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Terracore was established in 1994 and at first began its operations in various areas related to the construction industry. Terracore now provides drilling services and concrete, asphalt and rock testing but also geotechnical consultancy services. Terracore geotechnical consultancy consists of a report which includes the final rock test result issued by the laboratory together with an analysis of the terrain and relevant calculations.  In June 2010, the Terracore laboratory expanded its premises and moved from Dingli to a three floored premises in an industrial zone in Mosta.

Accreditation is achieved following a thorough assessment by a specialized technical assessment team specifically selected by the NAB-MALTA for its clients. The objective of this assessment is to establish the technical competence of the laboratory to ensure that it has the right personnel, management system, facilities, equipment and knowledge to issue reliable test reports and certificates. The requirements are established by ISO17025 which defines the general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.

It should also be noted that by virtue of NAB-MALTA’s signing of the Multi Lateral Agreement with the European Co-operation for Accreditation, the test certificates issued by Terracore Limited now have international recognition.

The full scope of accreditation of this laboratory including its contact details may be found at the NAB-Malta Website:  Terracore Accreditation Scope

(Source: http://www.nabmalta.org.mt/events_news/art20120214.htm)

“SmartCity Malta will create the ideal infrastructure, support systems, environment and lifestyle for ICT and the people working in the industry” says Fareed Abdulrahman, Executive Director of the SmartCity brand worldwide.  Smart City Malta, a technology park currently under development in Kalkara, estimated to cost around 275 million euro, will cover an area of 360,000 square metres.  The project was unveiled in September 2007, with the first offices opening in 2010.

During this first phase of the project Terracore was responsible for the Quality Assurance and Quality Control of the Site Wide Grading (ongoing), Infrastructure Phases 1A and 1B (Phase 1B ongoing) and Roads & Landscaping tenders.

The underground culvert network built in Phase 1 forms part of a larger infrastructure programme aimed at supporting more than 103,000m² of office space, a variety of world-class apartments and villas and vast commercial outlets including four and five-star hotels.   The whole infrastructure works are spread over an area of 360,000 m², one third of which is open green space landscaped with local vegetation.   The purpose of the culvert is to house the potable water network, fire and irrigation network, 11kV cable and other utilities in an easily accessible structure.

Principal activities performed by Terracore included the:

Testing of soil and rock

Earthwork compaction compliance testing

Monitoring and reporting on concrete trial mixes

Inspection of formwork and steelwork before concreting

Sampling and testing of concrete constituents at trial mix stage, including the testing of aggregates, water and cement

Monitoring and reporting of asphalt production and quality control of asphalt supplied and placed during the works

Inspection of aggregate sub-base layers and asphalt layers forming part of the road build up

Sampling and testing of asphalt mix constituents and of the formed asphalt

Progress testing of concrete and its constituents

Performing inspections to verify compliance with documented instructions, drawings, procedures, and specifications as required by the contract

Reporting and material submissions

Handing-over documentation

Local contractors were responsible for the supply and placement of ready mixed concrete in the grades C25 and C40, during the Infrastructure Phase 1A and Landscaping tender works.  T10, T12, T16 and T20 steel bars and various steel meshes were used as steel reinforcement in the culvert, large manholes, ducting chambers and retaining wall construction.  Performing concrete trial mixes, testing aggregates and water samples proposed for concrete production, obtaining certification for the admixtures and reinforcing steel were all tasks of the QA and QC team.  This was to ensure that the specified materials meet the design and quality requirements as defined. Progress testing of concrete and its constituents were then performed at an agreed frequency during the whole concrete production period, to ascertain quality control of the construction.  Daily inspections on steelwork and concrete production were performed to verify compliance with documented instructions, drawings, procedures, and specifications as required by the contract.  All inspections were documented and presented to the consultant engineer.

Various earthwork classification and compliance testing was done on the backfill material below the concrete blinding layers and the aggregate sub-base laid in the car park area to ensure that adequate compaction was achieved prior to the laying of concrete or paving blocks.  Compliance testing comprised of Sand Replacement tests, Plate Bearing tests, and Dynamic Plate Load tests.  Classification testing involved various aggregate laboratory tests, followed by the proper assessment of test results by reviewing control testing for compliance with contract requirements.

Road works for this first phase of the project kicked off on September 2010 and were completed in October 2010, consisting of an 800m stretch of construction.  The road build up for the asphalted areas consisted of two layers of Type 1 material not thicker than 150mm each, 120mm thick base course, 80mm thick binder course and 40mm wearing course.     Compaction testing on the sub-base layers was a crucial aspect in ascertaining quality in the road construction.  Inspections by the QA team were carried out together with the consulting engineer on all road build up layers checking issues such as surface regularity and compaction and identifying if any corrective action needs to be taken.  Monitoring and reporting of asphalt production and quality control of asphalt supplied and placed during the works was done by the sampling and testing of fresh asphalt and bitumen.  Laboratory testing then determined the characteristic properties of the mix, while final compaction was calculated following the drilling of cores and the testing of plugs.

City Gate project is part of a national strategy that aims to revitalise Valletta, a UNESCO world heritage site and capital of the Maltese Islands. With the designs produced by the world renowned architect, Renzo Piano, this project is bound to be nothing but yet another page in the history of Valletta’s urban development.
It is thus only imaginable that such a prominent and large scale project should involve several entities. These entities work hand in hand to make sure that the project is successfully completed and the involvement of Terracore Ltd in Quality Assurance and Control will only strengthen these prospects.

With a professional QA team stationed on site, ongoing works are scrutinized and monitored daily. Works scheduled for the day are confirmed with the contractor’s project management team and later issued by our team to the client. Each and every ongoing work is inspected. Our team also verifies, and later certifies, that these works are being carried out according to architectural and structural drawings. Such works mainly include reinforcement, membranes and shuttering.
Using Terracore Ltd vast experience in concrete testing, our team is also responsible for analysing, testing and monitoring the concreting taking place throughout the project. Trial mixes, together with progressive aggregate and water testing are done to certify the quality of the concrete. All concrete used for each and every structural element in the project is subjected to slump tests and temperature readings. Cube samples are also taken and later crushed to provide a compressive strength result. This data is recorded and verified by Terracore Ltd in order to ascertain that the quality of the concrete is constant throughout the duration of the project.

With the progress of works, Terracore’s involvement in the project has not been limited to only QA and QC. Our company also executed other operations that include:

• drilling;
• rock bolting;
• condition survey and investigations of the Old Opera House
• daily movement monitoring of St Catherine of Italy Church, Yellow Garage Tunnel and St James bastions;
• geothermal borehole drilling, installation and testing;
• rock sampling, coring and trial pits.

All in all, one may easily conclude that City Gate Project has managed to create an ensemble of Terracore’s professional services.

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Terracore Ltd was awarded a 2 year contract for the vibration monitoring during the demolition, excavation and building of the new City Gate and Parliment site.