SUMMARY 10/2004

The Advancement of Information Technology in the Construction Industry

Construction companies today can no longer succeed in their work without quality management and monitoring of construction. The majority of construction companies already make use of IT support in financial and managerial accounting, in computerised logistics, and in building estimations. The historical evolution of the construction field, and even this country, substantiates this fact.

The most important area in which the use of information systems must be advanced and promoted is in the construction itself. The time has arrived where it is necessary to support production work directly and concretely on site. Once conditions are established for quality work and sufficient information support is provided, and once the tools are made available for the operative collection of necessary information for monitoring construction, the need for control is reduced and consequently individual work activities, and therefore the construction process as a whole, becomes more effective.

How To Build a Power Plan Run on Wind

The use of renewable energy sources is one of the priorities of the European Union. Targets have been set in terms of the proportion of energy consumption to be provided by renewable energy sources. The Czech Republic has a target of providing 8 % of energy consumption from renewable sources of energy by 2010 (which is, however, below the EU average of 12 % by 2010). It is possible to assume that in the coming years EU targets and those of the individual countries will continue to rise.

One renewable energy source is wind. Wind turbines have already been installed and are currently operating in windy locations in Europe, particularly in Germany, Denmark, and Spain, with a production output of more than 1MW per turbine. Often, however, at such windy locations entire groups of such wind turbines have been installed to form so-called wind farms.

Modern aerogenerators have arrived in the Czech Republic, where during 2003 they were installed in Protivanov in the Drahanská Heights (electrical output 100 kW), inpJindřichovice pod Smrkem (two turbines producing 600 kW) and in Nová Ves in the Ore Mountains, where to date the largest power generator has been put into operation, producing 1500 kW. The basic parameters for these power stations are presented in the next text.

The Unique Suspension of the New Bridge in Bratislava

In September of this year a unique, technical operation, long under preparation, was executed on the left bank of the Danube in Bratislava. A five thousand tonne bridge vault, 231 metres in length and 36 metres high, was put in motion and on a ninety-degree track transported across the riverbed to the pillars for its suspension from the Petržalka bank.

Nicknamed the Košickáe bridge, it is the newest of the five bridges that now cross Danube in Bratislava. A site close to the centre of the city was chosen for construction of the new bridge, located just upstream between the Old Bridge and the Harbour Bridge, exiting onto Košická Street on the left bank, between the formerly private and now cargo harbour.

In this same location, for several years off and on, construction has been under way on the new Slovak National Theatre. The former harbour building is also to be transformed into a museum. Thus there will soon emerge a new haven of cultural and recreational activities along the river in the centre of Bratislava.