Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

EDC SOLARWALL

As everyone is on time codes around here, they get protective over them and I had to kick the authorising office to release funding for our ConRep here on site to book his time to. I get a distinct feeling that if this had not happened then we would find ourselves locking horns further down the line trying to justify the hours. Thankfully HRH The Queen has not asked for a time code and my time remains free of charge to USACE unless I can come up with a cunning plan to make some money out here…..

During the weekly meeting I enquired about the findings of the investigation of the existing wall construction and the contractor made an almighty slip up in blabbing about extra costs and the conversation quickly turned into a regain when they realised the Client was listening in. The phrase – “please stop talking you’re scaring scaring the government” really made my day. The contractor was invited to consolidate his (collective) thoughts on how best to approach us with cost variations instead of just banding ideas around in an open forum. Have heard nothing back as yet, but having reviewed the documentation it looks like the cost will be materials based. This highlights the beauty of the ‘option’ system of bidding within a government environment. It allows a bid price to be put in with several options, meaning that whatever level is actually approved can be spent and in instances such as this, the options can be tweaked to make sure you still get the best value for money without the whole project falling through.

I have also been coordinating potentially useful information for the contractor to use when compiling his method statements (de-conflicting site specifics and coordinating with facility managers and trying to pre-empt what they will need.) This is in the hope that subsequent submittals will be approved without the need for further comment and keep the timeline on track.

Reviewed design submittals – approved with comments back to contractor.

ECIP Project – Bldg 732 / 760

Attended kick off meeting for the installation of Solarwall on 2 other buildings on the depot. These are in concept phase and Rob Duke is involved from the E&M side of life.

School Visits

Have volunteered to take part in the outreach programme to go and promote science and engineering in the local schools. My first assignment is a careers day at a Baltimore Middle School – 12 – 14 yr olds, due to take place on 1 June. Further events will be planned provided I don’t get arrested at the first event.

Ashley Reservist Centre

Undertook further investigation and data collection for use in TMR1. Suicide level increasing.

And in other news….

This feature is temporarily cancelled due to lack of interest….

McFry – Out.

Hobbit 108 asked for some adfditional info on this stuff. I have been given a link to a web site that follows live data from a building that has this installed. It may offer a semi hardon to those inclined that way, but not for me. Rob Duke may be doing a TMR on something like this as he’s getting involved in some actual design (design being…step 1 – fit solar wall – step 2 – enjoy.) I also have some other docs for you to have a look at but haven’t yet figured out how to put pdf’s on here.

https://www.hobolink.com/p/19ce52151e42cc6c8fa66fdca93b35db

Laters.

Covers Period 30 April – May 4:

The best week so far at work! Plenty of variety and a chance to get the boots dirty, thus avoiding paper cuts in the office.

EDC SloarWall

At the end of the previous week the contractor had sent me a Risk Assessment (Called an Accident Hazard Analysis AHA over here). Essentially this was pipss poor and far too generic. I bounced it back to them with comments along the lines of ‘take this seriously or I’ll cancel your investigation’. This resulted in them sending ther H&S guy to supervise the task and conduct the relevant briefs and incorporating the issues that I had raised. Even so – our COn-Rep picked their guys up for lack of high-vis clothing, baseball caps under helmets, impropper ise of helmets, not using fall arestors when on the platform. Each of these issues were addressed on site before work continued but it was a constant bug-bear. The contractor has left with a much clearer perspective on the standards that the Corps requires. I have followed this up by sending the chapter and verse out to all parties who are expected to produce the AHA’s. In this respect we demand 100% commitment and complience – or they get 0% work completed at their expense…….I look forward to the inevitable repeat prescription on this.

Have been able to get the tech guys to be less vague about how they intend to deal with the roof ducting – as this overlaps two projects and had not been clearly defined as to where the responsibility on this project ended and the next one began. I was uncomfortable with the initial response as although everyone was happy to carry on working, it left contractual vagueries – and we all love those.

Ashley Reservist Centre.

