Archive
Its been a while, but things are ticking along fine in the design office
Hmmmmm, been a while since I’ve written one of these, anyone would think that a thesis, several reports, a day job and moose-dodging in the Alaskan wilderness might use up one’s blog-writing time…..!
For the serious stuff (if like me you read the funny stuff first, scroll down to the bottom):
I’ve now been working the Mechanical section of the USACE design office for a couple of months, and am enjoying the work greatly, the 3 hours each day wasted in the Baltimore commute not so much, thankfully though no car accidents yet.
The largest single piece of work I’ve been working on has been progressing the design of a renovation of some military accommodation in Boston. As handed to me, this was at a very early stage of development and so I have been able to take responsibility for the advancement of the mechanical design. This has been considerably slower than I would have liked due to the necessity of learning several of USACE’s software programs that I am unfamiliar with (I long for HEVAComp!) It does seem that every individual step requires a new piece of software, so whilst I am broadening my horizons dramatically, I am getting a little frustrated with it all.
I am currently evaluating which technology to employ for the updated HVAC system, thus exploring many HVAC options, ruling out the truly ludicrous, and conducting an annual energy analysis of the most likely. The most feasible few, I have explored in more detail; 2-Pipe, 4-Pipe and Water Source Heat Pump in order to cost the initial retro-fit installation. I produced a whole-of-life costing for each option and this is leading me towards the WSHP. The next stage of this will be a more detailed design of the WSHP, although this depends on future funding approval (see below – sequestration). One other frustration is that I have had to work entirely from poor quality pdf As-Builts, given that the opportunity for a recce (jolly) to Boston is not on the cards. It certainly hammers home the importance of good quality As-Builts.
Other responsibilities within the section include inspection of completed drawings for adherence to fire regulations, which gets considerably easier once you understand the basics of US regulations and can anticipate common problems. It was slightly embarrassing to have to point out an error made by one of my mentoring co-workers in a drawing already released to the contractors, which seems to have now highlighted a serious and complex problem that I am now required to help him fix (whoop!). The problem was that he had implemented a system that would easily end up using the main through corridor as a duct, never a good idea! Clearly this is difficult to solve, but much better to have caught it early.
Problems at the SSP continue to roll on.
I am still maintaining a link with the construction work happening at the SSP and USAMRIID. The USAMRIID is moving into the fully fledged commissioning of all the diverse systems, and also getting closer to the point where the contractor ceases to be able to argue that his schedule is true to life. The communication within the SSP project appears good on the surface yet very little work is actually happening and almost inevitably it will move to litigation in due course. I am hoping to be able to observe this.
One of the problems that may critically affect the entire future use of the SSP is the poor concrete quality in the basement, which leaks ground water, not ideal for a bio-containment facility….. If this cannot be solved it may force extensive rework.
New projects on the burner.
I have a couple of new projects on the go, both of which are basically writing specification documents. One is for the plumbing of the renovation of a military building, and yep, you guessed it, it requires me to learn yet another piece of software (and liaise with the IT department for installation, which in itself is a mighty challenge!). The other is editing an Request For Proposal (RFP) for the fire suppression systems of some US Airforce installations in Abu Dabai. This is an interesting insight into the requirements of the fire suppression system and the USACE standardisation (or lack of) of specification documents.
Sequestration concerns.
I’m sure the media has adequately relayed that the US Government’s inner workings are about as cooperative as a box of coathangers, so they have rolled from one near financial miss to another, and the current solution appears to be implementing a four day week for Government workers. This is yet to be finalised within USACE as many people are employed as part of the project funding and thus making the situation more complicated. The lack of clarity is generating lots of rumour control, with people trying to work out what they will do with an extra day off a week (and 20% pay cut). This may affect project budgets but no one is sure yet.
In other news.
Close but no venison steaks for the Hancock family after a hunting season where something called a thesis was getting in the way of a good hunt! I’ve heard that there is to be a deer cull in the UK, hopefully I can help!!
We had a brilliant delayed honeymoon to Alaska, where oddly enough it was quite cold! We stayed in a wilderness hut at -30C on Valentines Day – I really know how to treat a wife on a special occasion….. We did see the Northern Lights, learnt how to husky sled and snow shoed up a mountain until we almost caused an avalanche (we snow shoed down pretty quick!)
I also managed to convince a co-worker to go on sabbatical last month – which management was pleased about, not because she was bad at her job but rather that she had been planning to quit outright, this way they get to hang on to her for a while.
Sarah is looking forward to quitting her job – having recently had to fire a temp for sleeping on the job, mainly bad because he was the site nailgun operator and was standing up with his finger on the trigger.
