Archive
Week 3 – More of the same really…STOP PRESS – Brisbane Floods
This week has seen me focus my efforts on finalising a tender proposal to win an option study for the Upgrade of Port Drive at Brisbane Port. It was like being a 2IC all over again with the red pen (actually I used a pencil as it’s less aggressive) and really started to add some value, particularly on the commercial side of things. The most interesting element for me was starting to realise the urgent need to win work. Initially I costed up the job to just under $500k. I then had to make reductions to the works programme to reduce man hours and subsequently reduce rates to 70%. This reduced overall cost to $300k but it still wasn’t enough. After further slashing by the Project Director and devaluing me to nil cost (billed to work experience instead of my grade) the cost was brought down to $250k.
There is a clear shortage of work and the transportation group are very desperate to win this one!!! That said, it’s not solely based on price and there is a technical element to the proposal evaluation. GHD put together a reasonable offer with some strengths which will put them in a good position, not least the current works being undertaken for the Port of Brisbane (the client) and previous involvement with the Department for Transport & Main Roads who will be a large influence on works.
There is sadly not much else to report on less for social activity. I am part of the Transportation Group touch footy (rugby) group and once a week we run round Roma Street Parklands of a lunchtime for an hour in the ridiculous heat and humidity. I’ve lost a yard of pace since I was younger but still have a good side-step. I have signed up for a new training regime at the gym “kosama” which claims to “see the benefits in 4-5 weeks”. We’ll see, but going to the gym again after a 10 month absence is doing me a world of good.
BRISBANE FLOODS
Fortuitously I had not published the above as I was going to try to add more to it but since last week we have been battered by horrific storms and subsequent flooding! The state of Queensland is in tatters along the coastline following the storm damage caused by a downgraded cyclone moving South from the Cape York Peninsular. Our previous home of Gladstone was hit pretty hard and I know that there was considerable damage to the port and some elements of the GLNG site; the site was closed for 4 days and people were left stranded on Curtis Island. A few kilometres away in Boyne-Tannum my old supervisor had flood waters rise to the front of his house but fortunately not enter the property. The town of Bundaberg has been declared a disaster zone with the worst ever recorded floods and even the beloved rum factory (my favourite tipple since turning native) has been affected but fortunately the stock and molasses has been saved. The rest of the town however is in bad shape and will take months if not years to recover.
More locally, Brisbane has not suffered as badly as first anticipated with flood levels significantly lower than 2011. That said we live in the Oxley Creek flood plain and it was a little bit tense for a while. In 2011 our house was 2m under water so the neighbours were rightly excited and emotional about the potential of a flood again. We were advised (by the overly emotional neighbours) to empty the house and sand bag it as they had done but followed the Brisbane Council guidance instead, coupled with my own calculations based on Richard Farmers lectures on drainage and catchment areas! There was a risk of flooding but a low(ish) risk, but to appease Lisa who was slightly concerned, I drew the short straw on Monday night when the peak was meant to be reached and undertook flood watch for the house. As predicted we weren’t hit but the water got to within 5 metres away and about 0.5-1m below the house. Close enough for pushing our comfort zone but not close enough for panic stations.
Brisbane is now in recovery mode reconnecting power to the 200,000+ homes who lost it, cleaning up the debris, cutting up the fallen trees and trying to get life back to normal. All being well it’ll pretty much be there by next Monday but there is still a risk of more flooding in some lowland areas. Overall, not a particularly great Australia Day weekend on the East coast but a life experience all the same!
WSP and Dan – 2 weeks in
So it’s almost the end of my second week, and I’m thoroughly enjoying my new existence as a consultant. Having thought I knew a thing or two, towards the end of my contractor attachment, I’ve landed firmly back on the learning curve. Here is a little bit about my first two projects.
Lot 460 – Mechanical, hydraulic and fire design
My first job was to do the mechanical (HVAC), hydraulic and fire designs for a block of 40 flats. IN the end I have handed the mechanical design off to another engineer because the other two have turned out to be much trickier than they first appeared.
Architects rendering of the block of 40 flats – that’s me sitting on the wall 🙂
There was little water under the bridge here as this is a project that had received some preliminary work in the past before being mothballed when the developer ran out of money. Now he is back in the cash and so the project is back on. Unfortunately the engineers working on the design before me no longer work here at WSP. The upshot is that I’ve had to do a bit of back and forth with the client and some digging in the archives to find out what has gone before and to avoid repeating completed work.
