 
Deficiencies Contract Modifications
AE Contract
|
| |
FIRE PROTECTION:
FIRE ALARM
SYSTEMS:
Gerald
R. Spencer, P.E. is the
AE of Record
for the design and the
construction of
new Fire Protection projects and for projects to replace or modify existing Fire
Protection systems with the new technology that will scan the system for alarms
with greater frequency to comply with the current Fire Protection code
requirements.
Gerald Spencer,
P.E. is the
Engineer of Record (EOR)
for more than
300
Fire Alarm projects.
Mr. Gerald R. Spencer, P.E., performed the field survey,
evaluation, and design on the $1,100,000.00 Replace Existing Fire Alarm System
project STL 99-0011 at the National Imagry & Mapping Agency NIMA-St. Louis Air
Force Station; Buildings 36E St. Louis, MO 63118-3399; - Warren Carter
314-263-4107. Gerald Spencer, P.E., was the project manager and also the
mechanical and electrical designer for the Fire Alarm Replacement system. Mr.
Jim Dunaway, AIA was the designer for the Architectural building modifications.
This project design is complete and project is awaiting construction funding for
year 2003. The existing Building 36 Section E fire alarm system will be
replaced with new technology (flash memory - fast scan) equipment that is
completely compatible with the existing Notifier 2020 series equipment at the
main fire alarm panel/processor. The specifications will be a sole source
specification for the acquisition of the Fire Alarm Equipment as apart of the
contract requirements. Building 36 is an existing building. All of Section E is
a secured area, and not open to the public without permission. Portions of the
existing Building 36 contain classified data and operations that are vital to
National Security and are appropriately secured at higher levels of security
SCIF. The construction contractor will not generally be allowed to travel within
the building for construction operations unless escorted at all times. The
existing site is secure and not open to the public without permission. Portions
of the existing Building 36 contain classified data and operations that are
vital to National Security and are appropriately secured at higher levels of
security SCIF. The construction contractor will not generally be allowed to
travel within the building for construction operations unless escorted at all
times. The AE economically justified replacing the existing FACP system
with the new fast scan flash memory equipment such as the Notifier ONYX type of
equipment utilizing the flash memory-scan type equipment. This equipment will be
specified to be 100% compatible with the older Notifier 2020 type equipment.
This new equipment will comply with proposed changes to the Fire Alarm Code, and
will "last longer" than the existing Notifier 2020 type equipment before
becoming non-code compliant and/or not supported by the manufacturer with
replacement parts. This new equipment is only slightly more expensive than the
older type equipment. The AE has visited, surveyed and documented the locations
of the existing Fire Alarm Equipment. The AE did not verify each and every Fire
Alarm detector above the ceiling and/or below the raised floors. The AE has
spot-checked the smoke detectors above the ceiling and below the raised floor
locations. The detectors are located very close to the locations indicated on
the original construction contract drawings. This structure is eight
levels above grade. The occupied basement is above grade and is the first level.
Six occupied floors of building 36E above the basement equals seven floors. The
occupied roof penthouse above the sixth floor of building 36E is also the same
level as the occupied sixth floor of Building B, and this would be the eighth
occupied level of Building36E. Most codes define high-rise as having an occupied
floor 75' above the grade level. BOCA and all of the other various codes would
measure the highest occupied floor from the lowest grade point at the building
perimeter. The new Notifier ONYX Fire alarm equipment will be able to
flash scan the system every 15 seconds maximum. This will soon become a code
requirement. An existing Notifier 2020 system will take minutes to scan a 4,000
addressable device system. This new system is 100% back compatible with the
existing 2020 equipment. Addressable device Loop Distances are limited to 12,500
feet if wires with #12 AWG copper wire. #18 AWG wire will allow for 3,225 foot
loops. If we provide one loop per floor, with three sub-loops consisting of nine
sub-sub-loops we will have nine 500' loops for a total of 4,500 ft per floor.
The AE and the NIMA maintenance personnel believe that the maintenance forces
might benefit with each loop and sub-loop returning back to a terminal strip so
that when one loose connection occurs, the entire floor would not have to shut
down to find and correct the loose wire. Shutting down of the entire floor in
these secure areas is very hard to do because one group of the floor occupants
is always working on an urgent project that cannot be shut down. We could bypass
the sub-loop that has a loose connection and partially have the floor
protected/monitored. The part of the floor with the problem might be easier to
schedule a shutdown than the whole floor.
LIFE
SAFETY CODE:
Gerald R. Spencer, P.E. has
been the engineer of record
for the design and the
construction of more
than 400 construction projects that required life safety cond compliabce. We perform life
safety analysis on all projects and work with MIL-HDBK-1008C on a regular
basis. Projects include
electronic data processing buildings, assembly buildings, educational
facilities, health care facilities, detention and correction facilities, hotel
and dormitory facilities, apartment buildings, duplexes, single-family
dwellings, industrial buildings, parking garages, automotive maintenance
facilities, warehouses, fuel handling facilities, elevators and cooking
facilities. These projects included all design aspects of egress, fire
protection, fire extinguishing, fire detection, smoke removal and other life
safety considerations.
Gerald R. Spencer, P.E. is familiar with all construction, mechanical and
electrical aspects of NFPA 101, NFPA 99, and NFPA 80. We perform life
safety analysis on all projects and work with MIL-HDBK-1008C on a regular basis.
FIRE
PROTECTION:
Gerald R. Spencer, P.E. has been
the EOR
for the design and the
construction of more
than 200 automatic fire protection projects.
Gerald R. Spencer, P.E.
has been the EOR on fire protection projects that included
automatic fire sprinkler systems (NFPA 13), fire standpipe systems (NFPA 14),
halon fire extinguishing systems (NFPA 12A and 12B), fire dampers (NFPA 90A),
cooking hood exhaust systems (NFPA 96), flammable liquid handling systems NFPA
30), natural gas and combustion air and ventilation of gas-fired appliances (NFPA
56), Class 1 explosion-proof electrical systems (NFPA 497M), purged and
pressurized enclosure systems for electrical equipment (NFPA 496), lightning
protection systems (NFPA 78), smoke and heat venting systems (NFPA 204M), fire
pump installations (NFPA 20), emergency power systems (NFPA 78), portable fire
extinguishing systems (NFPA 10), fire alarm systems (NFPA 71, 72A, 72B, 72C,
72D, and 72E), medical facilities (NFPA 99) and rubbish and trash chute
protection systems (NFPA 82). We are the EOR for the following
recent
fire protection projects:
NIMA-St. Louis AFS - Replace Bldg 36E Fire Alarm System 2002
NASA-JSC, Building 31, added fire sprinklers to entire building
NASA-JSC, Building 45, added fire sprinklers to entire building
NASA-JSC, Building 37, added fire sprinklers to entire building
NASA-JSC, site water fire flow computer simulation
Darnall Army Hospital, upgraded fire alarm system
Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant, base-wide fire alarm system
Darnall Army Hospital, fire sprinkler upgrade
ROOFING AND ROOF REPLACEMENT:
ROOFING AND ROOF REPLACEMENT: Roofing and roof replacement operations
can create potential fire hazards unless precautions are taken. Our personnel
are trained in fire prevention and fire extinguishing. We sometimes specify
that off-duty firemen be employed to monitor re-roofing operations when life
safety and/or the value of the building contents are factors to justify this
additional expense. Roofing
asphalts and application methods are requiring higher temperatures today than when
lower temperature coal tar pitch
materials were used for roofing. Increased temperatures generally increase
flammability dangers.
|
