Shanghai will promote the prefabricated constructions next year to help reduce air pollution and noise from construction sites, the city's major construction group said yesterday.
Some 10 million square meters of new constructions, including elevated highways and residential buildings, will use prefabricated structures next year, double the size this year, said Xu Zheng, president of the Shanghai Construction Group who initially developed the expertise in China and will take charge of most of the projects.
The city's largest affordable houses community in Zhoupu Town in Pudong New Area yesterday finished six buildings that use up to 40 percent of prefabricated structures.
The buildings' exterior walls, balconies, ceilings and stairs were pre-manufactured in factories. Thermal insulators have been built inside the exterior wall. Pipelines can also be buried in wall in advance.
Construction workers simply assembled the parts on site. Only the supporting structures such as the bearing walls were built on site.
"The flying dust on the construction site can largely be reduced since no scaffold needs to be erected. There is also less noise on site," Xu said.
The new skill can cut the construction schedule by 10 percent while reduce the labor forces by 30 percent.
A 13-story floor residential building can be completed within five months with the prefabricated structures, said Zhong Weirong, a senior official with the group taking charge of the prefabricated constructions. There are also fewer construction wastes on site.
"We can reduce the impacts to nearby residents to the bottom level," Zhong said.
The group initially developed the skills in 2007 and took trial operations on some buildings at a residential community by Chinese developer Vanke in Pudong. It was widely promoted later both in the city and across the nation.
The city government has announced that all the new constructions within the Inner Ring Road must use prefabricated structures from next year, while at least half of those outside the Outer Ring Road must apply the technology.
According to the city's air quality watch dog, dust from construction sites account for at least 10 percent of the PM2.5 pollution in the city. Vehicle and factory emissions accounted for 50 percent of the city's pollution, followed by pollutants from other provinces, power stations and straw burning.