The developer has been very keen on reducing the noise inside the flats as much as possible, and so hired an acoustic consultant to do a report. Some of the measures he suggests would indeed reduce the noise but would result in an extremely expensive building. The developer, as you’d expect, wants all of the benefits of the acoustic report but none of the costs.
One example of conflict of objectives between the acoustic and hydraulic performance has been in the design of the bathroom drainage. The acoustic engineer wanted separate branch drains from each fixture to a soil stack located in an acoustically treated plumbing duct. His idea is that by eliminating all changes of direction in branch drains, which sit in the ceiling void of the level below, no annoying swoosh sounds will be transmitted to the bathroom below when the sink of shower is used. I wanted to collect the fixture arms (not the toilet obviously) at a common trap to the floor waste and empty through a common branch drain to a stack in a normal plumbing duct. My idea being that this would ensure the floor waste remains charged and so make sure no drain orders escape into the bathroom. This is the standard drainage strategy in WA and can achieve relatively quiet performance when the pipes are lagged, though there can be problems with quality control and maintenance of lagging. By having only one 2 connections to the stack, my proposal also reduced the required size of the ceiling void. In the end I was able to placate the acoustic engineer by specifying all drain pipes be formed of Gerberit PP-SK (http://www.geberit.com.au/web/appl/au/wcmsau.nsf/pages/prod-drai-ppsk-1), a pipe with acoustic attenuation properties better than or equal to plain PVC. In my experience on site, the marginally higher cost of PP-SK over PVC is offset by the ease of installation, offered by its push-fit assembly, reducing labour costs. It also offers better quality control over lagged pipe – often a job given to the apprentice. As a result, the acoustic engineer, the architect, and I, are going to visit another job where a plumbing sub-contractor I have used before is installing PP-SK. Hopefully they go for it.
The fixture arms collect at a common trap to the floor waste to keep it charged. Fewer branch drains means a smaller ceiling void. Skew P trap pans allow the nastiest noise to be kept in the room of origin. Partial shot of the BIM built in REVIT.
Another interesting aspect of this job has been the design of the stormwater drainage system. The local authority mandates that storm water is disposed of within the confines of the site, so I have designed a series of soak-wells to sit under a car park on the ground level of the building. It has also been instructive to work with the structural engineer in specifying so pipework to be cast into the structure of the building without compromising the structural design.
Design of the fire hydrant system has been a little tricky. I picked up a design done by another engineer for the hydrants that had previously been sent to the architect. Unfortunately the other engineer had misread the Australian Standard and so had under specified the system. The developer, understandably with a prime focus on profitability, wasn’t too happy when I explained the system was going to be about 30% more expensive than originally planned. I’ve booked some time with a fire engineer next week so may be able to come up with some other scheme to reduce the costs, but I’m not hopeful.
The Red Barn – Rural waste water treatment
I am designing a waste water treatment scheme for a client in a remote area, where it is not possible to discharge into a public sewer, and where there is no watercourse nearby. I had been looking at a number of options, the most promising of which was to use a primary stage septic tank followed by a secondary stage reed bed then discharge, following a pass through a UV sterilizer (unnecessary but required in WA for reclaimed water), to a pumped irrigation system serving an adjacent vineyard. Unfortunately WA does not approve of reed beds. I spoke to the Chief Environmental Engineer at the Department of Health who told me, and I’m not kidding, ‘we don’t like new things here.’ In the end I’ve gone for a septic tank followed by a set of leach drains. I’ve positioned them uphill of the vineyard so that the water may leach in a useful direction.
Using a septic tank and leach drains – surprisingly reed beds are not allowed in WA. My sketch for initial planning authority submission on top of architect’s outline sketch – the notes about Hardenbergii and Brachychiton are the Gardener’s.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m going to ask for a mechanical project next as I think I’m being used for all of the hydraulic jobs no-one else wants, but, as the wise man said, ‘society needs good plumbers as well as philosophers, otherwise neither the pipes nor the ides hold water.’ Boom Boom!
In other news, the weather has finally cooled down to something liveable for the last few days; over Christmas we had day after day of filthily hot weather. Tasha has got a new job at the Children’s Hospital (the one that the one Steve was building will replace – does that make sense?) near our house, and I’ve joined the office 5 a side team – we’re 4th in the league. I’ve also been roped into an inter consultancy triathlon. It’s pretty tame compared to the ones Chris does though: just 250,10,5.
