RUBBER TYRED METRO RUBBER TYRED METRO

• A Rubber-tyred metro is a form of rapid transit system that uses a mix of road and rail technology.
• In this the vehicles have wheels with rubber tyres like a bus, but using a set of two parallel concrete or corrugated steel rollways, each with the width of a tyre.
• The vehicles have wheels with rubber tyres which run inside a guide way for traction, as well as traditional railway steel wheels with flanges on steel tracks for guidance.

Fig: Bogie from an MP 89 Paris Metro rolling stock

HISTORY

• Rubber-tyred Metros were first invented by the Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP)?
• Rubber-tyred metro technology was first applied to the Paris Metro, developed by Michelin
• The first completely rubber-tyred metro system was built in Montréal, Canada

Fig: The first ever rubber-tyred Parisian Metro at the Porte-des-Lilas station.
TRACK AND WHEELS SCHEMATICS



Fig: Rubber tyres and guide way of a Montreal Metro train


Fig: NM-73 in Mexico City metro
ADVANTAGES

1. Smooth ride (with little "jostling" around)?
2. Faster acceleration
3. Shorter braking distances, allowing trains to be signalled closer together
4. The ability to climb or descend steeper slopes (~gradient 13%) than would be feasible with conventional rail tracks.
5. Quiet ride in open air (for residents and those outside the train)?

DISADVANTAGES

1. Higher energy consumption than steel-on-steel
2. A larger quantity of excess heat is generated
3. Expensive to build, install and maintain.

Urban planning

Urban planning is a mixture of science and art. It encompasses many different disciplines and brings them all under a single umbrella. The simplest definition of urban planning is that it is the organization of all elements of a town or other urban environment. However, when one thinks about all the elements that make up a town, urban planning suddenly seems complicated - and it is.

Real urban planning is a relatively new concept. It gained popularity beginning in the mid-to-late 19th century, when it became obvious that there should be some kind of plan or larger goals for the growth of big cities like New York and Philadelphia. Before this time, cities very often grew as they had need, and the surrounding land was just swallowed up. London, Paris, Tokyo - none of these world cities had much urban planning, and even now, the addresses and streets in their older sections can be confusing even to natives.

Urban planning also became popular because of the growing need to get factory workers into healthier housing, rather than stuffing them into fire-trap tenements. With the advent of unions, workers had advocates to help lobby for better housing. Hence, “mill villages” and “steel villages” sprang up in larger cities.

Nowadays, urban planning takes all aspects of a city into consideration. It includes plans for safety, aesthetics and common sense placement of everything from houses to factories. Parents wouldn’t want their children’s playground next to the water treatment plant, for instance, and urban planning helps eliminate such problems. Goals for attractive architecture for city buildings are put into place and pleasing green spaces are planned. Good urban planning gets schools into the neighborhoods where they are needed most, places hospitals in centralized locations, allows for growth and plans highways accordingly.

Perhaps good urban planning is most evident in good highway planning in a city. Anticipating growth and traffic needs for a big city is crucial. Urban planners must consider how future growth will affect traffic flow and try to eliminate trouble spots before they become a problem. Even placing sewer systems and drainage systems is a necessary element of urban planning, albeit a less glamorous one. Urban planners must consider geography, the water table and numerous other elements of a city’s landscape in order to properly plan for this necessity.

Because so many disciplines make up the larger concept of urban planning, a group of urban planners may have widely divergent degrees: civil engineering, architecture, botany, landscape design, electrical engineering, business administration, and so on. Urban planners who are good at what they do are highly sought after by municipal governments. When efficient urban planning is used, cities are more attractive and serve their citizens to the best of their potential.

LOAD BEARING MASONRY

Load bearing masonry is among the oldest and most widespread building techniques in the world. The earliest load bearing masonry consisted to stones stacked one over the other. Over the passage of time, the stones were chiseled and dressed to make more stable masonry walls. The firing of earth blocks gave rise to the earliest form of brick masonry. Over the centuries, masonry has evolved into a precise science with a myriad of options in materials and styles. Some of the more common load bearing masonry used today is brick, stone and concrete masonry units (CMU) or concrete blocks. Among these there are several varieties depending on the materials and system of laying the masonry units. Some of the more recent advancements are aerated concrete blocks, hollow concrete blocks, autoclaved ceramic blocks etc.
Masonry can be classified in the following manner:

