‘Build, build, build’ gets a boost

CALUMPIT, BULACAN—How will the government’s “Build, Build, Build” initiative race to completion in record time?

Possibly through precast concrete materials that are now being produced by a Filipino construction company.

The Angat Water Transmission Improvement Project (AWTIP) in Norzagaray, commissioned by the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System, and the MRT-7 project from Commonwealth in Quezon City to Norzagaray and San Jose del Monte in Bulacan, for example, use precast concrete produced by Frey-Fil Corp.

Precast concrete are pre-shaped or fabricated structures which are molded in the plant and then delivered to the construction sites where these are lifted into place.

These could be preshaped slabs for a road or concrete panels for walls.

Ron Brinkman, Frey-Fil commercial and technical manager, said the industry had been using precast concrete materials to help save time and effort.

Frey-Fil is owned by its chair, Eric Cruz, son of construction pioneer Felipe F. Cruz of F.F. Cruz & Company Inc.

It began operations at its Calumpit plant in 1997 and had since put up offices nationwide to provide engineering and construction solutions to a robust construction industry.

Recently, Frey-Fil staged a “21st Century Precast” roadshow at its eight-hectare plant at Barangay Pungo in Calumpit.

The company will produce 160,000 precast tunnel-lining segments for 4,000 rings of the 6.5-kilometer AWTIP tunnel connecting Ipo and Angat dams, said Felix Pangilinan, the plant manager.

Angat Dam supplies almost all of Metro Manila’s potable water requirement.

Pangilinan said precast materials are of high quality, versatile and sustainable.

Frey-Fil had also been producing the 910 U-girders for the MRT-7 project and the Calumpang bridge in Batangas. A girder is a support beam commonly used for bridges.

Frey-Fil has been collaborating with German firm DYWIDAG Systems International Group to produce segmental box girders.

“We want to transfer these great works and types of bridges in the world to the local construction business here in the Philippines,” said DYWIDAG representative Boris Weisler.

Frey-Fil also has a mobile batching plant which can precast materials at selected construction sites, said Christian Scheld, general manager of Godel Concrete & Systems Inc., another company partner.

The roadshow introduced Frey-Fil’s array of “one-stop shop” services such as the biometrics and data analytics supplied by its affiliate Filmetrics; the engineering, socio-economic and environmental expertise of AlinDE; and the remote sensing and geographic information services of FilGeo-Solutions Inc. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE