Archive
The invention of looking
Another day another project. I have started to become increasingly involved in ‘Building 2001’ in Harrisburg, which is the home of the enormous Eastern Distribution Centre (EDC). I say increasingly involved, though yesterday I narrowly avoided arrest, more about that later. The building is pretty large, mainly dominated by a warehouse but with an admin section about twice the size of Denison strapped to the side. The current contract is to replace the roof, change some lighting, improve the ventilation and replace, more or less like for like the HVAC system. And so far the most important lesson I have learned is: Avoid dealing with refits wherever possible! I will expand.
To follow on from Guz’s theme of invention and Rich’s point on people actually leaving their desks to look at stuff. Two things this week have lead me to believe that the designers didn’t actually bother coming to do a detailed survey of this huge building before cracking on with their designs and just assumed the as built drawings were complete and correct.
The building has three plant rooms. The main plant room has the steam distribution and the main elements of the chilled water distribution. The other two smaller plant rooms each service their respective admin floors with an Air Handling Unit (AHU) and some minor switchgear. As it begins to get warm here we are starting to cobble together a temporary system whilst we wait to get the main cooling system on line. So as we were talking through the system in a meeting, so at least better than a chance conversation, the contractor stated that the plant room housing the ground floor AHU was getting really hot; suboptimal in cooling season. We asked why and he said it was obviously because of the two condensers that were stationed in there from some retrofit air conditioning systems.
Just heating the room that is trying to cool the rest of the floor. Outside is a mere 20′ away.
Some pipe hunting later and we found that these fed two computing classrooms that had obviously required extra cooling at some point in the last 10 years. Checking the contract these aren’t to be replaced. Now I haven’t checked the as built drawings, but I don’t need to because the photo above clearly shows exactly where these condensers are. So my question is, which idiot put them there and which idiot decided to leave them there in a comprehensive refit of the building’s mechanical equipment. My conclusions are that it comes down either to incompetence or money. But, based on the next example, it is difficult to say it was just a cost saving measure as incorporating a couple of extra outlets into a room to increase the cooling capacity would have been pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things: I think the designer didn’t know they were there.
So to observation two. The biggest reason the air conditioning system is not running is that the cooling towers (condensers) on the roof aren’t connected. This is because someone forgot to design the structural steel to hang the pipes from. So due to the rising mercury we have hired a trailer mounted condenser, complete with pumps. So the question is merely what size?
After a chat between the contractor, mechanical engineer and myself we decided on 500 tons, ordered it and it arrived. When it turned up we proudly went out to observe our $40,000 a month lease and the installation electrical engineer asked when the other one was coming? And that was when email tennis started.
The 500 ton temporary system in the foreground. The new chillers (1300 tons) up high.
The original system was designed at 1800 tons (2 x 900 ton cooling towers) and in the design guide produced by the design consultant there was a magical figure of 1220 tons as the load. The new system is designed at 1300 tons and so the installation decided 1000 tons was the minimum possible. The installation engineers therefore stated that our temporary chiller would simply not be large enough and kicked up a stink with explanations of the old system working flat out and hardly being able to keep pace.
So the proof will clearly be on Tuesday when the system is turned on and the temperature is set to be in the high 80’s for the week. However, I will justify our decision now. The contractor has worked on this building for the last 2 summers and swears that there has only been one cooling tower operating at a time; indeed last year one of them was out of service. He also said that when he removed the old cooling towers he’d called the manufacturer with the serial number and asked the size: 600 tons (for some reason it wasn’t on the nameplate). Additional factors are a number of smaller AHUs have been removed and the temporary power supply wouldn’t run a 750 ton unit. When designing the controls, before my time, we had been told the permanent 1300 ton system was to give redundancy, as out here everything has redundancy.
Conclusions
Having read the design handbook for this project nowhere was there actually a calculation of the load, just an assumption with no justification. Remembering back to the design projects writing why an assumption was made seemed frustrating as it got in the way of moving onto the next calculation. However, the reasoning behind these assumptions are vital in the real world for someone to understand your calculations so they can make decisions later down the line; especially if the situation changes. This applies to references too as a reader can understand your thinking better if they can trace it back to source. It the light of contradictory evidence empirical evidence should take precedence.
As built drawings are not 100% reliable. They may be but it depends on whether someone has the time or funding to keep them up to date. In the EDC there are a number of different organisations with little pots of money doing self help projects all the time so some might not even know where to get hold of the master set of drawings; if there even is one. Thinking forward to doing DfID style projects the odds of getting BIM are pretty long! Therefore time spent on recce…
Oh and my near arrest. Well despite having been working in this building for three weeks it appears I don’t have clearance. Yesterday I tried going in through the main entrance and was told my name wasn’t on the list by the DLA Police. The building is about as secure from entrance as a sieve is from water and holds nothing remotely of interest to a thief or spy but rules is rules. It turns out I just need to present a letter that I am not allowed to see the contents of to the head of security and it should be fine! I can only imagine the pain Brad has been through and I’m pretty glad that the engineer I work with is the base commander’s wife as that probably prevented bracelets.
More Bent Stuff
This weeks thrilling instalment follows on (inadvertently) the theme set by Guz and Olly. Apparently.
I have just completed my transition week, which now sees me as a Project Engineer out of an Area Office (a more familiar construct for those who have been / are in the US) working on two projects and also minor obligation back to the PM and PrM Office running the contract I have set up. As will be usual for most I had to undergo a site safety induction, ran by the principle contractor of the site on which I will be spending most time. With reference to mine and Henry’s last comments; the brief was actually fairly impressive and many of the standards that are in place are similar to those I experienced in the UK, with a few exceptions (so far – The rickety ladder of doom, no requirement for banksmen for reversing vehicles, gloves optional unless doing specific tasks)
Site itself is fairly dynamic and its not unusual for it to be almost unrecognisable from one visit to the next, particularly with concrete pours; movement of fill material from one area to the next to facilitate access; creation of new haul roads etc. This will only become more disorienting with the award of, now, two new jobs on what is already a complicated and congested site. An area that I am tracking is the interface between two projects, one of which is responsible for the placement of services and utilities in an area which falls within the new project’s Limit of Disturbance (LOD – AKA a boundary). This is an interesting issue because there was a change order submitted to accelerate the placement of the utilities months ago, however this was cancelled when the schedule for the new work was reviewed and it was seen that no work was going to take place until after the utilities were originally scheduled to be placed anyway. So, a requirement was included in the contract for the two Principle Contractors to de-conflict activities where there were pinch points in LODs. There are now mutterings however that the principle contractor on the new job (who is apparently very savvy when it comes to working with the government) is expected to submit claims to the government due to a change in site conditions, which precludes him from going into an area that he doesn’t intend to go into anyway. Good!
On a more real time issue, myself and another Project Engineer inspected a deficiency yesterday on a basement structural RC beam. It is still propped and not fully load bearing yet however there is a large crack running pretty much the length of the beam (c.3.5m) which varies from around 300mm wide in places to c. 50mm and is deep enough to expose the reinforcement. (For Damo’s amusement I have attached a Sketch)
There is significant bowing to one side of the beam which seems to indicate that the formwork has failed which has allowed concrete to pour onto the floor below and caused the deformation of the beam. The deficiency has been highlighted to the designer for inspection and comment. I expect that there will be a requirement to chip away the majority of the side of the beam where the deficiency is and either replace the concrete around the existing pour as is, or epoxy some steel dowels (form savers or similar) and replace the concrete. There may be some practicality issues with this solution as the beam is obviously supposed to be flush with the floor slab.
Other ‘interesting things’ I have seen:
- Mixing of red dye into concrete surrounding some electrical utilities so that any future workers will be able to identify what they are potentially about to dig through. I thought this was ingenious – is it common practice: have I just completely shown myself up?!
