Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

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