• Material: Stone, brick, block
• Cavity or non cavity
• Reinforced or non-reinforced
• Composition: one material or composite

Masonry typically involves the laying the masonry unit (MU) one layer at a time. A mortar is used to hold the MUs in place and provide them with strength and stability. Mortars can be of several types but the broad classification would be cement mortars, lime mortars and synthetic adhesives. Earth is also used as mortar in some parts of the world.
Load bearing masonry by its nature, is a time consuming construction technique. Laying brick after brick, course upon course is a tedious process. The advent of panelized systems, load bearing masonry began to lose favor with home builders in the industrialized world. Advancements such as quick setting mortars have helped quicken the process. Attempts to mechanize the masonry process by using brick laying robots have met with limited success and skilled masons remain valued the world over. Another attempt at speeding up the masonry process has been through the use of mortarless masonry or dry masonry. This type of masonry uses factory made interlocking blocks that can be laid without the use of mortar.
There has been a recent resurgence in the use of load bearing masonry as more and more users have begun to recognize its advantages. Masonry is seen as a symbol of permanence and solidity. It is highly fire resistant and has a high compressive strength. In addition to this the appearance and texture of masonry is preferred by many and the innumerable patterns possible in masonry make it a popular construction technique.
The advantages of using load bearing masonry are:

• Load bearing masonry is solid and durable.
• It is fire resistant.
• There are several colors and textures available.
• The tools and implements used are simple and low-tech.
• Does not require a great deal of preparation or fabrication in advance.
• Load bearing masonry has high compressive strength.
• Aesthetically attractive.

The disadvantages of load bearing masonry are:

• A slow and tedious process.
• Requires skilled masons.
• Cost of bricks can make it unviable.
• Low tensile strength, can fail during earthquakes.
• Load bearing masonry, especially brick masonry is porous and needs to be protected from water.
• Load bearing masonry has a high self weight.
• It has poor thermal insulation properties.

The problem of high heat conductance can be reduced in the following ways:

• By providing air traps – double walls and rat trap bonds.
• Using insulation in the form of Exterior Insulation and Finish System (EIFS)
• Interior insulation such as batt insulation and stud walls.
• In-wall insulation made of polystyrene, vermiculite etc.

Building codes for load bearing masonry are well established and well documented. In the United States, the engineering design of masonry is governed by the American Concrete Institute and the American Society of Civil Engineers. All aspects of masonry are clearly listed and described. The code mandates that the thickness must be at least 6 inches in case of single story buildings and at least 8 inches for structures more than one story.

COMPACTION OF SOIL PROCTOR’S TEST

TO DETERMINE THE COMPACTION CHARACTERISTICS OF A SOIL SPECIMEN BY PROCTOR’S TEST
Theory:
Compaction is the process of densification of soil by reducing air voids. The degree of compaction of a given soil is measured in terms of its dry density. The dry density is maximum at the optimum water content. A curve is drawn between the water content and the dry density to obtain the maximum dry density and the optimum water content.
Dry density

Where M = total mass of the soil, V= volume of soil, w= water content.
Equipment:
1. Compaction mould, capacity 1000ml.
2. Rammer, mass 2.6 kg.
3. Detachable base plate.
4. Collar, 60mm high.
5. IS sieve, 4.75 mm.
6. Oven
7. Desiccator
8. Weighing balance, accuracy 1g.
9. Large mixing pan
10. Straight edge.
11. Spatula
12. Graduated jar
13. Mixing tools, spoons, trowels, etc.
Procedure:
1. Take about 20kg of air-dried soil. Sieve it through 20mm and 4.7mm sieve.
2. Calculate the percentage retained on 20mm sieve and 4.75mm sieve, and the percentage passing 4.75mm sieve.
3. If the percentage retained on 4.75mm sieve is greater than 20, use the large mould of 150mm diameter. If it is less than 20%, the standard mould of 100mm diameter can be used. The following procedure is for the standard mould.
4. Mix the soil retained on 4.75mm sieve and that passing 4.75mm sieve in proportions determined in step (2) to obtain about 16 to 18 kg of soil specimen.
5. Clean and dry the mould and the base plate. Grease them lightly.
6. Weigh the mould with the base plate to the nearest 1 gram.
7. Take about 16 – 18 kg of soil specimen. Add water to it to bring the water content to about 4% if the soil is sandy and to about 8% if the soil is clayey.
8. Keep the soil in an air-tight container for about 18 to 20 hours for maturing. Mix the soil thoroughly. Divide the processed soil into 6 to 8 parts.
9. Attach the collar to the mould. Place the mould on a solid base.
10. Take about 2.5kg of the processed soil, and hence place it in the mould in 3 equal layers. Take about one-third the quantity first, and compact it by giving 25 blows of the rammer. The blows should be uniformly distributed over the surface of each layer.
The top surface of the first layer be scratched with spatula before placing the second layer. The second layer should also be compacted by 25 blows of rammer. Likewise, place the third layer and compact it.
The amount of the soil used should be just sufficient to fill the mould ad leaving about 5 mm above the top of the mould to be struck off when the collar is removed.
11. Remove the collar and trim off the excess soil projecting above the mould using a straight edge.
12. Clean the base plate and the mould from outside. Weigh it to the nearest gram.
13. Remove the soil from the mould. The soil may also be ejected out.
14. Take the soil samples for the water content determination from the top, middle and bottom portions. Determine the water content.
15. Add about 3% of the water to a fresh portion of the processed soil, and repeat the steps 10 to 14.

