Rockwell Land shows way to building ‘calamity-proof’ structures

THE GROVE Towers A and B construction visibly showed no signs of flooding onsite.

Memories of the havoc wreaked by natural calamities, particularly that of super typhoons, proved that every structure, may it be a house or a skyscraper, can be vulnerable to flooding, damages, or worse, complete destruction.

Tropical storm “Ondoy” and, more recently, typhoon “Pedring” have shown how nature can easily wipe out practically everything in a blink of an eye—even the high-rise condominiums and other similar developments were not spared from the threat of nature’s wrath.

This is why property developers have since been trying to step up initiatives to ensure that their structures can withstand damages wrought by calamities.

Always a norm

But for the country’s premier property developer, Rockwell Land Corp., ensuring a “calamity-proof” structure has always been a norm—even way before the need to do so had become more apparent.

“With over 16 years of experience, Rockwell Land has continuously delivered communities that are designed to withstand natural calamities. We always step up in the aspects of safety and security,” said Vienn Tionglico, marketing manager, Rockwell Land.

The Grove by Rockwell was masterplanned, with extreme weather conditions taken into account. With the Philippines being prone to severe assaults of typhoons and monsoons, The Grove is literally built to stand on land well above the reaches of floods beyond its doorsteps.

“Rockwell Land has had experience in building waterfront properties, with Rockwell Center being built within close proximity to the Pasig River. The same form of planning and engineering will be applied to The Grove by Rockwell,” Tionglico said in an interview.

ROAD to Towers A and B remained clear in the aftermath of Typhoon “Pedring.”

“Clients are can be assured that every precaution has been taken to ensure that The Grove by Rockwell will be protected against heavy flooding,” she added.

100-year flood cycle

Tionglico explained that when The Grove was being planned, Rockwell Land reviewed a 100-year flood cycle study of the location to properly gauge the property’s elevation, similar to what it had done with its property in Makati.

Using the 100-year flood cycle scenarios to plan for the future, Rockwell is able to develop waterfront policies that work with nature’s course instead of against it. These studies ensure that The Grove will be designed to endure the strongest typhoons and the high floods that come with heavy rains. Despite its proximity to water, it will be untouched by flooding, by elevating property levels and creating passageways to alter flood direction in case of imminent typhoons.

“The flood level of Typhoon Ondoy reached 5.16 meters at its highest point, but since The Grove will be elevated to 7.41 meters, the elevation would have kept The Grove by 2.25 meters above the water (roughly the height of a doorway),” she noted.

“Meanwhile, over the past 100 years, the highest level of flooding in the area is recorded at 7.6 meters above the water level of the Markina River. Should the worst case of flooding over the century recur, the water will only rise to a mere 8 inches above The Grove’s ground level,” Tionglico assured.

In terms of proximity to the river, the closest point to The Grove will still be 22 meters away. Since Towers A and B do not have underground parking, but rather podium parking, there will thus be no chance of water entering inside the parking area.

The basement parking of The Grove begins with Towers C and D, which will be a far 103 meters away from the river bed.

“This distance naturally creates a sandbag to secure our basement level against flooding. Further, pipes that function to pump out rainwater will be located along the streets and not within the basement parking. In the event that a pipe bursts, water will not affect the parking area,” she further explained.

Further, The Grove has been designed to withstand earthquakes. In fact, the structure of the buildings are being built on top of 56 meters of cast-in-place bored piles that is specially designed to further reinforce the structure with its heavy vertical load.

Security

Rockwell Land, meanwhile, assured that The Grove will likewise provide the same kind of security being enjoyed by its Makati residents at the Rockwell Center.

“We have well-trained guards, state of the art equipment and vehicles. Estate security and personnel are trained as emergency reaction teams to quickly respond to urgent situations with basic life support as trained by the Philippine National Red Cross,” Tionglico claimed.

In addition to internal security mobilization, there is also seamless synchronicity with local city government, emergency, police and rescue units for fast response and efficient emergency management of incidents.