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Picking up pace…
Things are really picking up pace now. This last week (and a bit) has focussed mainly on three projects, the EDC solarwall, Ashley reservist centre and C4 ISR request for equitable adjustment, with the other projects sitting on a back-burner for now.
EDC Solarwall
The thing that really got the workload increased was kind of self inflicted but very important. There is a quality assurance procedure within USACE that ensures that all projects are adhering to the practices as laid out in the Project Management Business Process and ordinarily folk find that things become routine. However, because this project has originated from another office and has become a joint effort, the boundaries appear to be a little blurred and there is plenty of scope for things to fall through the cracks as one office assumes the other is doing their job right. Things aren’t helped by the fact that the originating office is going digital while we are still big fans of huge filing cabinets full of rain-forrests. Whilst conducting a review of the file for my own education a ton of grey areas and missing items became apparent, such as;
- Letters of delegation – to prove what authority we actually have here at this office.
- Correct Org charts from Contractor (and associated qualifications) – Required before we can give notice to proceed.
- Wage rates to accompany the award letters – we will need to verify wages and conduct employee interviews
- Clarification of who is responsible for construction submittals – needs to be our office but is currently set to Alabama
- Some submittals on technical issues have been given to the Contractor but are not recorded in the computer system – this means we (in our office) can not see what decisions have been made in order to process subsequent submittals
- Accident reporting chain is not clear – could result in accidents being reported twice, making the project look bad.
- Not all info is in the system for payroll complience – It is held in Alabama but will need to be executed here.
- Property trtansfer and warranty letters – again, set to Alabama but we are the local office that will have to deliver.
- Accurate schedule info held and available by Contractor but not up to date in the shared computer system – is a poor use of the tools made available to us all. Contractor must update, thus affording visibility at all levels.
- Definable Features of Work incorrectly logged in the computer systems. – Not immediately presenting an issue but when trying to analyse the schedule in future we would not be able to make sense of it. This would be a problem if we run into arguments further down the line and need to prove complicity.
So I’m currently trying to iron out all of the above, which is great for my own understanding of the procedures and will help to avoid issues in the future. If this is one of those rare occasions where the project is executed with minimal disruption, accidents or problems, then none of the above would really matter so much, but without resolving these items we will be in a world of hurt if the project starts falling to pieces. A ot of these things would simply not be an issue if the project had originated here in our office, but as it is external a lot of what we would take for granted is just not there.
I also invited the contractor to come and visit the site to identify lay-down and storage areas and to discuss some initial safety issues etc. The walk around the facility brough up some good questions whicvh has given me more research to conduct. All in all though – we’re making really good progress. The 100% design submissions are in for review and it’s all systems go.
Ashley Reservist Centre
Another visit to Ashley (entailing 8 hours of driving for a 4 hour visit) has opened my eyes yet again. In the last episode of the Ashley Saga, the Contractor was threatened with an interim non-satisfactory review – which means they can forget any future Government work unless theyu buck up their ideas. As a result they have boosted their staff and now have a second superintendent, a second quality control rep and an independent roofing specialist to help them get through the current problems. This has also coincided with the (potentially) problematic ConRep from the Government side having to go for an operation, which means that we have transferred another ConRep in. So far all the additional horsepower and change in personalities has been billed as a positive thing….until you get there and see that it’s all just the same sh1t dressed up differently.
The contractor will now be having a modification for the roof, meaning more cash and possibly more time. Funny old thing – anything that could go wrong with the roof is actually going wrong and it’s all the Government’s fault (if you listen to the contactor). The minute you call their bluff they suddenly figure out that the design given by the Government is buildable and that materials specified actually do exist. They arebasically stalling in the hope that they can add extra dollars to the modification. At one point I had to interject in the meeting azs the contractor tried to get the project engineer to agree to a design change. And this is another thing that is wrong with this ptoject……
The designer of record has ultimate responsibility for hte design….but there was no money put aside for any design work after the original design was finished. Now when the contractor finds a better way of doing something or has a design related problem – nobody from the originating office wants to know. This means nobody is assuming reponsibility for changes. If the project engineer agrees to it – he becomes culpable if it’s wrong. The PE in question is young and relatively inexperienced. So now everyone is frustrated because we are now forced to build things that are less than optimal, that the contractor knows he coulds do better at no addiitonal cost, but we’re now stuck as the Contractor and the PE joust the residual risk between each other. I am speaking higher up the chain but everyone just seems to accept that it’s wrong and shouldn’t be the case.
We have also had core samples taken from the defective loading ramp for petrographic analysis as per my recommendations of old. I am now really glad we’re doing this as the independent company that does the quality control for the contractor has been called into question. There is an acusation from elsewhere within the Corps that they have been falsifying data to cover mistakes. The tests we are having done at independent labs will prove or disprove data that was taken when the ramps were placed. If the quality control data has been skewed throughout the project then the whole thing might as well be knocked down….though I doubt we’ll do that.
