Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

The last few weeks have seen a significant change in the achievement on the site.  H&S and QC have taken on a new lease of life following the continuation of the external QC adviser who has gripped the local sub-contractors and QC manager – I’ve now approved his release following a period of sound performance by both parties and a new regard for H&S. It’s clear that the new rhythm is no surprise to any on site but rather an abrupt change to an approach that has continually slipped as a result of working for clients who have not insisted on such standards or have not been checked on properly.

The wall and footer have now been poured – the footer in one complete pour, and the wall in 4 x 22ft sections.  My recent site visit highlighted an erroneous form for the contraction joints between the walls and location of waterstop.  Thankfully the final product was rather an overkill involving a key expansion joint, bond breaker and a bulb-type waterstop.  The error stemmed from the QC manager not updating his drawings and correctly reading the notes attached to our response to an RFI he sent me back in June regarding waterstop material and joint design; he had given the sub the original drawings only updating them on part of the RFI answer which was the change of waterstop from dumbbell to bulb-type, but not the part of eliminating the key shape and replacing it with a flat edge separated by bond-breaker which was ironically done for an easier construction method.  Moral of the story – read drawing notes, immediately update drawings and void old drawings (remember the lessons from Proj Man!). I have found this to be far more of a problem on smaller construction sites than larger ones where the latter has more staff in place to control documents, hold proper filing systems and drawing libraries..rather than a few sets on a small site at the mercy of one human’s admin skills.

Much of my time now during curing of the wall will involve sorting out REAs for the revised design.  The US end of fiscal year occurs 30 Sep so the previous 2 weeks I found myself exceptionally busy filling in for several engineers who were on leave whilst having to settle several contracts before congressional funding disappeared.  Into the deep I went, courtesy of my supervisor who was in full knowledge that my prime DO was ‘contractual management’! After several brutal red-pennings I managed to produce a negotiation strategy for an asbestos roof stripout/replacement and underground igloo style ammunition roof repairs (type in Letterkenny Army Depot into Google maps!).  A sharp learning curve using RS Means to conduct governments estimates, pricing up and building a scope of work and breaking down a contractor’s proposal to find weak links and errors.  Ironically despite the directive taking several days to produce and then several more to get it to scrape through the scrupulous eyes of the Legal ‘Office of counsel’ it took about half an hour to negotiate…I’m pleased to say for $200,000 less than I was aiming for ($1.3M).

I joined 11 US Army offrs for an overnight camping trip at Assateague Island on the Maryland coast  as part of this quarter’s professional development.  Other than a chance to share experiences across our sites in the District, it was an opportunity to see and understand the island remediation works that the Corps completes to sustain its beach size iot protect billionaire houses to the rear and many endangered species on the island…combined with surfing and kayaking till the sun set!

So the final link to the blog title…readers may recall in one of my first blogs the threat of a 6 foot sub for an office lunch….well here it is: a solid 2-man lift, US style…(enhanced with chocolate chip cookies and iced tea!)