- The way that schedule changes affect the engineering of a job. The basement slab has not yet been poured due to weather delays and a desire to get out of the ground. Therefore the basement walls (essentially now cantilevered) have been extended in order to resist the moment imposed due to the active lateral earth pressure
- The utility of a road traffic sign (presumed stolen) as part of some pretty sketchy looking formwork. It was only a pour below knee level or so, and was not structural.
- An excavator, almost excavating under itself as it sat atop some fill material, which was clearly exhibiting signs of face slippage. I highlighted this to the Engineer I was with (Geotechnical background) but he didn’t seem bothered. Apparently if the Operator were to ‘feel it going’ he would simply put his bucket down to the ground. ‘They’re pretty quick off the mark with those buckets.’ Good to know.
- Slump testing concrete at point of arrival and point of placement. There was a bit of pushback when this was spotted in the specification from the designer, however they would not budge. Personally I can see the utility for pumped pours where some slump is gained after pumping. For one, any sub-standard batches are caught before the pumping begins, for two, any batches that are close to the limit (4”-8” in this case) at delivery can be verified at placement and the requirement to return a batch ‘just to be on the safe side’ is mitigated. This is important where timing is critical, especially on larger pours, when the formation of cold joints in the slab is a potential issue. (seen before on the site)
- Construction sequence affecting design – whereby holes have been left in the first floor slab to allow for stores to be lowered into the basement at a later date when the basement slab is eventually poured. This has meant additional reinforcement requirements at the corners and the placement of form savers to allow rebar to be placed across the void at a later date (screwed in) to allow continuity. Also – similar gap exists adjacent where the tower crane currently sits.
I also attended a webinar event ran by the NCE titled ‘Building the Age of Resilience.’ It pretty much took the form of plugging the following product (which I have never heard of) : www.globalcalculator.org
From what I can gather this tool enables the user to postulate future global scenarios of energy requirements, industrial output, global consumption of meat, fuels and goods etc and simulate the effects on global temperature. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_6flonHN0o is a brief tutorial on how to use the tool but it’s fairly self-explanatory. From what I can gather unless you are the CEO of a company trying to assess some strategic direction, or the Prime Minister then it’s really just an interest thing, but it is actually, sadly, quite interesting! I guess if you are trying to assess the future impact of a single project you could potentially (at the concept stage) adjust a single ‘lever’ and see if the economic impact to the project is worth the engineering effort? Perhaps.
You’ll Get What You Pay For
Contract Stuff
Last week I intimated that there was a potential issue pushing a new contract through the procurement process in time before the base contract to which it would be attached expires. At the start of the week we got confirmation that the course of action we pursued was OK with the KOR and I received verification that I could have the funds fairly quickly, which was good. My week then spiralled down into deep, dark, depressing realms of frustration, repeated work and government bureaucracy.
To relate everything I have been required to do will induce eye-stabbing levels of boredom in the reader, and no doubt some level of confusion. I will therefore ‘paraphrase’ and highlight key points.
One of the many hoops I have to jump through along the procurement process is an Independent Government Estimate (IGE) which is essentially a method of making sure that the contractor isn’t ripping us off. This is a fairly important part of being responsible for spending tax dollars on behalf of the taxpayer. Using the Scope of Work I produced I was able to attribute a level of staffing that would be required to fulfill the requirements of the scope and, using pre-negotiated rates from the base contract, attach a cost. In parallel to this I sent a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the Contractor who did the same.
When I received the proposal back from the Contractor I had to wait before I could open it because I still had to get sign off on the IGE; to open the proposal prior to this would be illegal. Office policy dictates that if my IGE and the Contractor Proposal are within 10% of each other I can combine the next stages of the acquisition process into one. Fortunately, when I was able to open the proposal, the bottom lines read within 6% of each other. This meant that I could accept the proposal, no questions asked – as long as I could justify and explain the minor discrepancies in a document called the POM/PNM (this document goes against every JSP101 principle and is judged by weight, not content). On the face of it I could quite easily justify the discrepancies, however when I dug into the weeds I found that the pricing strategies used by myself and the Contractor were wildly different. The overall level of effort was essentially the same, except it was allocated to different task lines. This was a bad thing as it meant that the acquisition would have to go through a negotiation stage, which we don’t have time for. Fortunately, one of the experienced contract officers here recommended that I simply conduct a “scope clarification conference” with the contractor*.