(a)

(b) Rammer

Fig: Standard Proctor Test (Compaction Test)

DATA SHEET FOR COMPACTION TEST
Diameter of the mould =
Height of mould =
Volume of the mould, V=
Specific gravity of solids, G=

Sl. No.	Observations and Calculations	Determination No.
		1	2	3
Observation
1	Mass of empty mould with base plate
2	Mass of mould, compacted soil and base plate
Calculations
3	Mass of compacted soil M = (2) – (1)
4	Bulk Density
5	Water content, w
6	Dry density
7	Void ratio
8	Dry density at 100% saturation (theoretical)
9	Degree of saturation

Plot a curve between w as abscissa and as ordinate.

Fig: Compaction Curve

Result:
Maximum dry density (from plot) =
Optimum water content (from plot) =

The Tallest Buildings in the World

When speaking of the tallest buildings in the world, it is important to specify exactly what is being measured. Listers must decide if the building is to be measured from sidewalk level or below, whether or not TV towers or masts are included, and whether an antenna, flagpole, or spire should count. A building is considered to differ from a tower in its primary use, being designed for residential, business, manufacturing, or mixed use, whereas a tower is not.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, formerly the Joint Committee on Tall Buildings in conjunction with Emporis Buildings, is the authoritative source for information about the tallest buildings in the world, and their list of the tallest buildings, drawn from an extensive database, is based on the height of the building to the structural or architectural top, which includes spires and pinnacles, but does not include antennas, masts, or flagpoles. Prior to 9/11, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, New York were ranked fifth - 1,368 ft (417 m) – and sixth – 1,362 ft (415 m) – on the list of the tallest buildings in the world.
Interesting facts:

• The tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, is nearly 200 feet (61 m) taller than the next tallest building.
• Of the top ten tallest buildings in the world, all are either in Asia or the United States.
• Of the top 20 tallest buildings in the world, the most, five, are in China, with four in Hong Kong, three in Chicago, and two each in Taiwan and Kuala Lumpur.
• In the top 100 tallest buildings in the world, the only ones completed prior to 1969 are all in New York City and were completed between 1930 and 1932. They are: the Trump Building, originally called the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building, and the Chrysler Building – 1930; the Empire State Building – 1931; and the American International – 1932.
• In the top 200 tallest buildings in the world there are:
  • 25 in New York City
  • 17 in Hong Kong
  • 13 in Shanghai
  • 12 in Chicago.
  • 8 in Dubai
  • 7 in Singapore
  • 6 each in Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Houston
  • 5 in Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen, China
  • 4 each in Los Angeles and Melbourne and Toronto and Atlanta

