2018. 6. 4

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No.68
My Work on Overseas Projects
I introduce some of the projects of port, harbor, and coastal area development
overseas which I experienced during my working for the Overseas Coastal Area
Development Institute of Japan (OCDI), on the temporal job assignments from the
Ministry of Transport (the predecessor of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport
and Tourism).
The first project I worked on was the planning of Apia Port development in the
Independent State of Samoa in South Pacific Ocean. The development of Apia Port, Yutaka Sunohara

Board of Director, JSCE

which was located in the capital city of Samoa, was planned to extend wharfs and to
improve the ferry terminal serving between Samoa and American Samoa, funded by the Japanese Grant Aid.
In Thailand, I worked on the project of inland container depot (ICD) development for the Laem
Chabang Port (LCP) which now is the international logistics hub. The objective of LCP was todevelop a deep seaport as an alternative for the Bangkok Port which could not accommodate
vessels due to its location on Chao Phraya River. However, because the LCP was about140-km
away from Bangkok, the development of ICD near Bangkok was proposed to assist smoothcontainer movement to and from the LCP. After some surveys and studies about origins ordestinations of foreign trade cargoes, the current use of road and railway networks, and a future
development plan, the Lad Krabang area was chosen as the place to build a ICD, and then amaster plan for the ICD including scale, leading-in lines of rails and others were drawn up. Someyears later I had the opportunity to visit the port and found that it was developed larger than it was planned
initially, and many cargoes and ships were busily coming intoand out of the ICD. Seeing it, I was filled with sense ofpleasure, pride, achievement and joy.
In Laos, I engaged in the Mekong River development project:in that project, the development of Laksi Port was planned,
located 4km down from the capital Vientiane, where during
the rainy season, the water levels in the Mekong River rose 13
meters higher than the ones during the dry season. I had to
obtain an approval and agreement on that project from some The Port of Laksi at the time of high-water
official of the Laos Government while I was staying there for The quay and apron are designed to accommodate

berthing, water level elevation in the Mekong River, anda few weeks. I polished up the plan and got everything done loading and unloading cargos
1within the limited time, carving out more time from my sleeping schedule. The project was completed
successfully, funded by Japanese Grant-Aid. The satellite photograph below shows that the Laksi Port is still ingood shape. I vividly remember that my counterpart in that project gave me a home-distilled spirit before leaving
for home. It is one of the unforgettable moments in my career.
It usually takes a long time to complete a project in Japan; thus, not many engineers may have chance to see allphases of the project even though they are involved at the planning phase. In the meantime, in projects overseas,engineers may have more opportunities to get involved in a project from start to finish although they may manage
time wisely in order to complete it within a fixed schedule. They may feel stressed, but should gain worthwhile
experiences in engaging in projects overseas.
【Reported by Yutaka Sunohara (The Ports and Harbors Association of Japan)
International Division, Board of Director, JSCE】- Overseas Projects The Tanjung Priok Access Road Construction Project (Phase I),
Package 2, Section E2 Contract, Jakarta, Indonesia
As known in conjunction with recently high economic growth of Indonesia, further
highway development in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area must be indispensable
transportation infrastructures as well as other important national policies. Based upon the
Jakarta Metropolitan Transportation Master Plan, the Access Road Project below,
connecting routes of the highway network located in Tanjung Priok Port area that is thelargest import/export port in Jakarta, is positioned as an crucial part of the National
Transport System in Indonesia, and thus it was financially supported by ODA LOAN ofJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Kenichi Nakajima(Kajima Corp.)

This Package 2, Section E2 Contract is for the highway viaduct construction of 2.74 km long and road
improvement works on the ground as shown in Photo-1 taken aerially by the Drone. The viaduct consists ofvarious shapes of 120 piers and U shaped precast pre-stressed concrete girders whose numbers are 614 pieces.
For example, Photo-2 was taken for the Y shaped piers nearby P20 to P25. In addition, this project includes
electrical and mechanical facilities such as toll gate plazas as indicated in Photo-3. In respect of traffic demand
forecast, 24 hour traffic volume for this Section E2 is approximately 70,000 to 140,000 vehicles, including about