I hope that everyone is getting on well with their theseseses, it seems very close to hand in date and to us all getting back to the UK. Aaaaaaaah, proper Cadbury’s………
There can be only one!
As if in preparation for the move North, the snow in Gillingham began the night before the movers arrived. It hasn’t stopped for more than a few hours since, although the vagaries of the Aberdeen weather system has ensured that it hasn’t accumulated more than a few centimetres. Certainly not enough to discourage cycling to work, but it’s good to see it is not confined to us Northerners.
New Start
BP appear somewhat bemused to have another Sapper in the office and are at present deciding which team I am to work in, HR are scurrying around trying to find out how to register my employment, but despite this I ( under supervision) have managed to get an ID and so my foot is firmly in the door. I’ve been assured that I will have a laptop and a staff number soon and, much like Chris before me, the work will ramp up. Unsurprisingly I’m working in the same office as Chris at present, namely Projects and Mods, and so far I’ve mainly been referred to as Ish MKIII or Chris MKII proving there can be only one.
In the meantime I have started wading through the BP best practice doctrine such as “The Way We Work” an outline of the process by which projects and modifications are brought to the platforms and some guidance on the electronic system for managing change. I’ve booked myself on several of the courses required for onward integration, including the old heli dunker and survival at sea training which, by all accounts, is not as hard as in the good old days. No suprises there.
Bruce P60 Bridge Bearing Changeout
This is by no means on my plate at present, but I had the opportunity to sit in on Chris’ meeting with the Asset Programme Lead for Bruce, Kerry Scott. There is a distinct possibility that this project will come my way, which is mildly amusing in that it has been something of a PET project since Ish’s time with Chris writing the SOR for the Appraise phase and pushing it through to what is arguably the select phase. Either way, I’ve been reading up on it and will have my view on the situation next week.
Re-location
Corine and Hugo survived the move and are settling in well. The boxes are mostly unpacked and I have plenty of new furniture to un-flat-pack. Deep joy (love it really). Hugo was most entertained during the unpacking process and it just goes to show that you don’t always need expensive toys!
Time to enjoy this momentary lull!
Adding value!
By the end of the week I finally felt like I was adding value to what I was doing and not just being a newbie asking lots of questions. I am still asking lots of questions which I can only see increasing in the next few weeks as things get a little more complicated but after 3 weeks I am now producing product that contributes to delivery! With a large amount of handrailing from previous AMS’s I have now completed the AMS for the Dickson Road piling which starts on tue morning. It has taken a full week to get everyone to sign off the method statement and there has been a lot of red pen learning throughout the week. The biggest hurdle was of course health and safety and to understand the various management plans and JH procedures that I need to understand and quote. It has turned out to be a 39 page document for 3 days work! Luckily Australia have recently updated their H&S act from the Occupational Health & Safety Act to the Work Health & Safety Act from Jan 2012, which my ‘white card’ instructor told me was practiaclly copied from the UK so it is fairly familiar. Environmental issues are also a large consideration with the main issue seeming to be ‘dirty water’ run off into the various creeks that the alignment passes through. Any water that leaves the site must be treated before being discharged into a natural water course by digging a holding pond and adding floculant. It has been very dry here and recent excavtions down to 10m did not encounter any water nor did the boreholes which were done 3 years ago so we are not expecting a wet bore. However, we are planning for the worse as you do so we are using a tremie and as the hopper will be at ground level we will pour directly from the agitator truck. We will also excavate a trench to channel any water to a sump or pond but as long as it doesn’t leave the site we will leave it aone or use it as dust suppression. The top of pile will be about 3m below the current ground level so we will be drilling about 9m deep. As there is a 1m projection and due to RTA (Road Traffic Authority) spec we have to overpour by 400mm (dirty/unpure concrete top to be trimmed) so we ended up ordering 8m cages incase we have to drill further to achieve the required 5m socket depth within the rock. We also ordered additional L bars which we will weld onto the top of the cages at the required length so that they will sit flush with ground level to making unhooking the load easier for the rigger.
I have started to spend JHG’s money this week ordering 44m3 of concrete with a message (I hadn’t got a clue what he was on about initially but a message just seems to mean ‘there abouts’ so that you can tailor your last truck to the exactish quantity you require + or – your original order). I have planned for 3 days to complete all 10 piles (5 for each abutment) which would have meant we could have wrapped it up by easter but apparently thu is a RDO (Rostered Day Off) for all in the construction industry – apart from those on a salary – so we will have a 5 day break before competing the last 3-4 piles.