TALLEST BUILDINGS IN THE WORLD
Number	Building	City	Height	Floors	Year	Architect
1.	Taipei 101	Taipei , Taiwan	1,671 ft (509 m)	101	2004	C.Y. Lee & Partners
2.	Petronas Tower 1	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	1,483 ft (452 m)	88	1998	Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects, Adamson Associates, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Private Limited
3.	Petronas Tower 2	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	1,483 ft (452 m)	88	1998	Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects, Adamson Associates, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Private Limited
4.	Sears Tower	Chicago, IL USA	1,451 ft (442 m)	108	1974	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
5.	Jin Mao Tower	Shanghai, China	1,380 ft (421 m)	88	1998	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, The Shanghai Institute of Architectural Design (SIADR), East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Co. Ltd.
6.	Two International Finance Centre	Hong Kong	1,362 ft (415 m)	88	2003	Rocco Design Limited, Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects
7.	CITIC Plaza	Guangzhou, China	1,283 ft (391 m)	80	1997	DLN Architects & Engineers
8.	Shun Hing Square	Shenzhen, China	1,260 ft (384 m)	69	1996	K.Y. Cheung Design Associates
9.	Empire State Building	New York City, NY, USA	1,250 ft (381 m)	102	1931	Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates
10.	Central Plaza	Hong Kong	1,227 ft (374 m)	78	1992	DLN Architects & Engineers

100 Project Manager Interview Questions

The below questions are for hire a Project Manager. This can also be used for evaluating already hired project managers.
1. How do you handle non-productive team members?
2. How do you motivate team members who are burned out, or bored?
3. How do you handle team members who come to you with their personal problems?
4. What are your career goals? How do you see this job affecting your goals?
5. Explain how you operate interdepartmentally.
6. Tell me how you would react to a situation where there was more than one way to accomplish the same task, and there were very strong feelings by others on each position.
7. Consider that you are in a diverse environment, out of your comfort zone. How would you rate your situational leadership style?
8. Give me an example of your leadership involvement where teamwork played an important role.
9. Tell me about a situation where your loyalty was challenged. What did you do? Why?
10. In what types of situations is it best to abandon loyalty to your manager?
11. In today’s business environment, when is loyalty to your manager particularly important?
12. Why are you interested in this position?
13. Describe what you think it would be like to do this job every day.
14. What do you believe qualifies you for this position?
15. What have you learned from your failures?
16. Of your previous jobs, which one did you enjoy the most? What did you like the most/least? Why? What was your major accomplishment? What was your biggest frustration?
17. Tell me about special projects or training you have had that would be relevant to this job.
18. What are some things that you would not like your job to include?
19. What are your current work plans? Why are you thinking about leaving your present job?
20. Describe an ideal job for you.
21. What would you do if you found out that a contractor was in a conflict of interest situation?
22. If I were to contact your former employee, what would he say about your decision-making abilities?
23. Give me an example of a win-win situation you have negotiated.
24. Tell me about your verbal and written communication ability. How well do you represent yourself to others? What makes you think so?
25. Give me an example of a stressful situation you have been in. How well did you handle it? If you had to do it over again, would you do it differently? How do you deal with stress, pressure, and unreasonable demands?
26. Tell me about a tough decision you had to make?
27. Describe what you did at your work place yesterday.
28. How would you solve the following technical problem? (Describe a typical scenario that could occur in the new position.)
29. What strengths did you bring to your last position?
30. Describe how those contributions impacted results?
31. What are the necessary steps to successful project management?
32. How do you plan for a project?
33. What is important to consider when planning a (your type of project)?
34. What are things that you have found to be low priority when planning for (your type of project)?
35. What distinguishes a project from routine operations?
36. What are the three constraints on a project?
37. What are the five control components of a project?
38. What qualifications are required to be an effective project manager?
39. What experience have you had in project management?
40. Name five signs that indicate your project may fail.
41. Tell us about a project in which you participated and your role in that project.
42. When you are assigned a project, what steps do you take to complete the project?
43. As you begin your assignment as a project manager, you quickly realise that the corporate sponsor for the project no longer supports the project. What will you do?
44. Your three month project is about to exceed the projected budget after the first month. What steps will you take to address the potential cost overrun?
45. Tell us about a successful project in which you participated and how you contributed to the success of that project.
46. You are given the assignment of project manager and the team members have already been identified. To increase the effectiveness of your project team, what steps will you take?
47. You have been assigned as the project manager for a team comprised of new employees just out of college and “entry-level” consulting staff. What steps can you take to insure that the project is completed against a very tight time deadline?
48. What is a “project milestone”?
49. What is “project float”?
50. Your project is beginning to exceed budget and to fall behind schedule due to almost daily user change orders and increasing conflicts in user requirements. How will you address the user issues?
51. You’ve encountered a delay on an early phase of your project. What actions can you take to counter the delay? Which actions will have the most effect on the result?
52. Describe what you did in a difficult project environment to get the job done on time and on budget.
53. What actions are required for successful executive sponsorship of a project?
54. How did you get your last project?
55. What were your specific responsibilities?
56. What did you like about the project and dislike about the project?
57. What did you learn from the project?
58. Tell me about a time when you ran into any difficult situations. How did you handle them?
59. Tell me about the types of interaction you had with other employees.
60. Tell me of an accomplishment you are particularly proud of and what it entailed.
61. Do you have people from your past consulting services who would provide a professional reference?
62. What other similar consulting or independent contractor services have you rendered?
63. Discuss how you would envision working as an independent contractor or consultant for us.
64. What conflicting responsibilities will you have?
65. What would be your specific goals for this new role as a consultant or independent contractor?
66. What experience do you have that you think will be helpful?
67. This assignment will require a lot of [describe]. Will that be a problem for you?
68. This assignment will require interacting with [describe the types of people]. What experience do you have working with such people?
69. What would you like to get from this new assignment?
70. What are two common but major obstacles for a project like this? What would you do in the face of these obstacles to keep your team on schedule?
71. What is project charter? What are the elements in a project charter?
72. Which document will you refere for future decisions?
73. How will you define scope?
74. What is the output of scope definition process?
75. What is quality management?
76. Do you inspect or plan for quality ?
77. What is EVM? how will you use it in managing projects?
78. What is a project? and what is program?
79. What are project selection methods?
80. Which tool would you use to define, manage and control projects?
81. What is risk management and how will you plan risk response?
82. What are outputs of project closure?
83. What are the methods used for project estimation?
84. What methods have you used for estimation?
85. How would you start a project?
86. If you were to deliver a project to a customer, and timely delivery depended upon a sub-supplier, how would you manage the supplier? What contractual agreements would you put in place?
87. In this field (the field you are interviewing for), what are three critically important things you must do well as a project manager in order for the project to succeed?
88. What metrics would you expect to use to determine the on-going success of your project?
89. How are your soft skills? Can you “sell” the project to a team?
90. You have a team member who is not meeting his commitments, what do you do?
91. Companies have historically looked at technical skills, but more and more business managers are realizing that not have “people” skills tend to cripple projects.
92. How many projects you handled in the past? Deadlines met? On time/ within budget? Obstacles you had to overcome?
93. Do you understand milestones, interdependencies? Resource allocation?
94. Do you know what Project Software the new company uses and is there training for it?
95. Tell me about yourself. (To avoid rambling or becoming flustered, plan your answer.)
96. What are your strengths? (Make an exhaustive list and review it exhaustively before the interview.)
97. What are your weaknesses? (What you say here can and will be used against you!)
98. How would your current (or last) boss describe you?
99. What were your boss’s responsibilities? (Interviewers sometimes ask this question to prevent you from having the chance to claim that you did your boss’s job. Be ready for it!)
100. What’s your opinion of them? (Never criticize your past or present boss in an interview. It just makes you look bad!)

