Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

I have just returned from my leaving breakfast having received a presentation piece from the whole office, a piece of a welded attenuator to help remind me of my experience! 

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In the last few weeks I have been winding down and handing over and have the following to report:

Commissioning – Pressure Integrity Testing – The animal holding rooms were checked for air tightness.  These rooms are used to hold animals prior to and post testing so they need to be sealed inorder to prevent the ingress of contaminents or anything that may affect results. The testing is done by sealing the door with a vacuum pump so that the pressure becomes negative (pressure differential of 0.25 inches of water) then soapy water is sprayed on areas a leak is suspected of occuring. If there is a leak bubbles develop (see below).

Considering this was a retest it was disappointing that all 5 rooms failed. Most corners leaked, all the air tight plug sockets leaked and all the data points leaked. It has taken them 3 weeks to caulk these up so far…

Filter Installation – The sub attempted to install the pre filter (particulate), HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Absorption) and HEGA (High Efficiency Gas Absorption – charcoal) in to all the lab filters. In the initial installation meeting the manufacturer stated silicon grease is need on the filter edges to stop them adhering to the housing. If not the filters stick and tear open releasing allsorts of nasties and creating a big clean up problem. This was agreed by all as essential until the actual event when the sub decided he could save money and get the job done quicker by not greasing. On investigation we found this was a recommendation and not specified in the contract so $14,000 later the sub is now greasing, on the grounds that this is a safety issue and should have been in the contract.

Sound Attenuators – I have now visited all 572 sound attenuators in the building and established all the parts of the change have been carried out – that one crew of 3 was used to change over 372 of them to the welded standard, that the bolted flanges with butyl gaskets above and below the floor (as opposed to the clamped sleeve fit originally installed) are installed and the rooms are all sealed between floors. This took 240 days which the Contractor is claiming as an extension to the contract time. Although I will miss the argument on why only one crew was used (a welder and 2 workers, not really technical) the time will be given because there is no physical way the project will be complete by Feb 14. This will take them over the current finish date of Jun 14 which I still think is optimistic. There is a reluctance to call for liquidated damages because the subs on this project are nearly all going bust (bad for the Government to be seen destroying business) and the project is too big to fail. However the cost is still negotiable as $12,000,000 seems excessive! This due to a number of overheads and the fact that relate to the change occuring in 8 parts. However our estimate is currently $3,000,000 for 100 days.

Vacuum pumps – Finally the designer gave me the calculations for the vacuum pump sizing. The issue boiled down to an error in the specification the designer added to the drawing. The pumps were listed at 104 ACFM at 28″ Hg each and should have been 330 ACFM at 28″Hg each. This meant the expected flow rate for 2 pumps running to support a diversity of 35% is 37.85 Standard Cubic Feet per Minute (SCFM). The filter is rated for 25 SCFM, so really is undersized. The parallel arrangement for the extra 25 SCFM filter was correct. We had a teleconference with the sub, designer and pump manufacturer who all agreed by the end that this would work with no back pressure issues for the extra resistance. Mission complete. The designer admitted fault and will do the revised drawing for free. The filter is still going to cost $5000 each to install, one in both B and C building.

Floor Drains – our cracked floor drain issue never really ended. On review we convinced the contractor that we needed to check the drains again. The first test is to run water in the drains to check they are not cracked too. We then requested that the drains be tested by pouring water into the drain to simulate the flood condition they are designed floor. This is because the drains were all installed in 2 parts. The recommendation is that plastic flashing is incorporated in the joint to so that water going between the drain body and concrete is directed to the weep holes.

The flashing should sit between the base piece and the plate below the strainer

However the spec did not call for flashing so we are now worried that the drains are going to get leaks round them when the concrete shrinks and cracks. As some of these drains are above the labs this could be disastrous. We have agreed to test 20% focusing on the accessible ones to minimise damage. However if over 10% leak we will need to consider remediation which looks like core drilling a hole around the drain an inch deep then filling the void with caulk! Testing starts next week.

Pump 17 – The sub organised a meeting for the designer, contractor team, USACE and the motor manufacturer to discuss the motor performance. As anticipated the manufacturer rep was a sales rep and had not understood the test results sent to him, paniced and promised a new motor! It arrived a week later but has not been fitted yet. We are still waiting to hear what the in rush currents should be. I suspect if this motor runs well enough the whole episode will be forgotten and we will continue with the oversized pumps, throttled to death and wasting money through inefficiency before burning out prematurley.

Whole Building Maintenance – the contractor was unable to produce the revised operation and Maintenance program for the building in time for me to assess it. The recent maintenance report is better but still needs tweaking so I leave the system in a better state with all parties talking amicably and my successor starting dealing with a nearly finished product.

Tomorrow I am giving a presentation on the Corps to my fellow officers before starting phase 3 on Monday.

And in other news:
We had another Staff Ride for the military guys to Gettysburg, this time all day with a lecturer from the War College to further explore leadership. There is always something new to learn here.

The Engineer Memorial at Gettysburg, ironic because there were no engineers at the battle!

The Ravens have won a few games now and are in the playoffs for the SUperbowl but their chances of a double are slim. We were invited by friends of mine in harrisburg to Thanksgiving. We ate turkey and ham until we couldn’t move then had pumpkin pie for dessert, great training for Christmas. The Black Friday sales were not too bad in Hunt Valley so I have done half the Christmas shopping and we took the kids to the Mummies (think egyptian) exhibition in Baltimore, stopping by the German Market on the way for a gluwein. We had back to New York this weekend to see the Christmas sites and neet Santa at Macy’s. Silly Season is well and truly here.