Construction Quality Sees Big Improvement In Singapore
Singapore highlights Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Construction Excellence Award 2010, Higher benchmark for construction quality seen in recent years.
A total of twelve awards and nine certificates of merit will be given out for BCA’s Construction Excellence Awards this year, up from six awards and two certificates of merit in 2009.
Of the twelve award winners, luxury condominiums under the residential building category took up five places while two civil engineering projects stood out to clinch awards for achieving engineering marvels in the underground construction of the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and the first stage of the Circle Line.
This year, local builder, Tiong Seng Contractors (Pte) Ltd clinched three of the twelve awards for the construction of Parc Emily Condominium, RiverEdge and St. Regis Residences (a joint venture with Kajima Overseas Asia Pte Ltd). All three condominiums achieved high CONQUAS scores of 94.1, 89.7 and 89.4 respectively and were certified under BCA’s Quality Mark (QM) for Good Workmanship scheme.
On the average, the industry CONQUAS score for private housing in 2009 is 85.4.
Through the QM scheme, builders are able to ensure that high quality homes are delivered to homeowners consistently so that developers are able to reduce inconvenience to their clients. Homeowners of QM-certified units are also reportedly more satisfied with their purchases and required less rectification work done. In particular, Tiong Seng has committed or completed eight projects with over 1,500 units to the scheme and all projects received high scores during CONQUAS assessments.
Besides maintaining high quality standards and excellent workmanship for its projects, Tiong Seng has also made use of innovative systems and modern technology such as prefabricated unitised bathrooms, dry wall partitions, precast concrete components and advance modular formwork system to enhance productivity and safety on site.
Mr Pek Lian Guan, Managing Director of Tiong Seng Contractors (Pte) Ltd said, “The adoption of QM and CONQUAS has led to greater awareness of Quality among the project teams at Tiong Seng. This leads to us building a work culture that places strong emphasis on quality work and finishes. Over the years, we have benefited from having lesser rectification work and as a result, we are able to achieve higher productivity.”
BCA’s QM Scheme is also gaining greater support and acceptance from the industry, especially amongst builders like Woh Hup, Dragages Singapore, China Construction, and developers such as City Developments Limited, CapitaLand and Bukit Sembawang. Under the scheme, each unit in the newly completed residential project will be assessed by a set of prescribed standards to ensure the high quality of the internal finishing including the water-tightness of the bathrooms. As part of the requirements, any major defects discovered during the assessment will have to be rectified before they are handed over to the homeowners. About 30,000 residential units have been committed to the scheme since it was launched in 2002.
Newly launched units that have committed to the scheme have significantly risen over the years. Commenting on this increase, Dr John Keung, CEO of BCA said, “Indeed, in 2009, more than half (55.8%) of all newly launched residential units have committed to BCA’s Quality Mark scheme. Going forward, we foresee that the majority of all new residential units will be certified under the Quality Mark scheme.”
The general improvement in construction quality and workmanship over the years has led to more projects qualifying for the Construction Excellence Award.
As such, the qualifying scores for the following categories will be raised for nominations in 2011:
- Residential Buildings ($1,200/m2 and Above) category – from 84 to 88;
- Commercial / Mixed Development Building category – from 83.4 to 85;
- Institutional and Industrial & Others category – from 81 to 83.
Since the annual Construction Excellence Awards was introduced in 1986, BCA has conferred 318 awards and certificates of merits to builders for quality and workmanship. The award also focuses on downstream post-design work, such as project management, technical capability and the quality of the completed project.
The winners will receive their awards from Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, during the BCA Awards Night on 26 May 2010 at Shangri-La Hotel.
Details of the winners here.
About BCA
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore champions the development of an excellent built environment for Singapore. BCA’s mission is to shape a safe, high quality, sustainable and f riendly built environment, as these are four key elements w here BCA has a signif icant inf luence. In doing so, it aims to dif ferentiate Singapore’s built environment f rom those of other cities and contribute to a better quality of life for everyone in Singapore. Hence, its vision is to have “the best built environment for Singapore, our distinctive global city”. Together w ith its education and research arm, the BCA Academy of the Built Environment, BCA works closely with its industry partners to develop skills and expertise that help shape the best built environment for Singapore. For more informat ion, visit www.bca.gov.sg.
About CONQUAS
The Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS ®) w as introduced in Singapore in 1989 and serves as a standard assessment system on the quality of Building projects. It assesses structural w orks, architectural and mechanical & electrical w orks. CONQUAS ® is widely recognised as the de facto yardstick for quality in Singapore and also accepted internationally as a benchmarking tool for quality. Countries such as Hong Kong and Malaysia have adapted CONQUAS ® to their construction industry. CONQUAS ® is now a registered trademark in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong SAR, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Thailand and India.
About BCA’s Quality Mark for Good Workmanship Scheme
The BCA Quality Mark for Good Workmanship w as launched on 1 July 2002 to help developers meet the rising expectations of homeow ners for better quality homes. The Scheme encourages developers to consistently deliver quality homes. Under the Scheme, BCA w ill assess every unit of newly completed residential project. The Quality Mark for Good Workmanship w ill be issued to each individual unit that achieves the stipulated quality w orkmanship standard (a minimum CONQUAS ® score for internal f inishes) set by BCA. The Quality Mark certif ies the condition of the unit at the time of inspection and only units that have achieved the standard w ill be issued the Quality Mark certif icate.
Topics: 2010, BCA, BCA Construction Excellence Award 2010, Building and Construction Authority, business, China, China Construction, Circle Line, City Developments Limited, commercial building, condominiums, CONQUAS, construction, economic development, economic growth, economic recovery, Economy, employment, engineering, Good Workmanship scheme, Governance, government, homeowners, housing, industrial, innovation, institutional, jobs, Kallang Paya Lebar Expressway, KPE, moniter, monitor, news, quality, Quality Mark, residential building, Singapore, skills, society, technology, training, winners, workforce, workmanship
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