For anybody wondering:
These are spread footings atop “mud slabs” (low strength, unreinforced concrete used to produce a level, dry and firm surface for the actual footing) The footings appear to have significant starter column reinforcement in the center, which means either a really tall column or something really heavy is going on top. The blue and grey parts on the trucks appear to be formwork for the footings.
There’s some sort of Geosynthetic going down (white stuff) that is getting buried again, which is probably being used to improve the subgrade strength. I would suspect a raft slab type foundation will be used for the portions of the factory that don’t need the shear resistance that the footings are being used for. Pretty common solution for this type of building.
Not seeing any evidence of pipe or H pile on site, I doubt there will be any for this factory as it would be well underway by now with everything cleared and graded. I also don’t see any piling rigs sitting around.
The major difference between here and Shanghai is the number of concurrent operations. Local aggregate supply seems to be an issue (it is being trained in) and I assume the local concrete plant also trains in their aggregate as there are concrete trucks driving to the site and no localized batch plant.
Articulated haulers on the sand and highway haulers on the gravel roads. It actually looks like all of the gravel is being used exclusively for haul roads. Normal for operations on sand, no fun getting highway trucks stuck.
This buildout is probably more comparable to GF1 and will likely take shape in a very similar fashion. If I recall, GF1 excavated their footings, which is handy as you don’t need to form them if the soil is competent enough not to slough, but it looks like a lot of sand here, so no such luck.
Credentials: I have all these toys on my site, but we’re building a different widget.
