Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

I always knew the orator’s words would come back to haunt me – it was just a matter of time!!!  On the prowel for some more work to complete some more of my DOs, particularly contractual experience, I approached my supervisor 2 days ago to give me some autonomy and contractual experience conscious that the HQ project is mainly sewn up by another project engineer whose toes I have been wary of treading on too much.  The response…”I got just the thing fir y’all, why don’t you run with Danville?’  ….Trusting her completely, within hours my desk was covered in paper, emails started flying in, and my head was buzzing with negotiations, primes, change orders, REAs (request for equitable adjustments), …the list goes on!

It is Dev Obj gold dust which is great; I will try to summarise the can of worms on my desk.

Background:  The Mahoning Creek naturally runs into a highway in northern Pensylvania, which has been artificially diverted 60deg’s through the use of a reinf concrete retaining wall (retaining the highway), and embedded within 40” riprap is a concrete cantilever wall (location:  http://binged.it/1ugdIxL).    Sep 2011 saw a 1 in 500yr flood that undermined the riprap and concrete retaining wall ripping a whole lane out of the highway.  Emergency repairs taken by the state were to fill the hole with more rip-rap, aggregate and then road surface on top.  The photo shows in the foreground the sound structure;  as yuo move away the wall then stops and is replaced by riprap – this is where the wall, riprap and road were undermined – now band-aid’d with a shed load of riprap and a road surface plonked on top.   USACE then contracted out the proper repairs; the winning contract deciding to drive sheet piles to hold back the road, whilst the rip rap was removed and a new concrete wall and cantilever with rip rap were installed.  However… upon the contractor taking initial boring samples, it was clear that the drawings we provided (courtesy of the local council) did not reflect the fact that there is actually about 20ft of rip-rap rather than the illustrated 3ft!!!  The anticipated sheet piles were therefore a non-starter.  Works were therefore suspended on 1 Jul 13 until 1 Mar 14, to allow for demobilisation, geo assessment, new permits etc etc, and a new completion date set for 1 Aug 14. The gov also presented a change order for few thousand dollars to compensate for suspension costs

Present/Issues:  1. Work has still not commenced, 2. the contractor has put in an REA for an extension of time as permits still haven’t been attained (what has he been doing all this time?), incl. an REA of almost $100K for susp costs (we estimated about $6K, so this should make for interesting negotiations). 3.  Costs for the proposed new construction method (see below) are to be negotiated next week, there is a relatively small delta between our and their estimates (c.$200K) so this shouldn’t be too painful – negotiations start next week which should again be great DO fodder. 4. The geotech investigation has been negotiated to approx $76,000. 5.  Funding approval (80% federal, 20% local borough – the latter is the issue dep on the result of negotiations)

The new method statement is summarised as follows: 1. Build cofferdam from haybales and plastic and commence permanent pumping – funding does not allow for grander piling ideas, 2.  Construct temp support of the roadway to prevent lateral collapse iot allow for excavation of rip-rap.  This will consist of soldier piles and lagging, with soil nails…if curious here’s a great simplified video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrlBu1d5PBM. 3. Excavate rip-rap, remove collapsed concrete wall 4. Rebuild concrete wall, cantilever and replace rip rap. 5. Replace road and sub-terrain material.   I need to get to the bottom of the engineering principles behind the rip-rap and embedded cantilever wall – when negotiations and flashing US$’s calm down I will try and get my head round it.  The obvious question of: ”Why rebuild a design that has proved to be faulty?” is that funding for repair projects as a result of natural disasters (provided they have been previously inspected by USACE) is caught up in Public Law 84-99 which grants federal funds for repair; PL84-99 dictates that repairs must be ‘as-built’ unless failure has occurred at least twice whereupon authority can be sought from Congress!!   Barking considering the fatal implications and the fact that it has clearly proved it fails if this kind of storm event happens again..but then again the pot has to be tightly controlled!

In short, not a grand project (total contract c.$1mill) by some scales but autonomy, contractual depth, and DO ticks all round.

Projects aside, next week will see Nic and I do some ‘Offr prof dev’  in and around Washington DC with approx 10 other US Army offrs from USACE visiting Capitol Hill, Pentagon, Arlington mil cemetery and major USACE projects around DC (Bethesda’s intelligence university, Spring Valley and the Washington aqueduct),  interspersed with fitness tests and some fine wine and dining…thereafter the obligatory family week in Disney!  A family pic from a recent trip to DC..

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