Figure 1: Ji Zongli is discussing technical issues with the owner manager.
Figure 2: The completed eastern section of the East-West Expressway in Algeria.
Figure 3: Phase II project of Uzbekistan potash fertilizer processing plant.
Picture ④: Liu Jie (first from left) conducts a joint construction investigation with the owner.
Picture ⑤: Liu Yu works in the camp.
Figure 6: Kazakhstan state-owned highway renovation project.
Since the proposal of the "Belt and Road" initiative, China has adhered to the principle of consultation, joint construction and sharing, taken "hard connectivity" of infrastructure as an important direction, took the "soft connectivity" of rules and standards as an important support, and took the "heart connectivity" of the people of the country as an important foundation, and promoted the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road" , and achieved real and heavy achievements. By jointly building the "Belt and Road", China has also built a wide circle of friends and achieved mutual benefit and win-win results in jointly building countries.
data shows that as of April this year, China has signed more than 200 cooperation documents on jointly building the "Belt and Road" with 149 countries and 32 international organizations. From 2013 to 2021, China's direct investment in the joint construction of the country amounted to US$161.3 billion, creating 346,000 jobs for the local area.
Among them, a large number of state-owned enterprises have played an important role in jointly building the "Belt and Road". Chinese builders work hard day and night to play the most beautiful harmony of jointly building the "Belt and Road".
As the first batch of state-owned enterprises to "go global" to participate in overseas project cooperation, CITIC Construction Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CITIC Construction") firmly grasped the important strategic opportunities brought by the "Belt and Road" initiative and implemented and built a number of major projects overseas. Recently, our reporter interviewed several staff members of CITIC Construction, and let us get close to those builders who are striving to the "Belt and Road".
builds a highway in Algeria -
"The hard bones are the most fragrant."
html In the morning of August 29, in front of a tens of meters of filling section, Ji Zongli stopped and revealed a "secret" to reporters: "Every gravel here is transported from dozens of kilometers away."Ji Zongli, 38 years old this year, is currently the 84-kilometer project of the East Section of the East East Expressway in Algeria. He told reporters that the so-called filling refers to the volume of soil from the original ground to the roadbed surface when the roadbed surface is higher than the original ground. "In fact, it is already a blessing to be able to find earth materials such as this far away." Ji Zongli's thoughts slowly returned to four years ago.
"Mr. Ji, come and see how this stone has changed!" In early 2018, just a few days after the project started, Ji Zongli, who received the report, suddenly became nervous.
He hurried to the construction site and looked closely. Under the rain, the hard stones dug out of the soil extraction site had all turned into soft mud. He picked up a stone that had been wet for a while and rubbed it gently with his thumb. A strip of mud actually slipped off the surface of the stone. Ji Zongli couldn't help but take a breath: This project is definitely a difficult bone to chew.
is very fast, and the laboratory results give the answer: this stone is called marl , and it becomes slag when blows on the wind, and it becomes mud when it encounters water. What's even more serious is that after re-evaluation, the project team found that the marl stone content in the soil extraction site currently used was extremely high, and the actual available fill volume was less than 3 million cubic meters, which was far from the total demand of more than 10 million cubic meters of the project.
"The best way to get rid of marl geology is to build bridges, but the owners have always insisted on the lower cost of filling soil." Ji Zongli told reporters that the project team had tried to use soil mixed with marl syrite for experiments, but unfortunately the results were not satisfactory, and the construction was once deadlocked.
The existing soil material is unqualified, so find the soil site again! Wearing a baseball cap, carrying a crossbody bag, and holding a snake stick in hand. During that time, Ji Zongli and his colleagues had to go to the mountains to "exploration" every day. Because it is rainy season, they often splash their legs with mud after stepping on them.
At first, almost every day, everyone left with excitement and returned with disappointment."The hard-to-knit bones are the most fragrant! If you don't have them within a 10-kilometer range, you will expand the range to 20 kilometers. If you don't have them, you will be 30 kilometers." Ji Zongli was not discouraged, but started to change his search plan and try every means to boost morale.
Hard work pays off. After half a year of waiting, Ji Zongli found a suitable soil collection site more than 30 kilometers away from the project. "Although the distance between transportation is long, this means that the key links of the project have been opened." Ji Zongli felt relieved.
"What are you most afraid of when you are constructed in Algeria?" the reporter asked.