Week 2 – 14-18 Jan 13
This week has again been fairly quiet with the office still missing about a third of the staff who have taken extended holiday post Christmas (bearing in mind that it is the main school break here as well). Despite the horsepower shortage there is still not enough real work available in the office to keep everyone busy so there is a fair amount of tension as people are (slightly) fearing for their jobs. This places me in an interesting predicament of not wanting to take someones work away from them yet also get amongst something to gain the full benefit of the attachment. I’ve got the balance right thus far but a couple more weeks of this may prove interesting…
What I have been doing is preparing (as part of a team of 4) a proposal to bid for an option study. This sounds a bit dry but luckily I have been digging into the depths of the commercial world and cost benefit analysis which is broadening my perspective of the engineers role. There is plenty to learn and with a bit of legal thrown in for good measure I have learnt that there are certain words/phrases banned from use in all GHD documents including “best practice”, “expert”, and “fit for purpose”.
I managed to get out of the office to a client meeting for the bid proposal and added some value which was appreciated by the team leader and am starting to find my level in the office hierarchy. The option study is for the upgrade of a road to a dual carriageway / motorway for the port and the main element is how to deal with a junction that gets blocked up during peak periods (apparently queuing in traffic for more than 5 minutes is unacceptable in Australia). I am currently of the opinion that the best solution is a burger bun roundabout but convincing the team is challenging and even if successful there, the greater challenge is convincing the department for transport and main roads that it’s not a wind-up, it increases traffic flow/volumes and would prove to be successful in the cost-benefit analysis. We’ll see how it goes but I don’t expect it to get approved in my lifetime…. if all else fails I could suggest a replica of the magic roundabout in Swindon!!! As one of the team keeps reminding us, you always need a “crap option” to make your preferred one look better!!!
Away from the trials and tribulations of the office I am pleased to report that a more favourable work-life balance (for now) has harmonized the Serevena household and I have joined a gym. Having undertaken a cost-benefit analysis of gym membership it was proven to be the way ahead and it is nice to get back running again. The weekend sees us doing not a lot (TMR 4 needs a bit of a nip/tuck) and thus nothing overly exciting to report on that front. Next weekend however will be slightly more exciting with Australia Day celebrations.
Happy new year
Happy new year!
Just a quickie as a “distraction” from TMR 4 as Dougal charges around the house and Liz packs for an MA module in Edinburgh next week. Unlike you guys I’m not really doing a separate Phase 4 so I’m developing what I’ve been doing up til now, with an aim to join some of our designers to get the A and B competencies ticked. This works for me, but I’m starting to feel conscious of the fact that I’ve not got overly technical yet.
TAR jobs. These are going well and materials are finally getting specced and ordered; I’ve made a few calls on materials for some of the lines that are being replaced so that’s always an interesting one! There are still a few outstanding issues mind, including the only remaining vendor pulling out of the fabrication of one of the emergency shutdown valves (ESDVs) on the cold boot upgrade. We’ve now got another procurement team on the case, as ESDVs have a 20-week lead time and the TAR starts in July…
The ETAP ALQ is moving forwards slowly, mostly due to it getting pushed down on my priorities list. This isn’t ideal and it may get “taken from me” if I don’t get some progress on it, but there are only so many hours etc. etc and the programme lead understands that. I’ve asked if I can keep it chugging along and give it to Imran when he gets in as it’s a nice and easy (albeit pretty big) one to start off on.
The Magnus Bravo crane. We have a decision, and the decision is… PIECEMEAL!!!!! After months of investigating and putting together arguments for different options we’ve going with a piecemeal/stick build approach (like a 6-piece lego set) to replace the 100 tonne Bravo crane. The reasons: essentially it’s because there are known-unknowns using a piecemeal approach, plus it is easier to modify if and when things slip. The HLV option is technically easier (once the cab’s removed, sail in a big ship with a massive crane on it up to Magnus to swap the cranes over in single lifts), but the unknowns remain unknown and it’s a lot of commitment that can easily change. For more details see TMR 4 where I investigate what drives the selection of the method!
