharf was completed at Kuala Belalt, large enough to handle all the equipment and provisions coming into Seria. A canal 1000 yds. long was excavated and was spanned in one place by a reinforced concrete bridge. Three telephone exchanges were construct- ed and numerous foundations were prepared for cranes, offices and stores. Work is now proceeding on the per- manent drainage system for the town, which involves the building of eight pumping stations and the laying of many miles of pipe ranging from 4" to 20" in diameter. Well- pointing equipment is being used to facilitate trench excavation in the swampy ground. A drilling “island" measuring 90'0" X 45'0" has been constructed 5000 feet out to sea; this is supported by steel piles and served from the mainland by an overhead cableway supported on six inter- mediate piled trestles. Work has also been commenced on the founda- tions of a new gas plant and a new steam power station. and Wimpeys
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