Issues over defects on a loading ramp have come to a head and I have been giver catre-blanche to go and sort it out. This is going to be the basis for TMR 1 for me as there are opporetunities for technical analysis and research as well as contractual issues to solve. I booked the hotel etc and set off to spend 24 hoursd on site to investigate the defects, interview the contractors and gather evidence.

Breaking down the issues this is a historical birds nest of problems which will take a while to consider and provide appropriate solutions, but the best thing I was able to do was to apply the ‘big levers’ principle as preeched by the Moran and the Farmer. Cutting away all the chaff allows me to find the lever that allows the issue to be resolved and for work to continue. Bottom line solution is that the contractor will undertake spectrographic testing of the placed concrete to prove ifit was up to specification. This then triggers a decision point. If the concrete is up to standard, they recommend and submit remedial actions for us to authorise (at their cost). If it is sub-standard I will work with them to prove the extent of the sub-optimal concrete and the questionable areas will be removed and replaced (at their cost). Simples – but there are a plethora of other issues that also need to be resolved, some of them diplomatically, some of them bluntly. Other issues that need to be resolved are:

– Contractor’s Quality Control procedure has been historically lacking and is still not up to speed.
– USACE Quality assurance procedures are not being followed and need resolution.
– Materials testing documentation is not clear enough to give contractor the level of assurance he needs.
– USACE ConRep is not working cooperatively with the contractor…and vice-versa.
– Deficiency reporting procedure is not working or being applied appropriately.
– Communication on site is inadequate and will continue to cause further delays and disputes.
– Areas of the specification do not comply with the working drawings. Essentially we have 2 song sheets and each party is using whichever suits them best.

From here a quick and dirty report will be produced to get the ball rolling on the resolution. I will then drill into the detail and generate two versions of the findings. One for consumption within USACE and one for the contractor to see. Wrap all of this together and hopefully a TMR will fall out of the other end.

DDSP ECIP Buildings 732 / 760

Used our ninja APMP qualification and skills to review and comment on the proposed PMP for the energy efficiency projects for which I will be Project Engineer.

And in Other News

Enjoyed a site visit to the Mechanicsburg Reservist Centre project which appears to be running on fumes as far as funding goes……they said no blasting as well and look where that got them.

This week’s road kill includes deer, blackbird, hedgehog and possum…although the possum may have been pretending.

We enjoyed our first ever Cinco de Mayo celebrations / Kentucky Derby day. We attended a party where I now see that the theme was meant to be Kentucky Derby (i.e. posh hats and day at the races atire)……I went with the Mexican theme instead. And when we were in the fancy dress shop I saw the coolest Iron-man mask and simply had to have it. So to keep in the theme (or what I thought was the theme) I went as Iron-Man dressed as a mexican (with grigo moustache attached to the mask). In the group photos from the party there is one character that looks decidedly out of place.

Commercials on TV continue to horify me. Apparently your kids can get premature wrinkles. So if you really care about your kid’s future, you owe it to them to treat them with child friendly botox.

Does anyone have the Word template for JSP 101 that I can install? I’m sick of trying to wrestle with Bill Gates about this paragraph alignment!

Is there a link I can download it from?

McFry

PS – The motor Vehicle Authority boils my piss!

General

Have been offered the chance to do a 1-week project management course (PMP in the title)….and have politely declined.

Am now in the systems for DR Checks, PROJNET and RMS…….now I have to figure out what all that means. Am conducting some online training for which USACE makes excellent use of youtube! Very professional too.

EDC Solar Wall

Have rejected Contractor’s requests to design based on assumption (it’s the sort of thing I do on projects for John and his black magic soil mechanics – so you can’t shit a shitter). Have insisted on a survey and at every step they seem to upset the Client by making assumtions that they can just turn up and dismantle a mission critical distribution centre at will. Have coordinated accordingly and spoken several times ‘off line’ to help keep the parish at peace. I detected initial resistance to stumping up the costs for the investigation but a phone call to the CEO about bidding on a multi-million dollar project and then offering the most minimal of investigations after award has resolved the issue….especially seeing as there are more projects up for grabs.

