Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

A really quick summer!

It seems that every day which passes picks up speed, and I can’t believe that we are already in mid September.

My time is still split between the two major projects here of the Steam Sterilisation plant and the USAMRIID replacement project.

I am now mostly involves in the commissioning process of the USAMRIID. In the building about 60% of the space is mechanical “room” jam-packed with HEPA filters, air handling units, control systems, compressors, pumps and everything else you could possibly think of.

I am managing the commissioning contractors issue log, this involves answering any questions they have on any of the many systems, in order to allow them to write the system tests that will accurately test and check the equipment, and put it through its paces.  Some of these questions then highlight further problems which had not been previously considered, and thus I find myself researching a variety of systems and also going back to the original designer, (who will still have on contract) with a set of further developed questions, this is then resulting in some changes to the specification.

I have become the USACE lead on the in-the-field testing of some of the systems, ensuing that the quality of workmanship is up to the extremely high standard required. As part of this I have found that one set of tests being conducted may have been recurrently inaccurate for a couple of years, which is clearly a concern, as retesting would be extremely expensive and in many areas near impossible. I am attempting to determine the exact level of fault and from there find a quick/easy solution, and subsequently implement a system which will not allow the similar problems to recur.

In the Steam Sterilization Plant things are still fairly static. The higher management within USACE and the Lead Contractor are conducting a very slow negotiation over the final change, as they have been for the past 3 months. The Contractors bid is slowly falling from $2m to $1.6m but still not close to the expected $300K.

 There are also systems tests of the SSP which remain failed/incomplete, and also pivotal for the plant to be finally commissioned by the Centre for Disease Control.  Again due to the impasse and a hard stop on any further funding from us, getting remedial work and a retest is not currently possible, thus in order to progress we are having to conduct in depth research to determine if the previous test failure can be explained in a way that will not cause a huge rework.  I have been in discussion with various laboratories in the US to compare their testing procedures with ours, to ensure we were not including an overly large safety margin. If the SSP continues to sit in deadlock for many more months then it will begin to impact the critical path of the USAMRIID project, and thus huge pressure will mount.

On the home front

Sarah has been working in a HR recruitment company for the past 6 weeks, and is now getting over her horror at the employment laws out here (until recently an employer was well within their rights to ask for your Facebook username and password, and you could be fired for not providing them). She seems to spend most of her day interviewing Ex-Cons who need work, so an eye-opener all round.

My beer is going well; I have now brewed a Belgian Ale, Weisbeer, IPA, Dupple and Pilsner all of which are actually pretty good! (Much to Sarah’s surprise)

We went on a road trip from here to Niagara Falls, the Great Lakes, Michigan and Pittsburgh. About 3000 miles in total: America is in fact quite big!