C4ISR Request for Equitable Adjustment
I’ve managed to sift through the tome of the adjustment and have formulated the response letter. Final comments were that I am still being too nice and need to learn to be more blunt with them. I again received positive feedback about my analysis tools that I developed and the District scheduling expert has said he will steal my format next time he has to do anything similar. My next step will be to formalise each item of negotiation and develop action flow charts and decision points for each. These should drive the negotiation limits when it finally gets to that point.
OK – now I’m sick of typing – so moving on…
And in other news:
Ulli has finally defeated the beast that is the Maryland Vehicle Administration! A cheer went up in the office when we got the news. A cheer went up in the appartment community when they found out and a facebook revolution almost happened as waves of support came in. Upon being told to ‘take a ticket and get in line’ for the 15th time she finally snapped and used logic instead. She looked for the biggest office with the nicest door and barged in and gave whoever was on the other side of the desk both barrels and told them the British Embassy was on their way. She threw in some tears for good measure and a lot of yelling later the poor manager fixed all her problems….I think she’ll miss queuing up there.
I make my first appearance at an open-mic night at a local winery – look out for a drop in sales and possibly police involvement.
Adrian is now scaring the bejeesus out of us all as he is now the ripe age of 16 and legal to drive in Murka. Ulli hides the real truth about how bad he is. We look forward to him sharing some of the driving when we take our family holiday to North Carolina in a couple of weeks time….if we make it there alive.
Finally – and you can thank Richard and Roy for this… the country and western song review is back. Here is a list of the top five songs from this week:
1 – Get Off the Table, Mabel (the $2 is for the Beer)
2- Love Me Like My Dog Does
3 – I Lost Freida on the Freeway
4 – I Bought the Shoes that Just Walked Out on Me
5 – How Can I Get Over You if You Won’t Get Out from Under Me?
If you made it this far – you probably skipped straight to the end! Take care y’all.
McFry
Blog 24 July
Blog 24 July
1. Intro
Apologies to all my avid fans for not blogging for a while, things have been getting pretty busy and thus interesting for me on site. I will try and keep this succinct, but also cover all the detail that will give you an idea of the site. I apologize for the length of this blog!
2. SSP Progress
The SSP is starting to move out of limbo, though we have yet to agree to the contractors proposal to the change order we sent (seeing as his quote was 4 times higher than our estimate). The commissioning agent has received their back-pay and so is now willing to come back to site, and continue the final stages.
2a. “Matched Flow” discussion.
I called a meeting to discuss the current issues with matching the 2 flows through the heat exchanger. This is heat exchanger is designed to transfer from one tank to another, whilst emptying and filling the tanks. As such having matched flow is essential to prevent either having to spend more time heating the filling tank or having to use copious fresh water to cool the discharge before it hits the sewer. This had been highlighted previously in the commissioning process and a change order agreed to correct it, however we have found that it is still not working as well as we would expect.
It is basically a controls problem, similar to the ones we discussed with Steve and the main problem is the speed with which it can reach its set point. This time was not originally specified, and so currently takes around 10 minutes to reach full flow. This is slowing the rest of the process to an unacceptable degree. It looks like we may have to issue an additional change order stating the time it should reach set-point in (ie full controlled flow)
The learning point: is that specification must truly reflect your expectations, especially on innovative plant equipment.
2b. Failed Cook test.
One of the cook tanks that is used to pressure cook the effluent appears to have failed its “Bio-Challenge” test. This is intended to simulate using the cooker to sterilize 8000 US Gal of effluent. It is conducted with temperature probes to monitor the temperature that the tank maintains, and also a set of small glass vials each of which has a biological sample which must be sterilized. The temperature did not stay above 250F for the full hour and the sample still had live spores. This is hopefully some form of failure in the testing rather than an equipment failure. More information will be coming soon which will allow me to analyze it properly.
Learning point: that commissioning and testing is best handled by a third party with no previous attachment to the contractor.
2c. Proposal from SSP
Having sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) from the contractor they have returned a quote 4 times higher than expected ($2M rather than $500K and 264 days rather than 60). I have been “getting into the weeds” of this proposal and found many laughable mistakes (or they may be attempted extension of reality, such as 25 hour working days). As I had stated in previous Blogs the contractor is way behind schedule and appears to be acting fairly irrationally, and trying to recoup some costs by blaming everything on the USACE as well as trying to charge huge fees for the slightest effort. They have also just replaced their onsite project manager, again a strange move when so close to completion, so we will have to educate the new project manager about the details of the project.
Learning point: that all submissions from a contractor must be fully scrutinized, as dependant on how honest they are they may try all manner of tricks.
2d. Schedule adjustments
We have also been looking into the schedule adjustments made to the SSP by the contractor. Again there are many errors which are either extreme lack of intelligence, or lack of honesty. An example would be that all work on site had to stop whilst they waited for a change order from USACE, and thus we have delayed them. Clearly in reality only certain elements (which in this instance are not on the critical path) had to be stopped. Scheduling tricks like this are littered all over, and so they have created a story which paints them as blame free.