Have refused requests for submittals to be delivered on a bi-weekly basis for review. This is based on issues observed on the Ashley project where this happened early on and caused delays that became contentios as to who caused them. Technically they were overdue from USACE, but technically the Contractor sat on them too and when the bulk arrived there was no prioritisation…. Just pay for the extra stamps and have done with it.

Have learned that I will be involved in two more solar wall projects that are currently at design stage.

HQ Project

The USACE geo geeks have tried to tackle the issue of blasting with the Client by delivering a presentation on how safe it is. I added my own experience on how far we can make steel girders fly when using ‘P for plenty’. The key pointr we found was that everyone from th eClient’s team knows that there is no blasting under any circumstances….they just don’t know why…or even if it’s written down anywhere. My thoughts are that it will be approved.

Other items that came to light are that a sewer running through the proposed site is to be replaced as part of the project (but only under the footprint of the building). The Client has admitted that it is currently in a state of disrepair, damaged and leaking. Then they wanted to know what assurances they have that blasting will not worsen the sewer and how they prove or disprove that the Contractor will or will not be liable. He then joked that either way he would prove it to be their fault. My comments were that actually USACE would have to act to protect the contractor in those circumstances. They then mentioned that they have aspirations to repair the sewer. I will tactfully pry and enquire as to why they aren’t pushing to do some joined up engineering and schedule the repairs to coincide with the HQ project, reducing risk, potentially lowering costs and providing better value.

Ashley Reservist Centre

The issue of the concrete pours and quality assurance / control are becoming critical. Have been authorised to travel to site and book overnight stays if necessary to get amongst the problem and find the best way to proceed. This is going to be a case of balencing the effect on delays and cost with the residual risk retained by the Corps. Simple solution = tear it all out and start again = delays + Costs + contractor potentially making a huge loss and going bust = more delay + re-letting etc etc. Alternative solution = allow more testing and verification + fix the QC / QA problems + minimise re-builds + minimise delays = potential for future failures of the concrete to be on the USACE flick. How ill the intrepid hero fair? Will they find a solution? Who invented liquid soap? Tune in next time for the continuing adventures of Herge’s Tin Tin and the Reservist Centre of Contractual Doom.

In Other News

Botox for kids advertised on TV…….only in America.

Have added rackoon, porcupine, turkey vulture, hare and possibly an aardvark (only 30% sure on that one) to the road kill identification register. Rackoon seems most durable to date.

Mr Country Man continues to have life kick the crap out of him. Mentioned this to the lady in the garage who suggested that playing it backwards has an amazing effect. His wife comes back, the dog is resurrected, he wins the lottery and lives happily ever after.

Have great day y’all.

McFry

Took some leave while the kids were here and took the opportunity to visit Washington DC and Baltimore to see the museums and monuments etc. Apparently we’re still just as embarrassing to the kids as ever. Lukas is now home safe and we pack Adi off tomorrow so that naked house can resume.

HQ PROJECT

The design has been out with the contractors for a while and bids have been received. They are to be assessed on value engineering criteria as well as price but there has been a large number of RFI’s submitted that need to be answered. The majority are to do with geotechnical issues and uncertainties with the piling requirements. We have a group called Geotech within USACE who did the original design and a lot of the cross-issues that related to contractual issues have been ironed out. The next step will be to consolidate the RFI’s and distribute and release ammendments to specifications and drawings to ensure that the contractors have an opportunity to revise their submissions before the final award is released.

Key issue at the minute is that the original specification stated ‘no blasting’ for the foundations etc but on a subsequent issue the wrong document specification was adjusted and released. This had 5 pages of specs on how blasting will take place. The facility big wigs are not willing to allow blasting to take place as we are near to a live airfield and family housing and the use of the work ‘explosives’ seem to make them jumpy. We have arranged a meeting for next monday to try and convince them that we can actually blast without knocking aeroplanes out of the sky or killing small children. The main reason for this is that the project is likely to suffer to the tune of $2M if we now deny the contractors this method of removing rock.