Photo-1 Overall Aerial View of Tanjung Priok Access Road, Section E2 Contract2

30,000 freight vehicles in both directions on a daily basis.
As to the construction progress, due to its tight project schedule, several new technologies were adopted to thiscontract. For instance, to a sharp curve and complication of the highway elevation for either longitudinal or
cross-sectional directions, Construction Information Modeling (CIM), that is sometimes recognized as Building
Information Modeling (BIM), was applied during the design and construction periods in order to facilitate theworks in avoiding miscommunications among all the parties. Furthermore, aerial videos by Drone Technology
to preiodically check the progress of constrution and the communication network by using Social Network
System (SNS) were adopted to immediately cope with safety and environmental protection management on thesite together with the clients.
As a result of every effort, the entire construction of this Access Road Project was completed on 28 March 2017,and opened to public traffic soon after the ceremony, attended by the Indonesian President and the representativesof the Japanese Government held on 15 April 2017. As expected, currently this highway is so much contributing
to mediate traffic congestions in the Tanjung Priok Port area the largest port in Jakarta where so many container
trailers runs every day; at the same time, influencing positive impacts not only directly on importation/
exportation, but also indirectly on the socio-economic development and environmental protection situation in
the Jakarta Metropolitan Area.
Lastly, so many supports from all the parties relating to this project are greately appreciated to complete thisPackage 2, Section 2 Contract.

Photo-2 Viaduct Structures near Piers P20 to P25

Photo-3 Typical Toll Gate Plaza【Reported by Kenichi Nakajima (Kajima Corp.)】3

【Alumni of DOBOKU Series】

The Ground's behavior prediction method and I
Phommachanh Viradeth
OYO Corporation Tokyo Branch
Beginning of the voyage
The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) was a new independent country in 1975,
When I was a child in 90s, infrastructure development works was done everywhere in
the capital city of Laos called Vientiane. Sightings such as plumbing work, road repair
work, Mekong River embankment maintenance work etc., have come into everyday lifeand civil engineering work became a yearning work unnoticed.
Phommachanh Viradeth
OYO Corp. Tokyo Branch

At that time, there were hundreds of students studying abroad from Laos every year. I
also dreamed about studying abroad. Finally I also took this wave (timing) and decided to study abroad in Japanas a scholarship student in 2004, fourteen years ago fromthat day I came to Japan. I was studied at Tokyo Japanese
Language

Education

Center(Japanese

Language

School), Kochi National College of Technology andKobe University. And after obtaining the doctoral degree
at the Kobe University in 2014, I was Joined OYO
Corporation which one of the leading groundconsultancy companies in Japan and has reached thepresent.
Yokoi Laboratory, Kochi National College ofTechnology (2008)

Predictions and Forecast

Unless you are an ESP(Extra Sensory Perception), you can not predict the future. For this reason, engineers ineach field have made efforts to predict future phenomena based on "assumptions" derived from past cases andexperiences in addition to the theory of individual phenomena. When asking "forecast / prediction", there are
not many people remembering the weather. The weather forecast uses simulation based on the theory of
aerodynamics and thermodynamics using a huge amount of data obtained from hundreds of observation points
throughout Japan and engineers observe the results and predict and forecasts of future weather.
Why I was interested in prediction technology, that was
the reason I was assigned to the laboratory ofgeotechnical engineering at Kobe University. At Kobe
University, I learned about what is called the theory on
soil, such as continuum mechanics, finite element
method and mathematical model of soil from the 4th
grade undergraduate students to the completion of
doctoral course. In the laboratory, I learned basic
programmingtoexpressmathematicalmodels.
4

Iizuka· Kawai Laboratory, Kobe University (2011)