And in other news: Christmas was spent at home in Scotland with the in-laws up for a few days and various other visitors here and there. We got another day of skiing in on Cairngorm which was good fun, maybe best described as “better than some days I’ve had in the Alps”. I also got the axes out for a play on Lochnagar which was exciting, but the ice was melting rapidly so we didn’t get too much done. Lots of good walks on the beaches, woods and over the hills though. Looks like the weather is starting to chill again over the next few weeks, so hopefully get some routes in between the thesis and everything else.
Liz is loving life in RHQ right now – with a Regt 2IC on resettlement courses and the RCMO gapped it’s not the easiest of lobs for her so we take it in turns to complain about our workloads. She normally wins hands down during the week, but I champion it at weekends!
The end, a particularly painful move and a new beginning
So after a long absence from the blog I have made it back online just in time to start Phase 3 tomorrow. The absence has largely been due to the volume of work prior to my departure from Gladstone coupled with administration associated with our house move but after finally getting the house semi-sorted in time for Christmas we have a consistent internet connection and a few moments to jump on here.
The MOF project eventually got going again following the collapse of the main king pile wall for the LoLo section. For the final few weeks we started to make some progress with the capping beam by using internal scaffold and mirroring the external temporary work platform internally where possible. The majority of my effort was focussed on the Dolphin reinforcement and concreting methodology; this was a particularly pertinent issue following a spill of concrete (approx 0.8 cu.m) by our sister project on QCLNG into the great barrier reef marine park. As the project started to pick up some steam the inevitable “challenges” continued to pop up ranging from poor logistical planning through to not having the required man power or tradesmen on site as well as some extra-large spring tides flooding the lower portions of the site as it lapped over the top of the king pile wall where the capping beam had not been completed.
My involvement was gradually reduced as the project engineers were reorganised to allow for a strategy change yet my work load increased significantly in order to effectively hand over. My main effort was closing out my commercial responsibilities and work lots for the civil crew works. Fortuitously I had been working on my subcontracts for a few months so managed to clear the commercial side relatively smooth over and handed over a portfolio with sufficient budget for the remainder of the project and all materials scheduled, ordered and a delivery schedule publicised. The work lots however were not so easy. I was responsible for 26 in total that I had opened and preparing these for closure was relatively simple. The real challenge came with the 40+ lots I inherited from my predecessor that had not been touched since being opened.
My final week saw me hand over to a mechanical engineer (which meant a bit of tutoring in the world of reinforced concrete and how to understand what the lines meant on the reinforcement drawings), closing out my final few work lots and ensuring that there were no hidden treasures left on my departure. This must have been successful as have only received one phone call from site since!
Leaving the site was slightly disappointing for a couple of reasons. First was that I didn’t get to see the project finished and moving to Brisbane will not allow a quick site visit upon completion. I did hit several personal targets though which was good. Secondly was the absence of the PM from site in my last week. Unfortunately for me he took a last-minute holiday which meant that I was unable to have a departure discussion with him and receive any feedback. Despite numerous attempts I have still been unsuccessful in contacting him and will keep persevering in order to achieve closure (for me) on the MOF project.
After finishing work on the Thursday, early on Friday the removals company arrived and lifted our possessions for the Brisbane move. This made us homeless for the next few days whilst in transit (what takes a day in the UK takes 5 in Queensland) which was not ideal but manageable. We finally moved into our house and had everything up and running just in time for Christmas. We have had several significant challenges that have caused us heartache but we have hopefully managed to work through them all.
Over new year we managed a short trip to Sydney and had a good time, managing to catch up with the Dollimore’s for a few hours at the harbour. That was pretty much the only downtime we had with the move and the admin nightmare it created.
Today I have started with GHD and despite initially them having no knowledge of my arrival, I’ve subsequently been given a desk, computer and told that I will no longer be working in the rail part of the transport division but roads instead. Unfortunately the main players for transport and roads are both on extended leave until the end of the month meaning that the plan for my employment is also away from the office!! Tomorrow may prove to be better once people have cleared their desks following the Christmas break and I’m hoping for some more direction on what I’ll be doing. For now though I have managed to complete this blog entry and sort out some general admin, as well as enjoy a lunch break – something I had never had sight of on the MOF!!!
With any luck by the end of the week I’ll have enough detail to cobble together the content of AER 5 and from next Monday should be hitting the ground running, if not earlier. Until next time, happy new year to all!!!