Same learning point as above.
3. USAMRIID progress
3a. Temporary Cooling.
The application of the bio-containment coatings (paint) is on the critical path for construction. The paint has quite tight limits of temperature and humidity in which it can be applied. Currently the weather is hot and damp and so preventing the application of the paints in some areas. MTJV (lead contractor) has rights to use the permanent systems for temporary cooling. They are attempting to turn the system on before it is truly ready, and this is of concern as they are likely to do some damage. The insulation on the chilled water line is not yet vapor tight and so will condense water, remain damp then become mouldy. We have been directed not to tell them to stop, as they will then expect reimbursement for the delay, as it is difficult to prove their system is not ready, so instead I am closely monitoring to point out damage early and so prevent further damage.
Leaning point: easily measurable criteria are required at any decision point or control point (such as turning on the system or not). Contractors will negotiate and haggle over anything!
3b. Electrical Problem (tripping early)
The Central Utility Plant (CUP) provides all the electricity, steam and chilled water to all facilities on the camp. We recently had a problem with tripping the HV feeders. This resulted in a brief game of defensive finger pointing, with everyone checking their equipment and calculations whilst stating they were sure it was another person’s fault. It was eventually solved by the CUP raising their settings, though they were initially adamant that their settings were correct. I have been trying to get all the relevant data, for academic study, but each of the organizations are unwilling to share their data.
Learning point: Basic engineering is often clouded by politics, this slows progress.
3c. Commissioning Progress: Merrick Issue log
I have been leading the Corps management of the Merrick Issue log. Merrick is the commissioning agent for the construction and so they find many and varied problems. In order to generate the answers whilst keeping costs down, I am attempting to answer each question within our office before elevating it to the Architects and Engineers
3d. Differential Pressure sensor.
Due to the high containment nature of the building, each area has its air pressure controlled very accurately. I am solving some of the problems that have been found whilst installing this system, namely that the sensors may become “Pegged Out” during an equipment failure event, leading to a possible containment failure. Clearly this is unacceptable, it may require a $500K change order, I am investigating all methods to keep this cost down.
Learning point: All possible failure Conditions must be designed in, this will save money over the course of the project.
3e. Duct lining in 6th Floor.
In one of the mechanical areas there is insufficient space between the air handling unit and the duct directly above it to fit insulation. The insulation is required to prevent the duct condensing water during the hot moist weather that is common here. We are exploring solutions; the most likely appears to be adhesive duct liner that will insulate the inside of the duct. The customer and designer are reluctant due to the poor track record of duct liner for decaying and becoming flaky and brittle. We are having to explore all other methods, and also reassure the customer.
Learning point: information and expectation management is important to prevent the customer becoming concerned. Technology can move forwards but certain bad reputations will stay attached to the concept, in this case the new duct liner is proven to be adequate, but it is still a duct liner and thus considered a poor solution. This original problem could have been avoided by a 3D drawing and modeling package.
3f. Wall and Riser close ins
I have become the USACE plumbing lead for most of the ceiling and wall close ins.
3g. Plenum Walls inspection problems with QC
The air intake plenums for AHU’s have prefabricated sheet aluminum insulated walls. These have been allowed to corrode whilst in storage or transit, leaving a white substance on the surface. The quality control of the sub contractor and lead contractor both seem to have failed to stop this, so it has fallen on me and one of the other young engineers to perform some really low level QC.
3h. Pipe, pressure line and Duct tests
I continue to conduct pressure and flow tests on the various systems that are being installed, this includes Compressed air, Compressed Nitrogen, CO2, Water systems, Air ducts (both standard and bio-containment) and Air Handling Units
4. Other News
4a. Storms
We continue to have really good storms out here, almost tropical, with continuous lighting, we in fact got evacuated off site last Wednesday due to a storm warning, the office got hit by lightening, though no real damage done.
4b. Sarah’s Job
Sarah has managed to get a job lined up, so that’s a real relief for her as it has been a while. She is working for Randstad Recruitment, in an office that is ¼ mile from our house so very convenient. She is not that impressed with their working practices!
4c. Sarah’s playing in Carousel
Sarah has been involved in the local Frederick Towne Players, who are currently putting on a performance of Carousel. They are generally surprisingly good for a small town community theatre, but still have a few characters in the crew which make it funny!
4d. Bacon Sundae
As part of my cultural learning I am partaking in some of the local delicacies, most recently a Bacon Sundae. This is a Burger King Special, combining bacon and an ice cream sundae. It is as you would expect…
4e. July 4th Celebration
We had a great day off celebrating the American independence, being asked by Americans if it is a day of mourning back in the UK. They really go for it in a big way with the whole town in the Park for sunset fireworks.
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