Day 3: Construction Drawings and First Site Visit

Our third day in Dubai began as usual with a beautiful ride to the DCC office past the Dubai skyline. Upon arriving, we began our lecture topic for the day which was reading and understanding construction drawings. This was led by Mr. Mazen Hallak. During this lecture, we each became part of a three person team and spent 2 hours analyzing a set of plans.


 Mr. Mazen was very helpful during this session. Everyone learned so much about the different types of drawings and how they could be read. This experience was very valuable to us and provided us with information that will be used on each site visit we experience during this trip and in our future careers as engineers.

After lunch, we went to our first site visit. This site was located at Al Hebiah 1st in Dubai. Upon completion, the site will be the first built nursery/Kindergarten School in the UAE with 29 classrooms, a meeting hall, administrative offices, and a lounge/kitchen.

Our tour was led by the project manager, Mr. Jihad Choueiri. Mr. Jihad led us through the entire structure, even showing us where the rooftop playground would be built. He explained the different types of flooring that were to be used in the Kindergarten to ensure the safety of the children. This included vinyl flooring in the hallways and rubber flooring on the rooftop playground.

This site visit was the first time many of us had ever been on a construction site. It was an amazing experience and we all learned so much. One downside was the heat. Luckily Mr. Jihad gave each student a water bottle to drink on site. There was not a single person who was not sweating under their hard hats.
To celebrate a wonderful day, most of our group visited the Dubai Mall to eat dinner and watch the fountain show. With a large majority of our trip yet to come, we are all looking forward to the other surprises that Dubai has in store.