Now arrived in the Design Office in Baltimore
New Office – 10 South Howard Street, Baltimore
I have now wrapped up and handed over most of the work which I was involved with at USAMRIID and SSP sites over in Frederick, and am now daily commuting up the road to Baltimore to the District HQ, based out of the Mechanical Section.
Apart from the fact that the HVAC is broken (ironic, I thought) which makes the office about 30C everything else seems to be falling into place. I am about to go to their weekly meeting which details the existing and expected projects, hopefully will be able to position myself on a interesting yet modular project.
SSP
Back in Frederick, the SSP project is still treading water, though a new Bio-Challenge test has been conducted, which we are currently waiting…… It is expected that a test pass will alleviate many of the commissioning issues, though it is becoming increasingly evident that the “customer” does not want to be responsible for the plant, and so is “stalling” as much as they can, this is clearly making the commissioning, closeout and handover of the plant difficult. As a point in case, last week I had to reassure some of the USAMRIID customers that it was perfectly normal for clouds of steam to be coming out of the steam vent on the steam plant, and did not indicate that the steam condensate traps were broken, and so we did not need to launch an investigation and fix it.
USAMRIID
Construction is still continuing at pace. Several issues have come up, but are being resolved as quickly as possible. (1. Slightly flammable pipe insulation in plenum areas, 2. duct cleaning – cutting holes in ducts that are already tested, in order to clean them…, 3. continuing issue of accuracy of duct testing paperwork, thus throwing doubt about the results, 4. In ability to pull some of the coils out of AHU’s etc)
The main concern as far as I can see is that there STILL really does not seem to be a schedule. Despite this being the case for the entire time that I have been there, and various of us voicing our concerns about this situation, the Resident Engineer does not want to delay the project by calling for a stop work order, (realistically the only stick that would have effect) due to lack of adherence to the specification, so the situation rumbles on. Clearly this will become a more pressing issue when commissioning comes, also, from our inspection of what schedule there is, no time has been allowed for reviewing the submitted system tests etc, feasibly this may cause real embarrassment in about a years’ time, luckily (for him) the resident Engineer has said he will probably retire in 10 months time…
I am intending to continue to pop back to the USAMRIID on a frequent basis, to keep an ear to the ground to hear the outcome of these issues, and contribute to the lessons learnt.
Home Front
Sarah is doing well in her job, and getting used to the fact that she is firing about a person a day, but this is apparently expected when largely working with Ex-Cons.
My Beer is going well, I now have particularly smooth pumpkin ale, (the Americans have figured out a way to make almost anything from pumpkin – ale, pie, soup, stew )
We have now got a Christmas tree wedged into our little place, it is about 9 ft tall and 5 ft diameter, which actually may be a little too big, it does make it feel very forested in our front room, in a nice way. Needless to say, it looked smaller in the field.
Aberdeen Update
Is it really 4 weeks since the last blog???
Well, for those readers who haven’t had the good fortune of seeing my AER, here’s an update on the goings on of your favourite BP Project Engineer.
Magnus B Crane Changeout.
Apologies to Ish who may have had burnt ears after my last blog, but he may be right about the HLV after all, it’s just that I couldn’t find his evidence for it! So, complete with dodgy ‘tache, I took a trip to Holland to meet up with Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) to see how they would do it. Turns out, it really is that easy, but they won’t formalise anything until we contract them to do so and therein lies the problem. It’s a chicken and egg situation: I now need to convince BP to commit to using a Heavy Lift Vessel (HLV), to then get the guys from Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSCM) to get all the vendors to bid so we can select an HLV that they can prove it is the best option and we can contract it. More meetings with BP management/ PSCM to follow but I’m particularly keen to go with an HLV as it seems such a better option (and it fits in with my UK Spec Competencies too). Unlike the HLV Sparrows showed us (see last blog), HMC’s Thialf can stabilise itself and has removed similar size cranes from other platfoms (Fig 1) and installed new platform cranes onto platforms in single lifts. Easy!!!