Having generated worklots for the two abutment pile groups and having produced a concrete pour plan you are also required to send out notifications based on the relevent HOLD and WITNESS points prescribed by the spec. Quality control on this project requires that both the client (Transport for NSW) and the RTA/RMS (Road Transport Authority – recently rebranded to the Road and Marine Service). The client has its own ‘surveillance officers’ that work along the alignment that need to be informed about what you are doing so that they can view the work with some points being HOLD points in which we can not proceed until they are happy. As we are working on the roads and rail we effectively have two sets of parents and the RMS have employed Halcrow to carry out Project Verification on their behalf so they also need to be notified about what and when we carry out specific work and it is these characters who take a keener engineering interest to make sure the RMS spec is being adhered to.
Overall this week has been a little too desk bound for my liking but unfortunately neccessary and I feel like I am now contributing and getting to grips with the project/company specific procedures. Having the power to spend alot of money and being aware/conscious of what you are spending is an experience I have rarely worried about in the army but here it is at the forefront of my mind. This mornning I spent $7000 on stainless steel dowels!
Next/this week as I am writing this on a mon, I will be mainly site bound as we install the piles and I also intend to focus on understanding the contract a little more. It is a Design & Construct contract and I have managed to grab a copy of it for some evening reading tonight before meeting up with Terry Stroud the commercial manger by the end of the week.
The weather remains rediculously hot – I hear there is a little snow in the UK – but I’m glad the Ute has aircon. Although the fact that everyone has a white Toyota Hilux with a flashing amber light has meant it takes me a lot longer than it really should for an educated man to try to remember where I parked!
On the Rise(r)
At the end of the 2nd week I am gradually settling in on site. The pace is furious but that is probably because the project is nearing a milestone that is worth about $20m and without a big push it may be missed. To couple with that the next 2 weeks are short due to Easter so I don’t expect the pace to slacken much.
There has been a restructure of the project team since last post which has seen a split into North and South project teams. This has meant a move of offices but probably only for a while before we move again when the growing hospital superstructure expands into the space we are currently sitting.
It turns out that I have picked up responsibility for a stricken riser in the Central block that appears to have been passed from pillar to post by both management and contractors alike. I have inherited the task after its initial lift from pile caps to RL 6.2m but quality control seems to have been an issue. On first inspection it was clearly evident that not only was the reinforcement completely different to the schedule, but its placement within the walls was pretty poor. The cover ranges from 10-60mm and the surface finish (Australian Standard (AS) Class 3) is debatable, but due to continuation prior to resolution it would appear that a precedent has been set and parties agree to disagree.
I was due to monitor the 2nd pour by shadowing one of the lead project engineers but ended up managing it myself. I was quite reliant upon the contractors for information but very wary that they were only telling me what they wanted. The reinforcement continued to be an issue for the 2nd pour as it turned out it had been incorrectly scheduled by the reinforcement provider and due to time pressures the design was amended to use what was available. This actually increased the overall strength of the wall, but threw up issues with header beams above and below wall penetrations. Because the header beams were designed to fail in bending it meant that the shear reinforcement was greater. However by increasing the bending reinforcement meant increasing the shear reinforcement further which led to crowding of steel around the beams and a lot of awkward fixing to ensure room for the vibe which increased time delays. Due to the rush to complete this task I was left feeling like a young Troop Commander with a clearance certificate again cutting about site to get the required contractor signatures to certify their work before the concrete could be called forward.
The pour appeared to go well from my amateur perspective, but after the shuttering was removed it looks pretty poor. There are a couple of small areas where the concrete hasn’t quite reached on the underside of voids and a couple of corners that appear to have honeycombed somewhat (potentially a leak in the formwork).
honeycombing at base of pour
poor access for concrete flow
One thing I should definitely picked up on was the starter bars to the next level. Although this lift will be capped by a slab and the subsequent lift will then tie in after it has been cast, there are sections of the next lift where door voids are designed. By dealing with the lower lift in isolation I didn’t check the reinforcement plan for the upper lift and should have noticed that the reinforcement should have been closed off. As it stands now there is only a very short length of reinforcement at the top that will be enclosed by the slab. This is not a huge issue as the slab reinforcement can be amended to accommodate this oversight, however it does highlight to me how looking at the bigger picture will save time in the future. I should have ownership of the next lift from the start and will be able to manage it to completion with the correct Reo, and correct starts for the next lift.
stubby starters
I am now looking at column and wall pours in the South Block from the upper car park level to ground level. In an attempt to make up some time it was suggested that the columns and ramp walls should be poured as one unit. I agree that this would save time in pouring, but after the issues with reinforcement fixing that I experienced with Riser 1, think that the additional effort of getting the whole thing formed and fixed could take longer than expected. The other option is to use couplers embedded into the columns and pour a more simple, un-structural flat wall at a later date. I will be looking into this next week.
My objective for this week is to get my head fully into the contracts. I have booked a meeting with the project commercial director to do this
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