Therefore, I met the method of predicting the behavior of the ground through the soil / water finite element
analysis program "DACSAR". At the time, Professor Iizuka's class asked, "Prediction is to identify future events
based on theory, and it is just a guess without theoretical reasons" is still one word to remember and I It is adriving force for my prediction technology of. After that, I got a doctoral degree, (doctor thesis title: earth / water/ air coupling problem in unsaturated earth structure) I started to work for a consulting company based in the
ground with a motivation to solve the problems in the field, using advanced analysis (behavior prediction) I havestudied.
After entering this consulting company of the ground system, I am in charge of a practical series of groundsurvey work (planning → ground survey → sampling taking → indoor test → preparation of analysis
section → setting analysis constant → analysis execution → judgment → examination of measures)
However, Many things can be experienced here because it is one of the domestic best ground consultancy
companies, and I realize there are many problems with Japan's ground. such as peat in Hokkaido, proximity
construction in urban areas, permeation / leakage of river banks, etc., In addition to watching not only analyticaltechniques but also superior observation techniques, sampling sampling and indoor test techniques, we are able
to experience a series of prediction and demonstration techniques. It is not only static problems including soft
ground problems but also dynamic problems such as earthquake response analysis and various ground problems,and are in charge of behavior prediction for them , that’s make me sending a lot of fulfilling days.
Of course, because the site is full of unpredictable and uncertainty, 100% prediction is impossible. This will becommon to all fields. Nevertheless, there is uncertainty, considering each possibility (assumption), thinking thatthe task of repeating PDCA and finding the most appropriate answer is a challenging task of "prediction".
Researchers thus create new analytical methods and analysis models by repeating their assumptions anddemonstrations, and I believe that the prediction technology is progressing day by day.
Although, for this 14 years I want to return home as soon as possible, but as I am not more experienced and stilla narrow field of vision as an engineer, I am need to experience more and spending my days while being driven
by the desire to refine more technology. I can not predict where I will work in the future, but I would like todevelop technology as a technician no matter where I go. Finally, thank you Professor Kawai who is a supervisingteacher, and thank you for who supported my international student life, thanks you.
Profile: Phommachanh Viradeth，Born in Lao PDR in 1984. In 2004 dropped out of National University of Laos, and transferred
to Kochi National College of Technology. After obtaining doctor’s degree at Kobe University in 2014, joined OYO Corporation
and reaches the present.
《Column》Katsuyuki Kawai, Associate Professor, Kindai University
Mr. Phommachanh studied ‘Constitutive model for unsaturated soil with application of
subloading surface’ for bachelor’s degree and ‘Modelling the stress-strain behavior of coalash mixture’ for master’s degree, and wrote doctor thesis titled ‘Soil/water/air coupledproblem on unsaturated earth structures’ as application of these knowledge to numericalsimulation. In those days, numerical simulation with unsaturated soil mechanics was still
unstable and some modifications of modelling and algorithm were needed. He carefully
solved their problems and updated the existing analysis code. His thoughtful personality
made him try to do anything by himself when I instructed him. In most cases, when heconsulted me about his research, his research had been much developed through his trial
and error. I felt his diligence and excellence at that time.
※Alumni of DOBOKU Series is in collaboration with Editorial Committee of JSCE Magazine.

5

- Internationalization of Japanese Universities -Internationalization of Education in Civil Engineering at Kyoto University

First, I would like to explain the education organization related to civil engineering at
Kyoto University. For undergraduates, the university offers the Undergraduate Course
Program of Civil Engineering at the Undergraduate School of Global Engineering, Facultyof Engineering. Students are assigned to each course in their junior year. Many of thestudents in the Undergraduate Course Program of Civil Engineering choose to go on tograduate school, mainly in the Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering or Prof.Tomomi Yagi
the Department of Urban Management at the Graduate School of Engineering. The Graduate School ofEngineering, Kyoto

graduate schools have accepted a large number of international students. However, only University
those who have received Japanese language education can be enrolled in the undergraduate
courses.

In FY2009, Kyoto University was selected for the Global 30 (G30) Program, a project to facilitate networking
for the internationalization of universities. Kyoto University established the Undergraduate International Course
Program of Civil Engineering, which gives the classes of Undergraduate Course Program of Civil Engineering
in English at the Undergraduate School of Global Engineering, and the International Course in the master’s
degree program. As a result, the university is now able to teach students in English from their freshman year
until they receive their doctorate. It was especially difficult to establish the Undergraduate International Course
Program of Civil Engineering due to numerous problems encountered in attracting international students,
holding classes in English, and recruiting foreign teachers. However, these hurdles were overcome and theprogram started in April 2011. A total of 71 international undergraduate students (20 of them women) have beenenrolled as of April 2018. Students are from 16 different countries, including many from Asia, and now somefrom Africa and North and South America. In March 2017, members of the inaugural class completed themaster’s degree program, and have played an active role in companies or institutes such as general contractors
in Japan and expressway corporations in their countries.
Currently, Kyoto University and its graduate schools have many international students. But as teachers
specialized in civil engineering, our internationalization objective means more than simply acceptinginternational students. What is most important is to internationalize general Japanese students. Therefore, since
the establishment of the course in 2011, up to ten general Japanese students have been enrolled in theInternational Program each year, and they receive their education in English from their freshman year together
with the international students. Sixty-seven students (ten of them women) have been enrolled in the program sofar. One of the characteristics of the International Program is the junior-year internship program conductedduring the summer. In this program, international students are dispatched to Japanese companies and Japanese
students to companies overseas so that every student can experience working in a foreign country. We also try
to internationalize Japanese students in the general civil engineering courses through classes given in English,
which constitute half of the classes taken in the master’s degree program, discussions with international students
6

in English in laboratories, presentations at international conferences, dispatching students abroad, and otherprograms. In other words, we do not believe that it is enough to simply teach students in English. Our objective
is to foster civil engineers who are fluent in foreign languages, understand different cultures, and can play anactive role in the world.