At this juncture it is important to note that negotiating with the contractor without first sending a copy of the Pre-negotiated Objective Memorandum (POM) through the District office is against official policy, however if you call and clarify the scope with him and he sends you an entirely new proposal. Well, that’s fine. Happily the scope was a lot clearer to the Contractor after we had negotiated had our scope clarification conference and I received a second proposal, for a similar amount but broken down in a similar way to the IGE.
Now, the other aspect of this is deciding what pot to pay for the services from. In order to put the scope together I had canvassed opinion around the stakeholders in the various offices as to what level of effort they would require for the period of performance so that I could write a suitable SOW to meet their requirements. However when I called a Purchase Request and Commitment (PR&C) meeting to discuss the issue of paying there was a huge reluctance to stump up the cash! Issues varied from just not having budgeted for what was requested (then I’ll adjust the SOW and you’ll lose your scheduler) to suddenly realising the costs involved are too high to justify. Fortunately for me there was an adult in the room who was able to bat away some of the niff naff poor drills excuses and so the meeting was actually really useful, and there was resolution on who was paying for what…as long as I adjusted the SOW, IGE and POM/PNM…
Lessons –
- The importance of an absolutely watertight scope from the outset, written in consultation with the key stakeholders.
- The importance of lining your funding sources up. Always figure out who is going to pay and then hold them accountable.
- The importance of not leaving anything contractual to the last minute, and then trying to rush task orders through to buy more time to deal with them.
- The sheer amount of interpretation that goes on with regards to rules and policy. This is where the area managers earn their crust and put their head on the block.
Health and Safety Stuff
I echo Henrys sentiments with regards to Health and Safety. I have been on site twice now (not bad in 2 months) and have been assigned some more site based responsibilities. I will retain responsibility for the contract I am setting up, including running it once it’s/ if it gets through, but I am also shortly to be a Project Engineer on 2 projects.
In outline I am working on a site that is home to (currently) three large scale construction projects; all part of the same programme in all but funding; at various stages of construction (from 0 – 30% project completion; 0 – 90% structural completion). I will be working on one that is around 7% complete (out of the ground and having cast in place concrete pours on level 2 presently) and one multi level parking structure that was awarded to the principle contractor around 2 weeks ago. This is due to break ground in c. July.
On my walk around I noticed that the method of access to the second floor slab of one structure was by a wooden ladder, no handrails, which seems to have been erected by a class 2 chippy. There was no method of holding on, other than to hold the rungs, and no tie down at the top or bottom! Good. The edge protection, whilst similar in height to UK spec was also knocked up by the same chippy. There has been a recent revision by the Department of Labor (sic) and Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) which has placed more stringent measures to site working practices. This might well be a blog in itself.
Chartered Engineer – Professional Engineer Stuff
I have been chatting to the US engineers out here to get a flavour of their ‘route to chartership.’ I won’t go into details for fear of this tome getting even more tomier, but the interesting comparison to draw between the US and UK is that US Professional Engineers (PEs) are pretty much ten a penny out here, compared to the UK, where I gather a Chartered Engineer is rather a rare beast?
And also,
Myself, Danielle, Henry and Jo enjoyed Intercourse immensely. I would highly recommend it to anybody who visits.
Pun intended.
- The sports model.
Health and What?
Over the last week my main achievement has been getting into the USACE computer system and completing my extensive mandatory online training. As Howard and Brad will attest to, this is a significant achievement and through efficiencies the system has managed to ‘trim’ a week from Howard’s time.
