He Liwen. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
He Liwen made over 500 phone calls on Mar 27, directing dozens of trucks to transport concrete from the mixing plants in Shenzhen to the construction site of the Central Government-Aided Emergency Hospital in Lok Ma Chau in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
When the 33-year-old manager ended the last call, it was 3 am. In front of him, searchlights illuminated the unfinished hospital where builders were still working and machines were still humming.
ALSO READ: Workers’ pride takes priority over problems
Just hours earlier, the hospital’s construction faced the threat of delays because of an unexpected concrete shortage. However, He and his five colleagues coordinated the mixing plants to provide more concrete and arrange more trucks for transportation. Their efforts ensured the construction tasks for the day were completed on schedule.
He is an engineering department manager of the China Construction Science and Industry Corp, and was based in Shenzhen.
Commissioned by the central government, He’s company began building the hospital in Lok Ma Chau Loop on Mar 6. Arriving at the site that day, He was assigned to lead a six-member team in charge of procuring and transporting construction materials, including concrete, steel, workers’ equipment and tents.
“The project is under close-loop management, which means all personnel involved in construction, including me, have to sleep at the site,” He said. Considering the time it would have taken to build temporary dormitories, the company bought 1,000 large tents in which to house workers, He added.
An aerial view of the first phase of the Central Government-Aided Emergency Hospital in the Lok Ma Chau Loop of Hong Kong on Thurday. (Edmond Tang / China Daily)
The emergency hospital is being built in two phases, providing a total of 1,000 negative-pressure isolation wards. The first phase with 500 beds was completed on Tuesday after 30 days of construction.
He considers the Lok Ma Chau job as one of the most challenging projects he has ever worked on.
“The scheduled construction period brought many challenges to material transportation,” He said.
As a standard practice, the construction side would forward their demands two to three days in advance, giving the materials department more time to prepare, He said.
“But in here, because of the tight schedule, we need to get the materials to the site within 24 hours,” He said.
To minimize the transportation time, He and his colleagues contacted suppliers in Shenzhen first, followed by those elsewhere in Guangdong province.
But some materials were not available in nearby areas. “Like the tents where everyone lives, we bought them from a producer in Hebei province,” He said, adding that it took three days to transport all the tents.
The development of the pandemic also affected material transportation.
In late March, Shenzhen shut down some concrete mixing plants on pandemic-control grounds, causing a temporary concrete shortage at the construction site.
“Only three mixing plants were still working on that day,” He recalled, “but there were 16 places on our site waiting for concrete.”
He devised a timetable to allocate time for pouring concrete in the 16 places. He then called the heads of the three plants and told them to mix concrete in accordance with the timetable.
At the same time, He made anxious calls to construction directors, one after another, asking for their assistance to open quick access for the concrete trucks, so that they could enter, unload, and return to the mixing plants at the fastest speed.
He made over 500 calls that day, ensuring the construction plan for the day was completed successfully.
With the efforts of more than 20,000 builders, including He, the first phase of the emergency hospital was completed as scheduled, and the inauguration ceremony was held on Thursday.
Although he receives dozens of calls each day for work, he often misses those from his wife and child in Central China’s Hunan province.
“We miss each other so much,” He said.
ALSO READ: Emergency hospital construction supervisor calls work his ‘duty’
But now is not the time for him to rest as construction on the second phase will begin soon.
“Some unused materials from the first phase have been transported to other projects,” He said, “So when the second phase starts, we have to prepare many materials again.”
He hopes the pandemic will end soon so that he can return to Hunan province and spend the National Day holidays in October with his family.