Fig 1. HLV removing platfomr crane on NW Hutton
ETAP ALQ
My brief to the Area Operations Manager (think high level bloke that is responsible for a number of oil fields) went well and I left with a whole load more questions to answer. Like any meeting though, there were the usual suspects asking pointless, irrelevant (for this stage) questions but on the whole the comments were very useful. Lots more work before I get to the end of Appraise and write a good DSP, but it will be a good project for Imran to follow on with in Select and Define (and the guy after him to take into Execute). We’re looking at a 2015 installation so it should keep RSME engineers busy for some time yet. As a rough order of cost, £20m (P50) will get you something like this (Fig 2)
Fig 2. Schematic of ETAP ALQ for 40 POB
Magnus TAR jobs
These are what are keeping people on the Magnus team “excited” at the moment as deadlines for Work Packs and long lead items approach and everyone wants things done yesterday. I have six jobs going on in the TAR and they are at various states. Since they are all “priority”, it gets interesting when I then have to prioritise between them. On the whole, we are getting there but I fear that some won’t be ready on time unless there is some serious “pulling out” of fingers.
What am I doing about this? My four Runcorn jobs are actually going OK (although a little behind schedule, as everyone’s are), it’s the ones done here which I’m struggling with, and I think the problem is a combination of the inherent complexity and the turnover of contracted engineers. So, in true officer fashion, I’m keeping our heads up, and trying my best to facilitate all the required conversation between the process engineers working on the jobs and the Technical Authorities in BP. We’re getting there, but it’s my biggest risk.
In Other News
- Dougal is getting big, and I will do soon if I don’t start running properly again: 2-3 hours of walking a day is not what I call training! Still, I’ve got two ultras lined up for next year, either one of the Mont Blanc races (100km along, 5.5km up) or the Bob Graham Round. And for something short, Combat Stress have given me a place in the Edinburgh marathon – I’m planning on breaking 3 hours.
- I’ve been selected as a reserve for the REMEC 8000 expedition in Aug/Sept 13. I’ll have to plan what training I can go on around my work, thesis and wife, and if it looks like I’m going to get on the team, consider my postings carefully.
- Just had the folks up for a week; it rained pretty much non-stop and their aged, three-legged border collie just about coped with the boy Dougal.
- And sadly Movember comes to an end. I didn’t plan on raising any money but a few folk from work insisted and I raised £60. It’s good to see the rise of facial hair; in one meeting recently there were 11 of us present and just 4 clean-faces (two of whom were lassies).
Weeks 26-30 – 01 Sep – 07 Oct 12 – Holiday, training and that horrible “return to work” feeling
The dates of this blog seem to cover a long stretch but when you consider that the first 2 weeks I was on holiday and the third week I was on various training courses, it only leaves the last couple to write about!
For those interested, we had a nice break. We drove North through tropical North Queensland and saw many nice things. I will not bore anyone with the happy snaps.
Week 28 was when I finally completed some safety training with JHG; it should happen within the first few weeks but I guess that’s the way the GLNG MOF rolls! It was surprisingly good and because it was in Brisbane I was well looked after with flights, taxis and a particularly nice hotel in the city centre with a service called “charge-back”. I didn’t abuse it but it certainly puts JPA expenses to shame!
My holiday and courses resulted me being off the Island for 20 days straight and didn’t I know it when I returned. Having to get up again at 0400 was painful. What I was not surprised to see was that nothing had changed, apart from the wall leaning over.
The works programme had been extended by some 4 months and my immediate issues were to find some work for the civil crew to actually undertake. Unfortunately we failed to deliver and said a sad farewell to some of the workforce although they were only temps provided by a sub-contractor. Even so, it’s not a great feeling and rests heavily on you.
That said, things will pick up eventually and new work fronts are scheduled to come live soon…I just have to wait a bit longer…
“It’s all good to go”
“It’s all good to go”: Magnus B Crane Changeout
The replacement of Magnus’ B Crane was one of Ish’s major projects, and handed to me “all good to go” following two Value Systems Analysis meetings with the key stakeholders and an external agency who were brought in to facilitate it. The first was to investigate what weighting should be applied to four considerations that between them would be used in ranking methods of the B Crane change out. This was done by rating the importance of one factor against another and saying if it stronger, much stronger or very much stronger than the other. The outcome of this was more extreme than expected and showed that there was a 62% weighting towards (not) impacting operations, 22% towards constructability, 12% to the importance of having a straightforward implementation, and just 4% to minimising the cost. In my eyes the absence of anyone from the business side of things was highly influential on the outcome that suggested “quick and straightforward at any cost”.