How to manage you project

A project managers job is very essential to any affair since they are the ones that make  projects  successful tasks. Because that, it is important to get trained and to obtain some awareness on this career via some sort of training course like the PRINCE2 project management training module.

The PRINCE2 training module will help a project manager not only realize all the jobs he has to do but also how to do them with the greatest possibility of success.

The PRINCE2 project management training module gives the knowledge for project managers  to start, maintain and finish any project successfully.

Any project can be well managed as long as the project manager knows how to accomplish the stages involved in achieving success they will succeed. Prince2 project management training and education module  will help this to happen.

If you think about it daily life is all about project management anyway, all you have to do is realize that and you are already on your way to becoming a great project manager. Execute your natural ability of managing with the Prince2 project management training module and you will succeed.

Do you get problem pointing out what things you manage in your life like thinking of your kids, your pets, your bank account, paying your bills… You are managing all of things of your life. Everyday you begin a day, you go through your day and you finish your day with the knowledge and gratifying feeling that you succeeded in doing the things you wanted and had to do. There is no different with managing any project you just need the extra business training end of it, this is what training modules like the Prince2 project management training module involves.

Don’t wait to long until you join a certified training from Prince2 project management  module. Combine your natural ability of project management with the knowledge you got from the training and you will be successful at your project manager career.