Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

At last some progress is being made although it is not always a smooth ride.  We have had some commissioning inspections take place with some passes and some fails.  A big issue has been the boilers.  We have 4 boilers which run on natural gas and diesel.  For the Functional Performance Test in the commissioning process the spec states that only 1 boiler needs to be tested on one fuel type.  The Contractor decided to use the only boiler that has been used consistently (more on that later) which was the best of the four and promptly failed the test for NOx emissions. As a result there is now a big concern about the state of the less used boilers especially if the contractor only needs to get this boiler improved to run the test again.  Back in July a water sample from the boilers showed excessive iron and bacterial growth in the boiler system which indicated that the cleaning and maintenance of the boiler was not up to scratch.  Despite raising this with the Contractor nothing has changed so I have been tasked with checking the monthly maintenance logs for the building, to work out what else is not being maintained correctly.  The big concern is that damage is done to big line items (boilers, chillers etc) that will make any warranties on equipment void and will cost a lot of money to put right especially if the service contractors, who will maintain the building, discover this.  This has been a huge task made harder by the fact that our hard copies are not in the correct place and the downloadable documents take 20mins to come through and can fail at the last minute.  Have looked at the spec the contractor has failed submit a key document on how Temporary Operation and Maintenance is going to be carried out for the building.  Instead the focus has been on the temporary conditioning maintenance need to pass commissioning (and that has been dubious so far) and not much else.  This week I called a meeting with the future owners to hear their concerns and draw up an action plan to get the concerns addressed.  Concerns included the use of pre printed check sheets which only the date changed on, poor record of future maintenance plans and a general lack of information which the client has been asking for. 

This week we received the test results back for chiller motor testing.  It confirmed that pump 17 has a fault because the in rush current is high even when the load is uncoupled.  However the report stated that the issue could be due to valve settings! I emailed to ask how this conclusion could be reached but the independent tester refused to comment.  However both the Corps and Contractor agree that the motor is faulty and needs replacing.  This does not solve the problem for the system however.  The bigger picture is that the pumps are too big for the system and are not running efficiently.  The pumps send the chiller water to the cooling towers on the roof.  The pumps all feed in to a header and are balanced by butterfly valves.  Simple enough except the motors are too powerful (4x 200hp) and so the valves are set at 25% or the roof floods when the cooling towers over flow.  The motors are also expensive premium efficiency motors which are not able to perform efficiently if the valves are only 25% open  and the power being throttled is going to damage the butterfly valves to the point that they will not be able to completely seal the pipework for maintenance.  The designer insists this is as planned but we are all asking if a Variable Frequency Drive can be installed (at a fair cost) so that the pumps can be controlled and allowed to soft start.  Another option is to cut down the impeller size in the pumps.  This is next weeks battle.

My leaky floor drain has finally been replaced.  It was found that there was a fracture in the drain which was allowing water through so a replacement was necessary.   However we have also requested that a pan directing water away from the server in the room below should the drain leak again, be installed as an extra safety measure.  This was met with a bit of resistance because the drain is now mended.  However after a bit of encouragement I have got the agreement to install one after the Corps has been trying for a year.  It helps that the Contractor QC head is an old Navy Construction Brigade RSM (think Navy sapper) who dislikes my civilian counterparts and will only deal with me and my US Army counter part on now on tricky issues. 

The final issue this week has been dynamic fire dampers in the air handling system.  This are spring loaded dampers that activate when the fusible link holding them open melts.  Commissioning requires that these be tested with the air handlers running but the manufacturer advises against this (the air flow may break a closed damper designed to activate when the air handler should have been shut down) as does the designer who thinks that despite the installed pressure relief valves in the system the pressure changes may end up pulling down ceilings.  However the spec states that the air handlers must be running but no one can say why.  We suspect it is to check that the system will cope in case a link fails prematurely but no one as yet can confirm this.  The test is on hold.

Yesterday we had a departmental breakfast at Denny’s (the national greasy spoon chain) which was a really good way of seeing everyone out of work and doing a bit of bonding.  It was scary to see how much my co workers actually eat – even the smallest guy ate double what I did and I was filled to capacity!

In Harrisburg it has been very productive.  The roof replacement is going well and a surprise test of the recovery procedure for someone activating the fall arrest system worked well.  We have also identified a cherry picker that the contractor can use to install the over flow drains in the 80ft high Bay Area.  These can go through a 35″ door at 123ft but cannot be rented so at $200,000 a pop it will be a big expenditure for our struggling contractor.  The QA guys have also noted “inaccurate” claims for materials.  A claim for $150,000 of electrical kit was submitted but on inspection there was only $20,000 of kit found.  The project engineer let this one go because relations are better but is keeping an eye out for future claims. The customer has also asked that all conduit for fire detection systems be painted red in accordance with site standing orders, not mentioned until most of the electrical conduit had been installed!  Fun and games…

And in other news…..

The Navy Yard shooting sent a bit of a shockwave through the sites because it was so close to home.  A guy I flew over with was in the compound that day but was in the adjacent building and managed to get away unscathed.  There is also another chance for sequestration because the Government here has yet to approve the new budget for the next financial year which starts October 1st.  This will affect all non essential civil servants which amounts to most of my office.  Could be quiet Tuesday. The Raven’s Game was a fantastic experience.  It was one of the best sporting experiences I have ever had as the show is not just about the sport.  With Cheerleaders, bands and fireworks they sure know how to throw a good party and football is actually a very exciting sport now that i understand the rules! Fall has started so we are making plans to head to NYC in before it gets crazy expensive for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So much to do and so little time.