ASHLEY RESERVIST CENTRE

More developments with insufficient quality control with concrete pours on behalf of the contractor. USACE now needs to work out if they make the contractor rip out existing sections and re-pour and how the contractor can begin to rectify their actions. Am considering offering my services to look back though the records and come up with proposals for how we proceed with minimal impact to the project. (request advice from PEW staff as to whether this is a browny point scoring opportunity for review.)

There are also issues with the proposed method of nailing ceiling boards to corrugated steel sheets…..apparently nails don’t go through corrugated steel too well. I immediately started to try and come up with various suggestions on how we could overcome this, but this is a big no no. USACE avoids at all cost telling the contractor how he should do something because if this subsequently turns out to be a problem, they have no comeback, whereas if the contractor submits a proposal and USACE agrees to HIS proposal, the contractor still carries the risk. I am now potentially in a bizarre situation where I can suggest ideas to the contractor, who would then have to suggest them back to me, so that I might approve them……I’m sure there’s a catch somewhere in there!

SOLARWALL PROJECT

I have also been getting my head around the Solar Wall project on building 2001 here on the base. We had some RFI’s for structural as built drawings for the racking systems inside the warehouse (as they support the roof) and also for wall construction details so that the structural engineers can demonstrate that the existing walls can support the solarwall product. This was initially passed to the Client (Defence Logistics Agency) as they actually hold all drawings pertaining to the facility. The structural engineers are not content that they have sufficient information from the older sections of the building and want to work from ‘assumptions’. The Client is not willing to spend more time looking through their historical records (as they have spent many hours already and are busy). The structural engineers are unwilling to send someone in person to look for additional drawings as they are in Texas and the Client is now understandably peeved.

I have been discussing other hierarchy issues and have been trying to understand where various responsibilities lie and where different bucks stop. In the end I still get the ‘shared responsibility’ line and have decided that I will push all matters but in consultation with the others before addressing the contractors direct. Ultimately I wouldn’t be willing to allow the design to be ‘proven’ with such vague assumptions and will insist on some additional action on behalf of the structural engineer (SE). In the spirit of mutual cooperation I will arrange for myself and another project engineer to try and tackle the drawings issue provided the SE sends a local representative to assist. I will also investigate the feasibility of removing existing wall sections to see how they were built. If this turns out to be a 10 man and a crane type of job then it’s probably too much effort. If it’s 2 men and a screwdriver then the SE can get his rep down here pronto….especially seeing as the total value of this is $3.8M and it would be unwise to allow him to carry such risk. I have held a separate meeting with the client to get him to confirm that he will be willing to assist in any reasonable way with the removal of existing wall panels. This meeting also revealed that the Client has undertaken a similar project previously but without the assistance of USACE as the dollar value was below the threshold. This means we now must extract as much history and lessons learned as possible. If this were a civilian client this would not be a problem because it’s in their best interests from a financial point of view, but for a government agency as a Client, this is less of a concern because the money is not theirs and for them it is good to be able to offload the responsibility to a third party.

Other developments include refining of the submission requirements and that some initial submittal requirements can be deleted all together. These are things such as environmental assessments and historical building impacts. The whole project is aimed at improving energy efficiency and by definition it is a inappropriate to try and justify or score points in a discrete manner. The whole thing is a big tick in the box so no further work is required. Historically the building is deemed by the client to have no significance and therefore no heritage is affected. My next step will be to press the contractor for a revised schedule and to highlight key areas that need lead times and also to tie in the schedule with his submittal requirements.

IN CAR COMMUTING ACTIVITIES

Tried to see if the telephone messaging option for blogging would allow me to save time and make better use of the daily commute….it is not recommended. I will stick to e-mail to update blogging.

