Showing posts with label octagon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label octagon. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Hermes Business Campus and Sky Tower, case studies presented by OCTAGON at the event Contractor 2014




Nicole Sommer
OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING  was one of the special guests at one of the most important construction events: Contractor 2014- organized in Bucharest between  10- 11 November 2014. The International Expoconference of Construction Contractors has gathered this year 74 speakers, architects and  contractor, from over 20 countries, who have presented the major projects  built by the companies they represented.

Within the plenary session “Construction”,  Nicole Sommer- OCTAGON’s Commercial Manager, presented two case studies: HermesBusiness Campus and Sky Tower.  Nicole Sommer spoke about the main features of the two office buildings, as well as about the construction methods and technologies used by   OCTAGON. The company’s commercial manager used as presentation support, two videos picturing various execution stages of the buildings.

You can watch the presentation video, here:

OCTAGON  was general contractor for the first building of the office complex Hermes Business Campus, located on 5- 7 Dimitrie Pompeiu Blvd. in Bucharest and is currently  performing the infrastructure works consisting in diaphragm walls D 800, bored piles D 1,000 and D 1,500, foundation raft, crown beam and superstructure for the second building – C. The second building will have the same area- 37,000 sqm and the same number of floors- 4 basements +8 floors +technical floor, as the first building, which has been fully leased.

OCTAGON  also built the foundation of the tallest building in Romania: Sky Tower, located in Bucharest, on 246 A Calea Floreasca.  The  137 m tall building, counting 37 floors and 5 basements, visible from all the areas of Bucharest,  is part of the complex Floreasca City Center, developed by the Austrian company Raiffeisen Evolution.  OCTAGON  built the foundation in top- down system of  two reinforced concrete slabs, measuring  4,600 sqm each. The company also performed the deepest foundation in Romania: 20 m, within this project.


OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING
For more information click HERE
Phone: (+4)021.232.39.20
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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Alexandros Ignatiadis- interview The Money Channel: A licensing system and BVB listing could help Romanian construction companies participate in bids for large infrastructure projects




Romania is supposed to build 656 km of highway and 2,226 km of express roads by 2030, according to the Transport Master Plan, presented by the Minister of Transport Ioan Rus, at the beginning of October. The highway projects included in the Master Plan are Sibiu - BraÅŸov (103 km), PloieÅŸti - Comarnic (49 km), Craiova - PiteÅŸti (115 km), Comarnic - BraÅŸov (54 km), BraÅŸov - Bacău (158 km) and Gilău - BorÅŸ (177 km), the total estimated cost for these projects, reaching  6.28 billion euro. Moreover, the Master Plan includes the construction of express roads totaling approximately 2,200 km, the necessary funds for these projects accounting for around 17.5 billion euro. According to the document, 2,674 km of trans-regional roads, 293 km of EuroTrans roads and 172 km of city belt should be built, the total of necessary funds for the development of the road sector standing at 26.1 billion euro.

Alexandros Ignatiadis, co- founder and shareholder of the company OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING, commented on the Master Plan and offered solutions which could help Romanian construction companies participate in public bids for large infrastructure projects, during the TV show “Metropolis”, broadcast by the “The Money Channel”.
 
The Money Channel: What is your perspective on the Master Plan presented by the Minister of Transport at the beginning of October?

Alexandros Ignatiadis: The Minister of Transport presents a Transport Master Plan on a regular basis. It is our obligations to the European Community to send this report, but the question marks are related to the lack of responsibility towards the objectives within the previous Master Plans.  We never find out which of these have not been reached and who is responsible for the positive or negative results. In the private sector, companies that do not perform, pay through low profits or even losses, for the failed objectives. In the public sector we do not have an evaluation and control system, which could hold those governing the country, accountable. Each new government sends optimistic messages related to the plans for the ongoing terms, but at the end of the term, the results are always disastrous.

The Money Channel: What changes should occur on the construction market to allow Romanian contractors to have access to road infrastructure projects?

Alexandros Ignatiadis:  A major issue, which stops Romanian construction companies to participate in such large bids, is the weak capitalization. The financial burden, represented by bank guarantees and performance guarantees, combined with long delays on payments made by the state, which is the beneficiary of these projects, are the main causes why Romanian companies cannot stand the competition against foreign companies. A method to attract capital would be through Bucharest Stock Exchange, but right now there is no Romanian construction company listed on the Stock Exchange.

The second negative factor is the interference of politics in public bids, which could be eliminated by licensing the construction companies. Through licensing, only the companies with a certain level of capitalization and a certain level of expertise would have access to bids. Right now, the Romanian legislation allows any company, set up six months ago, with a share capital of 200 lei and obviously devoid of the necessary expertise, to be eligible for the construction of large infrastructure projects. The only condition is to partner with other companies willing to provide technical or financial support.
 
The licensing of construction companies would stop the phenomenon of “flat companies”, set up over night, politically backed, which vanish right after the end of the term of those who have supported them. 
Licensing could also solve the issue of contested results, which prolong almost three times the life cycle of a project.

We all know that, within all European projects, the funds are allocated for a certain term and if the implementation of the project exceeds the initial term, the funds can no longer be absorbed. In Romania the execution terms of infrastructure projects are prolonged 3 to 4 times due to the mentioned issues, and at the end of each year we manage to always wonder about the same thing: why do we absorb such a low percentage of the allocated European funds?  

Romania had, at the end of last year, 644 km of highway, 16,466 km of national roads, 35,587 km of county roads and 32,190 km of village roads. According to the Master Plan, there are no express roads in Romania.

You can watch the show here: 
http://www.arhiva.the-money-channel.ro/metropolis-08-10-2014/

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

OCTAGON delivers second building of the complex Green Court Bucharest





*      Contract value: 3.8 mil. euro
*      Green Court Bucharest- office complex located on 4 Garii Herastrau Street, Bucharest
Green Court Bucharest building B

OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING delivered the second building (B), of the office complex Green Court Bucharest, developed by Swedish company Skanska. The complex will have three development stages and building B was the second development stage. The value of the works performed by OCTAGON on this building was 3.8 mil. euro.

Green Court Bucharest Building B- encasing
The second stage of the project started in 2013, with the execution of special foundation works, consisting in excavation, diaphragm walls D 600 and anchorages. This year OCTAGON built the superstructure of building B, which has 3 underground levels, ground floor and 11 floors.
Green Court Bucharest- building B

OCTAGON also built the first building of the complex Green Court Bucharest. The company was specialist contractor and performed the infrastructure and superstructure works on building A. The buildings covers 19,500 sqm and the investment in this stage reached 46 mil. Euro.

Green Court Bucharest- building B
Green Court Bucharest will have a total area of 52,000 sqm. The complex is developed by Swedish company Skansa, known for the 125 years of experience in construction and real estate development. Oresund bridge, which connects Sweden with Denmark, the reconstruction of Oculus World Trade Center Transportantion Hub in New York and the office building “Gherkin” Swiss Re in London are among the most important projects developed by the company. Skanska developed over 2 million sqm office spaces worldwide.

Green Court Bucharest- building B- encasing
Green Court Bucharest- encasing&reinforcing











OCTAGON CONTRACTING & ENGINEERING
For more information click HERE
Phone: (+4)021.232.39.20
See on map