In the second meeting had a few more key players: Gav from Renewals whose opening line was “So, is this where we confirm its an HLV then?” and Tamara from the financial side who was amused to see that the real cost had such a low influence. The next part of the meeting compared the different methods of crane changeout based on very few hard facts; essentially peoples’ opinions based on what they’d seen/heard in the past. Even more interestingly, we compared two named stick-builds (Sparrows and LBO, who all had supplied facts and figures) with three notional ideas of how a Heavy Lift Vessel would work, rather than named HLV vessels themselves. Funny old thing, the notional HLV came out on top, despite none of us having a real idea of what the implications are.
A week after Ish left we got Ian Alexander from Sparrows (our preferred bidder for lifting operations) in to discuss how they have worked with HLV crane installations in the past (bearing in mind the lowering speed can be 0.5 m/s there are some impact forces to mitigate against, amongst other things). They gave us an excellent presentation on their enabling works with the HLV Saipem on the Captain platform. In this instance the ‘super-fast HLV method’ required a total of 11 weeks work from start to finish due to all the other works required, such as moving some items on the platform (the HLV had a 2m “obstruction-free” zone), jacking up the crane that was being removed, and shutting down the platform as must be done for all HLV work. This has made us re-think the HLV option, although having spoken to Herema today (and also Ish), they have a much lower requirement for enabling works. The problem I now have, is finding the best solution based on some maybe flawed parameters, and then convincing everyone that I still have the best option by all accounts. To give rough figures, the full cost of an HLV is estimated as £15-20m; a Sparrows stickbuild will be £7-10m.
What I’ve really learnt from this is the seemingly obvious reiteration of three important things:
- Have hard facts and figures for all options when doing any kind of comparative analysis.
- Ensure key stakeholders are present at meetings that affect decisions where options can have £10m difference.
- Always remember Rule number one.
Figure 1. Saipem being used to install an entire platofrm. Is it overkill to use an HLV for a single crane?
Other jobs
ETAP ALQ. My Appraise report is nearly complete and having convinced my programme manager that we need to look at more POB, I have a feeling we may be asked more than the 30 originally planned for. To get the Area Operations Manager to attend my gate meeting I was given two windows this side of Christmas, but as I have found, I don’t want to make any decisions without the big-guns verifying it, so I have a date and time set. The go-ahead (looking at £15m for 40 POB) will be based on a business case that I’ve been told to not concern myself with, so all I need to worry about is the engineering of it. This will be an excellent job for my successor to carry on with the Define and onshore Execute of. The offshore Execute will be Summer 2014.
Magnus TAR jobs (5 of). These are all running OK, with the work on three of them being split to minimise the work done inside of the TAR so it can be completed after (outside of the time when a day equates to roughly £2m in lost revenue). My concern is that the work will be delayed so I am fighting to get buy-in from the platform for the project POB afterwards. The one that this is unlikely to be the case on is the Decommissioning work – there is loads more than expected (looking at <300 different parts of pipework post-TAR) and that is a lot of work: something like 300 man-weeks in the latest estimate! This non-TAR work will be surveyed in Jan and Feb so we should know more then.
And in other news.
I’ve hung up my running shoes for the year, having finished 4th (from 196 starts) in the 60-mile London to Brighton race, and 12th (from 150) in the Glencoe Marathon (gutted – was 2nd for the first 8 miles but piled in as soon as we started running downhill). Liz also did Glencoe and did amazingly, despite cutting her knee nicely in the first mile. Nearly £1000 raised for Combat Stress and the Muirhouse Youth Development Trust so that’s good.
Dougal is awesome but hard work – Roy Serevena, I really don’t know how you managed with all those dogs and children: Lisa must be a legend!
Figure 2. Dougal
Winter tyres are ordered and get fitted next week: it was -4 as I drove in last week (admittedly this was at 0500 hrs…). Perhaps a little cooler than things Down Under, but looks good for the winter climbing season!
Gas regulator indoors?
Hey everyone. Has anyone ever come across a gas regulator indoors?
This one will soon have an AHU just below it that supplies air to an industrial kitchen. Is it even legitimate to have the regulator in an enclosed space? They work by venting gas to atmosphere – which in a plant room seems like a bad idea. The reason I’m worrying about it is that the Consultant, no stranger to a Spanish practice, says not to worry about it. Are the quantities of gas these things put out so small that it isn’t a problem?
I’ll dig out the Australian Standard, but if anyone has seen this before I’d be grateful for a heads up.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 