My dead animal road kill observational skills are improving. I can now readily identify rabbits, foxes, skunks and possums. I am unsure about a particularly chubby looking thing that might be a Marmot of some sort. Will have to wait until another one dies as they don’t age well in the highway.

Mr Country and Western singer man is starting to get to me now. Today he sang about how he can leave his door unlocked and how cool it is to drive a pickup truck (and actually have a use for it – unlike the city folk). Yesterday he was unhappy because because his wife left him (assuming it’s his wife – he referred to her as ‘my girl’) but at least his faithful dog is still with him. A while back he was actually happy because he got some sort of new tractor but I assume ‘his girl’ has left with the tractor as he was particularly miserable about the whole affair. I normally get through about half a song before I have to turn it off – I am afraid I may build up a tolerance to country music….and that’s not cool.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am now the proud owner of a Maryland driver’s licence having gone through the indignity of having to take my test again. It took all I had to mask the bad habits picked up over the years. The worst bit was trying to pretend I knew where the wind-screen wiper controls were in the wife’s car when it started raining during the test. The examiner probably wondered why I kept switching the over-drive on and off, but hey, it’s not a fail criteria. The whole thing did almost came to an unceremonious end when prior to the test I presented the clerk with my 3-hour drug and alcohol awareness certificate (framed) and she realised the contempt I hold for the whole system. She’s clearly very proud of their bureaucracy.

Until next time.

McFry

3-6 Apr 12

So – we don’t appear to recognise religious holidays over here, but never mind, we’ll make up for it.

Progress has now been made with log on details for the CAC and I now have access to an official e-mail address and some of the compulsory training.

Further progress has been made on the driver’s licence front. My wife, as she is German, has no need to take her test due to a reciprocal agreement between states…..and even though I did my test in Germany – muggins here has retake it anyway. I attended a compulsory 3 HOUR class on drug and alcohol awareness and let’s just say it was a good job I’d already had the suicide prevention training at work! The test is booked for 18 April in Annapolis (about an hour and a half drive away.)

I bumped into some of the sub-contractors for the Solar-wall project during lunch break and after the initial ‘oh crap – it’s the Client!’ sort of introductions they finally opened up a little to just chat about projects and work for the Government. I discovered that having just got my head around the whole ‘let’s spend $3.5M in the name of science to see if this stuff works.’ it now turns out there is another existing building with this system already installed. Upon asking why we aren’t just measuring energy usage from this building compared to an equivalent sized building on the base, nobody could say….and I’m now asking again why we’re spending so much money making sure the national debt is kept up to world expectations. I’m probably going to get punched soon for pointing this stuff out all the time.

We had our first RFI’s in on the solar-wall project relating to the construction of the internal racking system which actually forms the structural support for the roof itself. The structural engineer needs to prove that the existing walls and structure can hold the proposed solar-wall and needs certain ‘as built’ info. I have done some digging around and it turns out that the whole roof is to be completely replaced in the near future….so now I’m concerned as to whether or not the structural engineer needs to be worrying about this at all and if it would be better to get the structural engineer from the solar-wall project and the structural engineer from the roof project to liaise directly to save on potential cross-purposes and wasted effort. The issue arises because for maintenance contracts, the Defence Logistics Agency runs and manages it’s own projects, no matter how expensive, but for new works projects of over $750K they have to use USACE for the contract administration and quality assurance and quality control and hence the oversights. Hence we have two projects on the same building that involve different organisations. I have since booked in a meeting with the engineers at DLA to further orientate myself with the local procedures and will also go and see the overall project manager from the DLA for the solar-wall project to iron out these RFI’s in a sensible manner. I am sure that all of this has been considered and thought through and it’s now just a case of making sure communication channels are established.

Have booked in to go on an Officer Training Day with the Corps next month looking at how they clear and maintain the bays as well as some media training.

Child number 2 has arrived safely. Now trying to find non-expensive ways of entertaining the damn thing. (We love him really).

Enjoy the Easter break guys and gals!

McFry