Having spent a summer working with Alberici with construction of a hospital and having spent half of a summer with construction in an automotive plant, I have gotten the opportunity to see the difficulty and the variety of the projects Alberici takes on. One of the reasons I wanted to work for Alberici is the variety and challenge of their projects, and I know that the different sites I have been on are just a small glance at the wide array of projects. I have noticed that the differences between the projects I have worked on in building a hospital and building an automotive plant stretch past the final product.
While all construction projects have a fast pace, the automotive plant I have been working at has an extra fast pace. Automotive plants have an extra strict deadline to meet, as any time not spent making cars is time not making money for auto manufacturers. While hospitals want work completed as quickly as possible as well, there’s a little extra push in the automotive construction side.
The work that is done is obviously different, but how it is done is quite different. The automotive plant I am currently working on sits in a square mile block. Due to the size of this and other automotive plant projects, most contractors won’t be large enough to perform an entire project on their own, so many contractors are hired on site to complete the work. As the hospital renovation and addition I worked on last summer wasn’t nearly as big, only one general contractor managed the work on site.
In addition, the reason for the work has been quite different. In hospitals, work is often done if a new hospital is needed, or if a renovation or addition is desired. For automotive plants, every time a new car is to be manufactured in a plant, the entire plant must be revamped so that the specific assembly line process matches the vehicle that is desired.
The safety on site has some differences as well. One of the main safety focuses in hospitals is to keep the patients safe and secure as they recover. This includes keeping noise levels low and keeping dust out of the hospital by using wet, dry, and sticky floor mats. In automotive plants, these restrictions aren’t as necessary, but with more heavy machinery on site, more safety precautions are needed in understanding what equipment is around.
I’m sure that as I learn about more projects in the healthcare and automotive fields, I’ll learn that these differences and similarities will change, as every project is different. Every day is different, and I’m learning more about the diversities of the projects each day!