"The most afraid of rain!" Why? Algeria has entered an 8-month rainy season since September. Heavy rains will cause soil soaking and damage to the stairs. If protection is not done well, the construction progress on that day is likely to be "returned to zero". "Until now, as soon as we hear thunder, all of us will throw our jobs away as if we hear the 'order', and run to the soil collection ground as soon as possible, and cover the soil with a tarp," said Ji Zongli.
As of now, the project has been completed 52 kilometers, and the remaining projects are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The 1,216-kilometer-long Algeria East-West Expressway will be fully connected.
In June this year, by chance, Ji Zongli met Mehdi, the owner of a cherry orchard in Tlemson Province, Algeria. "With the East-West Expressway, the scale of my cherry orchard has expanded by 3 times, and the cherry varieties have also increased from 3 to 10. After the entire line is opened to traffic, I can drive abroad, which is something I never dared to think of before." Mahdi's words were full of expectations, which made Ji Zongli very happy.
"I have been abroad for so many years, and sometimes I want to rest quietly for a few days." Ji Zongli said, "But now, I don't want to stop. I have to redouble my efforts to let the people of Algeria enjoy the convenience brought by highway through as soon as possible."
built a factory in in Uzbekistan -
"Those years were my most unforgettable life experience."
"Look, my hair turned white at that time." On August 29, talking about my years of experience in Uzbekistan, Liu Jie, who was the project manager of the first and second phases of the Dehkanabad Potassium Fertilizer Factory, started talking.
On July 2009, Liu Jie, who was still working in a project department of Angola, suddenly received an urgent call from the company: He asked him to return to China immediately. After returning to China, Liu Jie learned that the first phase of the Uzbekistan potash fertilizer plant was in urgent need of staff, so the company decided to send him as project manager.
"I have never done the project manager's job, can it really work?" He admitted that he was actually in doubt. house leaks and rains all night, and the total construction period of the project was only 10 months left, but the preliminary design plan was delayed from the owner's approval. In this situation, even experienced project managers have to spend a long time thinking about countermeasures, let alone Liu Jie, a novice. Can
choose to back off? "This will be the first potassium fertilizer factory in Central Asia. The local people are looking forward to it. We cannot let them down." Liu Jie secretly cheered up: As long as you move forward firmly, you will definitely succeed!
He insists on going to the site to observe and study every day, and staying for six or seven hours; for questions he doesn't understand, he humbly asks people around him for advice, and sometimes even goes to online forums to "ask for knowledge". "People say, 'A newborn calf is not afraid of tigers', and I, the 'old cow, must be fearless." Liu Jie quipped.
With the joint efforts of the project team, not long after, the new version of the design plan was approved by the owner, and the 10-month emergency work kicked off. But just as all the work goes hand in hand, obstacles emerge one by one.
One day late at night, Liu Jie was awakened by a noise. It turned out that during the trial operation of the tail salt thickening machine, the thickening machine degassing tank suddenly exploded, causing material deposition and blockage. what to do? Use the machine to clear the blockage? "The mother liquor in the degassing tank is 1.2 meters deep, and in this case, the equipment cannot be used at all." Seeing that the materials accumulate more and more, Liu Jie made a decisive decision: manual clearance.
picked up the vibrator, Liu Jie jumped barefoot into the degassing tank: vibrating, digging the mud, rinsing the high-pressure gun... After finishing his work, it was already 4 a.m.Liu Jie said that at that time there was no time to think too much, "I am the first person in charge of the potassium fertilizer factory project, and I must rush forward at critical moments." As
was approaching the test run of the feed, Liu Jie accidentally discovered that the belt of the tape machine often went off the line. In order to get the device to be put into production as soon as possible, Liu Jie took the lead, grabbed the hot belt and carried it on his shoulder, preparing to use the most primitive method - manual correction. The staff on the scene were stunned at first, and then immediately understood his intentions. They also followed suit and pulled the belt that was dozens of meters long with their hands and shoulders. Everyone held the belt tightly for several hours until their palms were worn and their shoulders were red. That night, Liu Jie stayed up late to work overtime again and found a solution.
For a whole year, Liu Jie led the project team to deliver a satisfactory answer: the factory construction with a total area of more than 200,000 square meters was fully completed, setting a new record for the construction and production of international potassium fertilizer plants.
, riding on the east wind of the "Belt and Road", after the first phase of the potassium fertilizer plant was successfully completed, Uzbekistan quickly launched the second phase of the project, continuing to be undertaken by CITIC Construction, and , the Export-Import Bank of China, , provided financial support. "Now, even the focus of urban development is beginning to approach us." Liu Jie introduced that the construction of the potassium fertilizer factory has brought economic prosperity to the city of Dehekanabad and has been warmly welcomed by local people.
