Project News

On March 5 2009, a seminar on “Test-filling through Soil-Cement Method for Sabo Dam” was held in the lecture room of FCSEC Hydraulic Laboratory Building under the joint auspices of DPWH and MLIT（Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism）.
The trainees were about 25 technical staff members in DPWH Central Office, Regional Offices and District Engineering Offices.
The seminar also was participated in by following people； Mr. Navaro, OIC Director of Planning Service of DPWH； Ms. Hata, Deputy Director for International Cooperation International Policy Unit for Infrastructure Policy Bureau, MLIT； Mr.Yoshino, Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy； and Mr. K.Reyes, in charge of SFMF project in JICA Philippine Office.
In the seminar, the Japanese side explained the outline of the soil-cement method and introduced the method examples implemented in Japan, and the FCSEC members reported on the outline and result of test-filling* through soil-cement method, carried out in Sta.Fe City in February.  In the question and answer session, trainees showed much interest in the soil-cement method, asking many good questions.  In concluding message, Dr. Nakamura, JICA Chief Advisor, explained that soil-cement method reduces construction cost such as material and hauling, and he gave the trainees an assignment that they should consider other merits of soil-cement method and apply in site.

* As one of the pilot projects, FCSEC has a plan to construct a Sabo Dam in Sta.Fe River, Nueva Vizcaya Province by applying Soil-Cement method in fiscal 2009.  However, the Sabo Dam based on soil-cement method has never been constructed in the Philippines so far.  Therefore, the test-filling work of Sabo soil-cement, using site-generated soil-material obtained from a specified Sabo-site, was implemented by FCSEC, with the technical assistance and advice by Japanese engineers in February.
The test was conducted by using the machines such as dump truck, backhoe, compaction roller and tamper, and it was demonstrated that the designated density and strength are ensured.

Photo：
Soil-Cement Filling＆ Compaction
Photo：
Field Density Test

Following this seminar, on March 25 and 27 the seminars on Debris Flow Breaker （Sabo Dam） were held in Baguio City and Manila City, respectively. These seminars were aimed at promoting the DFB construction method in the Philippines as the debris flow breaker （Sabo Dam） was completed in Baguio city with the cooperation of ICHARM and FCSEC, and attended by about 50 technical staff members of DPWH Central Office, District Engineering Offices and the disaster-related offices such as PHIVOLS （Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology）.