In the mean time I have managed a bit of time on site and a few meetings, which have brought home to me the differences in the Health and Safety (H&S) cultures between our Nations. In the UK I would put myself firmly in the category of thinking we have maybe gone a little too far, however out here I am beginning to feel like a H&S fundamentalist. As yet I haven’t reconciled the reasoning, as it is in stark contrast to the incredibly litigious culture out here and so that may have to be a future blog. For now I will give a few examples:
Firstly I was just shocked by this entirely logical solution to working at height: stilts! They appear to be incredibly useful for fitting ceiling grid and both plastering and painting the tops of walls. They give the users freedom and flexibility to work and apparently are quite easy to get the hang of.
Entirely logical
On the safety front, 6ft is considered working at height and my friend here is about 4ft up. That said there isn’t a specified limit on stilt height in the USACE Health and Safety Manual, just a requirement to protect falls from them of more than 6ft with a guardrail at least 42 inches above stilt height. Therefore the limitation is based on realistic feasibility rather than rules. The USACE H&S Manual stipulates that people must be trained and competent as well as floors being clear of detritus so to me, properly implemented seems an entirely sensible idea.
As the FIG site currently stands
Secondly, it is commonly known that people are simultaneously stupid, curious and lazy. Therefore it makes sense to fence construction sites to shepherd people into areas of safety and away from all the things that mean we require training, site briefings and PPE when we enter a site. Below are 4 very crude layout sketches of the Fort Indiantown Gap (FIG) boiler replacement site showing: the current site, the contractor’s ‘plan’, my plan and the compromised solution.
Their plan
My Plan
The project is quite small and all of the actual engineering will take place inside the building, which is a plant room, so in terms of danger to the public it is not immense. However there will be deliveries, a lay down area and probably some work such as metal cutting done outside of the tight confines of the plant room. As people will, twice a day, walk to and from their cars through the site it seemed sensible to enclose the whole site with a fence to protect people from these dangers and themselves.
On a second level, we appeared to have different ideas of what a fence actually is. My idea of a fence is 8ft high Heras fencing, theirs a 42” high orange barrier fence which is analogous to mine tape at 42”. Whilst I admit it will stop most Americans, including the contractor’s quality manager, to me it still leaves the thought of shortcutting through site open for some people. On a small project like this overheads are clearly tight and there is an obvious cost differential I can understand the reasoning; however the cost of a single litigation event will not only dwarf that but the entire $500,000 contract value. A compromise was achieved and all of my visits will now involve a visual inspection of the fence.
The ‘solution’
Finally, Brad, Danielle, Jo and I took the obligatory visit to Intercourse, primarily to be able to check in on Facebook and with the secondary aim of seeing some Amish people.
Cue childish sniggering
But, the learning never stops so behold our amazement at house demolition Amish style! It was clearly a big deal as there was quite a crowd, although I was quite disappointed by the looseness of their morals to be using a telehandler that clearly has electrical components, although barely. Apparently it is okay if it is ‘for business’.
If only I could safely yet quickly take down this house
How about?
Looking good
All in a day’s work!
Developing
Being positioned away from London clearly Brad and I will be unable to get to any of the evening Institution lectures to broaden our scope as Engineers prior to professional review. Enter USACE’s Officer Professional Development (OPD) programme to fill that gap. The current programme to gather Baltimore District’s 15 military members is quarterly meetings of a day and an annual 3 day trip. This year’s 3 day bender centred around the civil works programme within the Baltimore District, more specifically on the restoration and maintenance of the Chesapeake Bay. Below is a quick canter through the challenge presented to USACE:
However, before the learning, the programme started with a PFA and Howard had instructed us that it was ‘tradition’ to make sure the superpower was kept in check. So after a nervous start a Brit 1, 3 was achieved; we also managed to avoid embarrassment in the later ‘Ultimate Football’ game; end to end exhausting fun.