FY2018 International Program Freshmen Welcome Party【Reported by Prof. Tomomi Yagi, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University 】

Enjoy Learning with Japan’s First Civil-Engineer-Giant Karuta Card Game!
The History and Attraction of Civil Engineering
The Japan Society of Civil Engineers has developed the Civil-Engineer-Giant Karuta Card Game. Players canlearn about the achievements, ways of thinking, and passion of the pioneers of civil engineering while having
fun playing cards.
The origin of the name of the Japanese karuta card game comes from the Portuguese
word carta. The karuta card game was conceived through the combination of theJapanese traditional shell-matching game and European card games. The fact that the
karuta game could be played anywhere by both adults and children motivated us to makeour own card game with a civil-engineer-giant theme. Civil engineering giants are
pioneers who since ancient times have protected people’s lives and property from natural
disasters and established the country’s land so that everyone could live a productive life. Hideki Ogata
Director of Civil

We want the players to know that the technologies developed by these pioneers, and the Engineering Literacy
hardships that they went through, support our lives today. This is what we hope to Promotion Group, JSCE
Communications andaccomplish. The karuta card game can be used as a study aid for learning about the Public Relations Center
history of civil engineering, an educational tool that can beenjoyed at home and in the community, and other purposes.
If the players develop a favorite civil engineering giant, they
can learn how this giant contributed to civil engineering
projects. Players can also look for and study an engineer who
contributed to the area where they live. We expect players to
explore the world of civil engineering on their own.
Forty-eight civil engineers are introduced in efuda picture
7

cards and yomifuda reading cards. Not only Japanese engineers played a leading role in establishing the land ofJapan; the karuta card game also includes famous foreign engineers and technicians who contributed to themodernization of the country. Examples include D. Bernoulli and L. Euler of the world of mathematics, and thegreat English engineer I. K. Brunel, who is said to have changed the landscape of England through innovative
design and construction. In the Meiji Era, when Japan opened its doors to the world, E. Morel, an Englishman
who built the first railway in Japan, R. H. Brunton, who built light houses, and J. D. Rijke, who greatly
contributed to flood-control measures, guided Japan with advanced scientific technologies. Japan’s rapid
modernization would never have been achieved without the technologies and passion of those foreign engineers.
The objective of the Civil-Engineer-Giant Karuta Card Game is to serve as a tool to know, learn, and enjoy thehistorical role and value of civil engineering, which has been related to humans and nature, by introducing civilengineer giants.
【Reported by Hideki Ogata, JSCE Communications and Public Relations Center】

Updates◆FY2017 JSCE International Lifetime Contribution Award and International Outstanding Collaboration Award
Celebration Party
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/130◆CECAR8 Online Registration (Early Bird): June 1 – Jan 31, 2019http://www.cecar8.jp/◆Japanese Civil Engineers the Global Leaders Symposium Series No.12, July 19, 2018.
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/129◆2018 JSCE Annual Meeting International Program in Hokkaido, August 29 and 30, 2018
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/
The 20th International Summer Symposium；“When a Mega Disaster Strikes... - How would you respond if you were a mayor? -”http://www.jsce-int.org/node/538◆Online Museum of Civil Engineering “DOBOHAKU –Tokyo Infrastructure Anatomy –” (English ver.)
http://www.dobohaku.com/tokyo/en/◆The International Infrastructure Archives– A Compilation of Japan’s Greatest Projects in Transfer of Civil Engineering Technology in Service –http://www.jsce.or.jp/e/archive/◆Concrete Committee International Newsletter No. 53
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/newsletter53/index.html◆Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC) International Newsletter archives
http://www.acecc-world.org/newsletter.html◆IAC “News Pick Up!!” on the JSCE Japanese website
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/118◆Summary of feature articles in JSCE Magazine Vol. 103, No. 6, June 2018 on the JSCE website
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine◆Journal of JSCE
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/journalofjsce◆IAC Students and Alumni Network
http://www.jsce-int.org/IAC_network

8§ IAC News Subscription §The IAC News is one of the communication tools to share information and ideas with the members. We would like to invite
you, your friends and colleagues to join the communication and to subscribe the IAC News. Please register online:(http://www.jsce-int.org/node/150). We look forward to meeting you.
§ IAC Facebook §Recent activity of International Activities Center is introduced on this Facebook. By all means, please see this home page.
(https://www.facebook.com/JSCE.en)
Comments and Questions
Please send us your feedback and comments to help us improve the IAC news. We look forward to hearing from you.
JSCE IAC: iac-news@jsce.or.jp

9