45-year-old Sroach is a driver hired by the project department locally. Once, the project department planned to send Sroch to work in Kungrad, a city far away from home. But he felt that the children at home were young and the journey was long, so he proposed a salary increase. After comprehensive consideration, Liu Jie readily agreed.
But the next morning, Sroqi said ashamedly, "The salary does not need to rise." It turned out that when he heard his son's "good news", Sroqi's old father scolded him: "In recent years, no new houses and new cars in his family have been earned by Chinese friends. Now that people need you, you even have to raise money. You must be loyal!"
"I was really moved after hearing this passage." Liu Jie said that he truly felt the kindness and simplicity of the local people. "When I have time now, I often look through old photos from the past and feel inexplicably excited. Those years have been my most unforgettable life experience."
Build a highway in Kazakhstan -
"The owner gave a thumbs up to the 'Chinese Standard'"
htmlOn August 30, before an interview with reporters, Kazakhstan KB Highway, KB Highway in Kazakhstan Liu Yu, deputy manager of the engineering department of the renovation project, took the initiative to set the time to lunch break: "Sorry, Kazakhstan is not too hot now. It is the golden season for construction, so I can take a breath at noon.""If you want to work here, you have to listen to the thermometer. There is wind and sand in spring, high temperatures in summer, and severe cold in winter. The annual construction period is only about half a year." Liu Yu, who is not good at speaking on weekdays, can't stop when he talks about work.
He told reporters that the KB project is an old road upgrade project, upgraded from two-way two-lane to two-way four-lane . "Although there are no large bridges or tunnels, the entire line has a long mileage and a large project volume, which especially tests the organization and coordination capabilities of the construction management unit. "
Everything is difficult at the beginning. In 2017, when he first arrived in Kazakhstan, Liu Yu faced "nothing".
Generally speaking, before large-scale construction, the basic conditions of "three connections and one leveling" must be met, namely, the leveling site and water, electricity, and sewage discharge. However, due to the tight construction period, the first builders to enter the site had to "production first and then live", and more than a dozen people crowded into the homes of a residents in a nearby town.
The town is extremely short of water. Whether it is washing, eating and drinking, the water everyone uses is slightly yellow in color and has a peculiar smell. Onions, carrots and , potatoes and tomatoes are the "Four Heavenly Kings" on the table. "The locals eat a lot of meat and vegetables are sold very little. If you want to buy all these ingredients, we have to wait for the local area to hold a spontaneous market." Liu Yu said.
"In fact, we have been mentally prepared for a long time, and we can overcome these difficulties." But the endless new problems in project construction once made Liu Yu feel that he was about to be unable to withstand it.
"Kazakhstan's highway industry standards continue to use the standards from decades ago." Liu Yu gave an example to explain. For example, today's double-steel wheel rollers have greatly improved in terms of weight and other construction performance, but the owner insists on using small tonnage rollers in accordance with the original specifications.
The differences between the two parties on construction concepts have led to extremely difficult preliminary design approval. Faced with this dilemma, Liu Yu took the initiative to seek change and decided to first make a 200-meter test section, and convince the owner with the help of the model construction technology and construction quality.
is a test segment that is simple to say, but difficult to do. Because more than 90% of the workers in the project are locals, and most of them have never been exposed to Chinese construction standards and construction technologies, Liu Yu was not sure what the test section could be like in the end.
no matter how difficult it is, you need to try it out. Comprehensive teaching is imperative. During that period, repeated indoor animation demonstrations and on-site technical practice drills occupied every minute that Liu Yu and the attacking team could use. In the end, several "Chinese masters" also overcome the language barrier and learn to communicate in simple Russian. "As the quality of the test section fully meets the acceptance conditions, the owner gave a thumbs up to the 'Chinese Standard'." Liu Yu said proudly.
"From technical management, resource organization to mixing station production and on-site asphalt paving, more than 90% of the project's work is completed by Kazakhstan employees." Liu Yu said that this provides valuable experience for the company to explore new overseas project management models in the future.
As the shouts of colleagues sounded, Liu Yu ended the interview apologetically: "Sorry, let's find an opportunity to chat next time." After that, he hurried out to the house and continued to "rush to work".
photos in this version are provided by the interviewee
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