After round 1 didn’t go their way we had to play with this funny rugby ball
Chesapeake Bay
When America was colonised the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding area were some of the first places that the settlers put down roots due to the abundance of seafood in the bay and the favourable conditions for shipping of a sheltered deep harbour. As Richard indicated during our river and flooding day in Chatham however, the impacts of firstly the Royal Engineers and later USACE building dams and developing farmland have, alongside over fishing changed the landscape. Now Maryland state must ensure that the bay now supports the industries (shipping and fishing) that have grown up within it as well as be environmentally sustainable.
Shipping is one of Baltimore’s biggest industries as it has one of only 2 ports on the Eastern Seaboard that can receive ‘Super Panama Tankers’ which require a 50’ channel. This is as a result of dredging channels and, despite biting the hand that feeds it; Maryland state law presents some difficulties to the disposal of the dredged material. Dredged material can’t be dumped in the open water of the Chesapeake Bay and new islands can’t be created within the State’s waters. Additionally all the material in the habour is considered contaminated (with heavy metals etc) potentially causing water pollution when disturbed.
Being America clearly the numbers are big: 4.5 million cubic yards (the volume of 1.5 football stadiums) per year of sediment needs to be removed from the bay channels for maintenance alone. It is 180 miles from Baltimore Harbour to the mouth of the Chesapeake and the Atlantic Ocean where the first open water dumping ground would be; this would be expensive so they don’t do it. Instead the solution is land reclamation, either extending peninsulas or enlarging islands, and as the dredged material looked as if it had all the structural properties of a soggy blancmange the land is mainly used to build nature reserves and still isn’t cheap.
The scale of the Chesapeake Bay
The current main destination is Poplar Island, which over the last 20 years has taken approximately 100 million cubic yards at a cost of $1 billion, so $10 per cubic yard, or $50 million a year. The engineering is pretty simple; build berm from sand etc, put in loch gate to drain out water, pump dredged material (80% water, 20% solids), let it settle and drain the excess water. Of greater complexity are getting the water quality to the acceptable standard to drain into the Chesapeake Bay, introducing plant species to be beneficial for wildlife and hold the island together and the liability USACE will have for the island once completed.
They are planning on handing the National Parks Service (NPS) as a nature reserve. However, the maintenance of islands made from contaminated dredged material isn’t the NPS’s Mastermind special round choice and so USACE will still be responsible, and liable, for ensuring the island maintains its integrity. Clearly in the grand scheme of things with both parties being Government departments it is merely the department best positioned to deal with the issue being responsible which is best for the Nation and Government but that philosophy is muddied by departmental budgets and politics.
Other elements of note were the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna river is now ‘full’ of silt which is going to result in more being transported down stream and into the Bay. This is again an area of liability controversy as it was built by USACE, in 1926, but is now operated by Susquehanna Electric Company (SEC). Clearly neither want to accept liability and pay the exorbitant dredging costs, though ultimately SEC has the upper hand as if they don’t deal with it behind the dam then the problem will get passed on to USACE when the silt hits the bay. From an E&M perspective, more interesting than the silt was 1950’s style sign, below.
Also the rare forethought of the 1920’s designer who foresaw the increasing need for electricity and built space for an extra 4 turbines over the 7 installed at commissioning. The original 7 turbines produced 250 MW of power, in the 1960’s the remaining 4 were installed with equal power output giving the dam an output of 500MW.
The very 1950’s sign and the 1960’s turbines.
USACE – not a place in China
So, blog 1 and I’m already going off-piste. If you are looking for engineering please wait for the next one. If Admin isn’t a place in China it is certainly a place somewhere in the USA where they eat forms in triplicate and proof read with the accuracy of Rain Man. Having been in country for nearly a month I have phonetically spelt my name enough times that Gandhi would have lost his patience; Guz I now understand your pain – never come here!
The aim of this blog is to highlight a few admin points about the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) placement for the prospective Phase 1 students when choosing attachments; but written now whilst it is fresh in my mind. Be aware this is me pointing out that there are some challenges worth thinking about. However, they are all surmountable and don’t detract from the obvious benefits of being in the USA which, as we are already finding out, is an awesome country full of travelling opportunities.
