Caulk is the New Harry Black
The tension has eased in Aberdeen. 2 weeks ago the middle management for USACE and the Contractor got together to discuss the constant clashes that are happening that are resulting in no progress. It was agreed that this was not a good place to be and that a change in attitiude on both sides to a more collaborative approach is needed. Brilliant! How will this be achieved? Well in the land of red tape a new paper form should sort this out. This will only be used when no resolution to the problem is forthcoming at the site level and is basically a one page document stating the issue, the points of view of the Corps and the Contractor with a desired result and then it is passed up to the executive board, a level up, to make the decision. Will it work? Having attended the executive meeting this morning it seems unlikely as there was very little give at this level either. The issue remains in that the contractor is trying to save time by not doing things as per the book, mostly pre commissioning tests, whereas the Corps position is “we have specific requirements, why is it that hard to follow the contract?”. In this instance I think the arbitrator should be the customer. If they are happy with the streamlined commissioning programme over the thorough one they should choose; this project is for them after all! This was actually a relatively productive meeting, most just end in continued disagreement. The Commissioning Contractor has even started to approach the USACE Commissioning inspector so that they get an answer with out the Corps being involved. We have cleared up a lot of issues in other areas but I am handling 2 main ones still. THe tripping motor now appears to be four tripping motors so the contractor is now doing a big regain to get this back on line otherwise there will be no chilled water being pumped at all. Not good when you have said it is ready for commissioning. Secondly we have leaking internal drains. Not that bad ordinarily except these all seem to drip directly on to the Building Automation System rooms where replacement of equipment would cost millions not to mention the disruption of having no voice or data services. Interestingly the main voice communication in this building is by VOIP not telephone, military Skype if you like, although no one can tell me to what level of security this is up to. After a big meeting with all stakeholders the manufacturer confirmed his product had not failed but there were a couple of issues he had identified. Firstly when the drain is installed, it is done so in two parts and flashing is needed between these parts to ensure any water that seeps around the top of the drain and concrete is directed to weep holes that direct the water back in to the drain. There is no flashing installed in these drains. Consequently water gets round the concrete and flows outside the drain. The Sub Contractor has tried using caulk (american for silicon type sealant) to stop the leak but to no avail because of the missing flashing. They have been instructed to find a better solution. A second type of drain is leaking because the seal between the galvanised grating and the porcelain body has no gasket. A bad design I thought, until the manufacturer pointed out this design is generally used for floor drains at grade level so any seepage would just go into the earth. There is a special drain to go between floors but it was not specified correctly and now it is too late to change. How is it going to get sorted? Caulking between the grate and the bowl! In a similar vein we have sound attenuators in the laboratry exhaust systems that are not as per specification. These metal boxes are currently all made of pressed steel bolted together. This is not considered sufficient because there is a chance that gas could escape between the bolted surfaces – not great when you are dealing with Sarin and lots of other nasties. The contractor solution – caulk it! Hence the title for this piece. Having actually caulked the attenuators they proudly showed one of the engineers their handy work whereupon he ripped all the caulking off to show it would not hold up. They are now putting in welded seam attenuators at their own expense. (see below)
Caulked
Welded
In Harrisburg they have finally started replacing the roof. However the same old issues keep rolling on. There is a crunch meeting with the Designer of Records to help sort out who is right. What the Contractor doesn’t know is that he is now losing work at Harrisburg because no one wants to work with this company ever again.
Alas the road kill round up is being killed off because there is very little other than racoons to report on. Instead I am going to pick my favourite incidents from the Corps “Safety – A Week in Review” bulletin. It is amazing what people will do to get off work! LWD = Lost Working Days
1. Employee was walking into the restroom and fell. In catching their fall, the employee received a fracture in their wrist. LWD – 3
2. Employee was returning from lunch, stepped on a rock and twisted their ankle. LWD – 3
3. Ctr. Employee was posting reservation cards on campsite posts using a golf cart. As cart was traveling downhill, the brakes failed on the cart. The cart crashed into a concrete base, occupant thrown, shattered his kneecap. LWD – 15 (is that all!!!)
4. Contr. Employee was digging mud from a duct bank and strained his back while conducting this activity. LWD – 2
5. Contr. Employee was climbing a ladder to check water level inside concrete wall placement. Leaned to far to the right side and fell off the ladder. LWD – 1
These notices are always followed by the deaths of civilians in Corps run areas, mostly lakes. They invariably involve alcohol, deep water, no life jacket and a coroner from any age 1 to 80. The only funny happened last month when a guy dived off his house boat and landed on a corpse. What are the chances…….
In Other News
We have had a very nice week off in Virginia Beach. Apparently it has been one of the wettest summers there on record but was a lot better than most of the summer holidays I spent in Cornwall. The kids have started school and Warrick now goes on the big yellow school bus, just like the Simpsons. And running training has resumed for the Army Ten Miler now that evenings are below 30 degrees and 100% humidity.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Nick
I haven’t got anything profound (or profane) to say, but I thought that I would just drop a comment to let you know that we are reading your blogs. In the absence of road kill, how about a list of the top five differences between the UK and the USA (attacking Syria not withstanding) that you have spotted in each reporting period. Cheers for now.
Jim
Caulking, like Harry Black, is often susceptible to attack by any number of agents that won’t destroy the the main components so leakage/failure is a strong possibility through any caulked joint (depends upon what you use for caulk really). I had some trouble discerning the cleint, manging agent contracotr relationships – is the USACE Inspector not also USACE?
Rich, USACE employ any number of people to carry out certain roles. In this instance the Inspector is a contractor employed by USACE to carry out QA assessments on the building. He works on behalf of USACE but is employed by another company and wears their logo. It is very confusing. They also employ people to oversee the commissioning contractor and we also work hand in hand with the Health Facility Planning Agency who work on the suitability for purpose of the building, on behalf of the government and the medical services. It seems tome that there are way too many people involvedon this project especially when everyone needs meetings. Tuesday to THursday are written off on meetings alone!
Jim, I had been thinking about that too. I will see what comes up. I am a bit limited by the material or maybe I am forgetting what it is like back in Blighty…….
If the QA assessor is contracted to USACE and he is accepting short cuts that are not acceptable to USACE surely there is a contractual issue. Either he is failing to deliver to his contract or USACE have given him a deliverable as opposed to prescribed process requirement and he should be left to deliver the commisioning as he sees fit in line with his contract? Regardless of which of the foregoing conditions exists the challenge is with the QA assessor and not the contractor – strikes me that someone has hired a dog and rather than whistle it in they have started barking themselves…
The QA guys have been reporting back to us when this happens so there has been no breach of contract. In some ways you are correct, we do hold them back especially as it is this company that wrote the specifications and know the contract better than anybody. However the Contractor has been trying the old “If Daddy says no, ask Mummy” routine but the QA guys were instantly wise to this. The Corps needs to be involved in the decisions for accountability, just in case the contractor is not around next year. All the staff contracted by USACE are incredibly loyal and see working for the Government as a real honour (or is that honor?). This office is suffering from a few issues but I cannot put it down to the contracted help who have all been high quality. You have got to love office politics!
Thanks Nik.