CRCC demonstrates "China's responsibility "in American island country

Photo shows the Arima General Hospital which has been completed and put into use. (Photo by Shi Kai)

Since the beginning of this year (2020), the COVID-19 pandemic has been ravaging the world, and the beautiful American island country of Trinidad and Tobago has also been seriously threatened. China Railway Construction Corporation (International) Limited (CRCC International) has upgraded pandemic prevention facilities in its under-construction projects in the country, overcome the impact of the pandemic, and delivered a number of livelihood projects, bringing new changes to the lives of local residents with Chinese speed and Chinese technology. Since the beginning of the year, Prime Minister Keith Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago has inspected CRCC International's projects in the country four times and given thumb-ups frequently on his personal social media account. By fulfilling its commitments and joining hands with the people of Trinidad and Tobago to build a health community with a shared future, CRCC International has established a good corporate image and demonstrated "China's responsibility".

-- Contributing Chinese enterprises' "core strength" to fight the pandemic together

The construction of the Arima General Hospital project undertaken by CRCC International started in June 2015. It is CRCC's first hospital project integrating design, construction, equipment procurement and training. After completion, it will become one of the largest and most advanced hospitals in Trinidad and Tobago.

In March this year, when the project was about to be completed and delivered, the government of Trinidad and Tobago issued a national stay-at-home order due to the worsening pandemic situation. On March 17, CRCC International received a request from the project owner to deliver 100 ward beds, two operating rooms, an intensive care unit, adisinfection center and dialysis equipment as soon as possible. That means converting a general hospital that is about to be completed into a specialized infectious disease hospital. CRCC not only needed to deliver the hospital in the shortest possible time, but also needed to ensure the independent operation of each system in the isolated areas. The most critical was the renovation of the ventilation system.

"Like rushing to build the Huoshenshan Hospital in China, it's a race against the virus!" Facing a series of difficulties, Zhang Yunfei, deputy general manager and chief engineer at China Railway Construction Caribbean Company Limited who had 12 years of overseas work experience, resolutely shouldered the heavy responsibility. He led the team to analyze the owner's needs all night and carefully design the planning scheme. By making use of the building automation system, they meticulously calculated and distributed the total air volume of the fans and the air volume of each room, increased the air supply volume in clean areas and medical corridors, reduced the air supply volume in the wards, and increased the air discharge in the wards. In this way, the air pressure can flow from the clean areas to the medical corridors and then to the wards, making all wards negative-pressure isolation wards. In a special period of national shutdown in Trinidad and Tobago, they overcame difficulties in organizing personnel and transporting equipment and materials, and successively mobilized more than 150 people to work tens of thousands of extra hours, ensuringthe on-tine delivery of the emergency wards and equipment.

"The Arima General Hospital provides the highest level of protection for the people of Trinidad and Tobago!" Keith Rowley, after finishing his tour to the hospital on April 11, highly praised the project department for the emergency renovation of the 100 ward beds and other anti-pandemic facilities via social media.

-- Establishing the brand image of "Built by China"with high quality

"Developing big markets in a small areas, ensuring high quality of small projects, and making great achievements by small teams," Zhuang Shangbiao, president and deputy Party chief of CRCC, commented on the CRCC International teams when making field trips to the American market.

During the construction of major livelihood projects such as the Arima General Hospital and the Curepe Interchange, CRCC International acted on the philosophy of "Quality is King" and strove for excellence in projects, thus winning the trust of the owners and successfully driving Chinese technology and Chinese equipment to go global collectively. Chinese manufacturing, Chinese technology, and Chinese engineering have gained brand advantages with good reputation.

During the construction of the Arima General Hospital project in Trinidad and Tobago, in order to change the owner's prejudice against Chinese materials and equipment and enhance the overseas influence of "Made in China", CRCC International organized a delegation composed of the project owner, engineers from FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) and officials from the Ministry of Health of Trinidad and Tobago to visit Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities in China foron-site inspection of manufacturers of furniture, medical doors, fire doors, and medical equipment. The visit has made the tower cranes and large truck cranes produced by Zoomlion, the decoration materials produced by Beijing New Building Material (Group) Co., Ltd., the precision clocks produced by Yantai Xinghe Electric Clock Co., Ltd., the public broadcasting and paperless office system products produced by Guangzhou Baolun Electronic Co., Ltd.enter the Arima General Hospital.

CRCC International has also actively contacted with overseas Chinese-funded enterprises and recommended their products to project owners. For example, Huawei's integrated precision cabinets, servers, cloud storage systems, telemedicine and video phone systems, and Mindray's ultrasound equipment and surgical equipment have all been approved by the owners and used in the projects.

The Curepe Interchange project, located in the east of Port of Spain, capital of Trinidad and Tobago, is the first interchange project undertaken by a Chinese enterprise in the country. The project team successively overcame difficulties such as differences in design standards, cross-construction operations, and  efficiency in installing the main steel structure. Especially during the pandemic, they strictly implemented epidemic prevention measures such as closed-loop management of the project site, temperature check, mandatory mask wearing for all, and area-based management of construction teams. Thanks to the all-out efforts of the project team, the interchange was opened to traffic successfully, becoming the country's fastest-completed infrastructure project. During the construction, the project team also introduced solar traffic lights to control traffic at intersections, the first of its kind in the country.

After the interchange was opened to traffic, the project department also invited reporters from local mainstream media to cover the traffic conditions live for four consecutive days. The "China solution" has been understood and recognized in a subtle way, and won wide acclaim from local people.

-- Fulfilling responsibilities and integrating into local community

CRCC International has also carried out extensive public welfare activities locally to fulfill its social responsibilities and win the understanding and support of all sectors of society. Cascade volunteer community school, located in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, was founded in 1970, and it is committed to providing life and job skills training to young people, especially disadvantaged groups, and helping them tap their potential. The school is operating with the support of donations from government agencies, businesses, as well as society. After learning this, CRCC International took the initiative to send professional engineers and construction teams to the school, and with elaborate planning, they completed the renovation of the school buildings in just half a month.

In addition, CRCC International also pays attention to the use of local management and technical talents to strengthen technical exchanges and cooperation. The company signed a training cooperation agreement with the Tobago House of Assembly, and arranged accordingly the civil, electrical, mechanical and industrial engineers selected by the Tobago House of Assembly to conduct relevant technical training at the company's project sites in Trinidad and Tobago. In August 2019, CRCC International made special arrangements for three engineers from Tobago to study and conduct exchanges in China, and visit the company's under-construction projects domestically.

In recent years, CRCC International has successively provided technical training for more than 100 local students, created more than 1,000 jobs for local people, and cooperated with nearly 200 local suppliers. The company has also encouraged the staff to actively integrate into local communities and mobilized them to participate in local events such as the commemoration of the 129th Anniversary of the founding of Borough of Arima, the commemorative tree-planting in Queen's Park, and charity runs, demonstrating the good image of the Chinese enterprise.