Foreign Country.
So firstly it should not come as a surprise that this is a foreign country and I now truly understand the phrase ‘divided by a common language’. Our cultures have many things in common, but just as many things not in common and it varies from state to state. I can see why most Americans don’t have a passport, with such variety in their own country, but it does limit their perspective on many issues.
Locations.
My work location for Phase 2 is the Harrisburg Area Office; just outside of the town itself as for the last 3 iterations of USACE attachments. I, like my predecessors, am living in Hunt Valley making it an hour drive each way to work for Phase 2. Unlike the UK the driving is a breeze, there is hardly any traffic and it is a dual carriageway (Interstate) all the way. So set cruise control and go. There are other project locations around the Baltimore District AO and the option of moving around to wherever the work is which Brad and I will research after the summer. Brad for example is working to the South, but I will let him comment on this.
The Harrisburg commute
For Phase 3 I will be working right in the centre of Baltimore (10 S Howard St), about a home run away from the Baseball stadium. The commute for this is a short walk/drive to a station before hopping on the light rail for £1 each way. At about 45 minutes it is comparable with a London commute and shows the logic of Hunt Valley as a location.
Cars.
I was naïve enough to think that my wife and I might be able to get away with one car for the whole attachment; we can’t! Over here you drive pretty much everywhere, even if you want to go for a run, because the sidewalks just stop for apparently no reason. So with the need to commute to work for the site attachment if your partner wants to do pretty much anything, then a car is required. That said, for Phase 3 I am planning on selling the second car. So if you fancy a Golf GTi (highway miles) I’ll keep you posted! We all know that fuel is cheap out here (about a third of UK prices) and it’s actually a pretty good opportunity to buy a car you wouldn’t dream of fuelling in the UK. I get a respectable 28 miles per US gallon (33 mpg in UK gallons) and I’ll leave Brad to reveal what his Nissan Armada pushes out.
Housing.
Probably the biggest stress on arrival is housing. It is mind boggling to start off with and the time period given is tight. That said everybody out here now, and for as far back as I’ve heard of, lives in places far superior to anything in the UK SFA portfolio. The Embassy, if a little slow and authoritarian at times are supportive and will ‘screw the nut’ to ensure you are well set up on time. Hunt Valley has become the standard for the last few iterations as it is a nice town and central, based on commuting times, to the two work locations however variations are certainly available.
Aliens.
As a Gurkha 2IC I have had an understanding of some of the difficulties that arise from having a different passport to everyone else; but here as a legal alien I truly empathise. For those with wives who have an intention to work be aware that extra paperwork will need to be completed upon arrival to get authorisation. It is just a matter of filling it in and waiting but it is something to be aware of. It turns out getting a Social Security Number is pretty easy and certainly makes administrative dealings a lot more straightforward; because it fills a box in someone’s spread sheet. As for everything else, just be prepared to stand patiently in line and produce plenty of paperwork to prove your identity.
Defence Engagement.
This is very much a part of the job and the effects are very real. Not to steal his sandwiches but Brad’s attachment actually getting off the ground has come about, in a large part, as a result of his boss working with someone on the PET course 20 years ago. The impression that he gained of the officer as a ‘good bloke’ has resulted in him bending over backwards to get Brad through the administrative challenges he has faced.
That said, the act of ‘doing’ defence engagement is predominantly being professional and interacting with the people out here who are literally fascinated with you.
The Work
I can’t really comment at this stage as I haven’t done anything of note yet, but it’s here and there is a diverse range of things to get involved in.
Further info.
For the Phase 1s, Brad and I are more than happy to chat through questions or general information about the placements out here if you are interested and need more information to make a decision. Probably the best way of making contact is to drop us an email to hhcrosby@gmail.com or brad_southall@hotmail.com with your mobile number and we will give you a call back from the office.
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