Durability for a poorly designed college campus...

[LawnMastersTx]

Originally Posted by 1idejim

The way your post sounds, you are the big Kahuna at UT so why do contractors dig your stuff up daily?

Put a stop to that by surveying the campus and creating limits.
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The problem that we have with contractors is that there are so many of them working around campus we are unable to track them all in my department. We rarely receive notice of work being performed on campus if it will take a day to complete. We usually find out work has been done when I receive an alert of a break. Also the heavy equipment on campus due to all the construction. A semi delivering material to a site goes over the curb and crushes a 3/4 inch line, natural gas leak testers drill a hole in concrete parking lot and happen to drill right through our wires in a sleeve, contractor parking in the grass by a project (without landscape permission), I can keep going with stories and that is just with contractors, not including students, tailgaters, drunks, homeless people......

Originally Posted by mitchgo

I literally just walked through most of this campus a week ago. Trying to check out the texas ladies you got down there. It's a nice school and as the irrigation I saw it seemed to be in good shape. Except I hate the warm season grass you have down there. lol. I was in San antonio and took a day trip to austin by myself.

I also checked out the history of texas museum and watched the hobbit in imax next door.

Next time you are in town let me know and I will give you a tour of the campus irrigation. We have a few things on campus that you will never see anywhere else.

[1idejim]

Originally Posted by LawnMastersTx

The problem that we have with contractors is that there are so many of them working around campus we are unable to track them all in my department. We rarely receive notice of work being performed on campus if it will take a day to complete. We usually find out work has been done when I receive an alert of a break. Also the heavy equipment on campus due to all the construction. A semi delivering material to a site goes over the curb and crushes a 3/4 inch line, natural gas leak testers drill a hole in concrete parking lot and happen to drill right through our wires in a sleeve, contractor parking in the grass by a project (without landscape permission), I can keep going with stories and that is just with contractors, not including students, tailgaters, drunks, homeless people......

I can understand that you are the head of your dept. and not the entire campus but many facilities have a constant stream of ongoing projects which they are able to manage without having the damage that you speak of. I believe that you should crunch some damage prevention data, present it to your boss's. There is no excuse for constant damage to the facilities infrastructure. You should not tolarate reckless damage in your areas of responsability.

Next time you are in town let me know and I will give you a tour of the campus irrigation. We have a few things on campus that you will never see anywhere else.

Mitchgo gets all the great deals!
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[LawnMastersTx]

Originally Posted by 1idejim

I can understand that you are the head of your dept. and not the entire campus but many facilities have a constant stream of ongoing projects which they are able to manage without having the damage that you speak of. I believe that you should crunch some damage prevention data, present it to your boss's. There is no excuse for constant damage to the facilities infrastructure. You should not tolarate reckless damage in your areas of responsability.



Mitchgo gets all the great deals!
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I agree with you whole hearty on not tolerating their reckless damage on campus. We bill the contractors for any damage done and do our best to keep an eye on them. It would be nice if we could go after repeat offenders with a citation for willful destruction of University property, well I may try that on a certain delivery company.

The offer to visit the campus is open to any of you guys. We hope to give a tour during IA this year since it will be in Austin. I am open to criticism and input, I am not prideful to think that I know everything out there.

[txirrigation]

Originally Posted by LawnMastersTx

The problem that we have with contractors is that there are so many of them working around campus we are unable to track them all in my department. We rarely receive notice of work being performed on campus if it will take a day to complete. We usually find out work has been done when I receive an alert of a break. Also the heavy equipment on campus due to all the construction. A semi delivering material to a site goes over the curb and crushes a 3/4 inch line, natural gas leak testers drill a hole in concrete parking lot and happen to drill right through our wires in a sleeve, contractor parking in the grass by a project (without landscape permission), I can keep going with stories and that is just with contractors, not including students, tailgaters, drunks, homeless people......




Next time you are in town let me know and I will give you a tour of the campus irrigation. We have a few things on campus that you will never see anywhere else.

I plead the 5th. Just kidding, as an installer it is always interesting to watch my guys when a contractor drives his shinny truck/tractor/etc. over brand new irrigation work. You can see the guys deflate, especially when the mainlines are 3"+. Truth be told, if the system is installed per spec, the irrigation pipe should have 18" cover, and 6" of select fill over pipe. That would keep trucks, etc from braking pipes.

[1idejim]

Originally Posted by txirrigation

I plead the 5th. Just kidding, as an installer it is always interesting to watch my guys when a contractor drives his shinny truck/tractor/etc. over brand new irrigation work. You can see the guys deflate, especially when the mainlines are 3"+. Truth be told, if the system is installed per spec, the irrigation pipe should have 18" cover, and 6" of select fill over pipe. That would keep trucks, etc from braking pipes.

There should be no excuse that a facility the size of UT lack a damage prevention dept.

No work should be sched. without a utility callout and clearance. Same as a one call in public domains.

When not providing locates, infrastructure as-builts and surveys should be performed, maps drawn and logged.

The dept. would also provide inspections.

Contractors should be required to submit pics of their work with each billing.

If everyone works together a more productive experience will be had by all.
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[Weekend cut easymoney]

Originally Posted by 1idejim

There should be no excuse that a facility the size of UT lack a damage prevention dept.

No work should be sched. without a utility callout and clearance. Same as a one call in public domains.

When not providing locates, infrastructure as-builts and surveys should be performed, maps drawn and logged.

The dept. would also provide inspections.

Contractors should be required to submit pics of their work with each billing.

If everyone works together a more productive experience will be had by all.
Posted via Mobile Device

My neighbirs wife is high up at UT in the building, construction dept at UT...I'll ask her the question...i gotta go take a look on campus, they have got some impressive rainwater recycling there on campus...

I can tell y'all why the construction guys keep hitting stuff...they are too busy watchen the girls...surprised anything gets done down there.

[Weekend cut easymoney]

Originally Posted by txirrigation

I plead the 5th. Just kidding, as an installer it is always interesting to watch my guys when a contractor drives his shinny truck/tractor/etc. over brand new irrigation work. You can see the guys deflate, especially when the mainlines are 3"+. Truth be told, if the system is installed per spec, the irrigation pipe should have 18" cover, and 6" of select fill over pipe. That would keep trucks, etc from braking pipes.

Ya, just yesterday had to shoo a tree company off the center median in one of our large hoa properties...they figured, truck and trailer naturally are ok to drive there...mainline ok, valve boxes not so much... now i get to sell them on aeration to fix the compaction problem

[txirrigation]

Originally Posted by Weekend cut easymoney

My neighbors wife is high up at UT in the building, construction dept at UT...I'll ask her the question...i gotta go take a look on campus, they have got some impressive rainwater recycling there on campus...

I can tell y'all why the construction guys keep hitting stuff...they are too busy watchen the girls...surprised anything gets done down there.

Check out the UT Belo Center, it is some pretty gnarly stuff.

Jim- Totally agree, we always call in for the locate then double check with our own locating equipment. I have a policy that the man on the rock saw must locate all the utilities personally on site to double check the locate company. If it is a large site (cluster) I go and do a locate also. We also ask for any blue prints for the site, and older prints if something was demoed.

Case and point, the picture I sent to you today was a locate on a private propane system for a resort. The company that was hired for the locate missed a leg of the propane line, which we would have trenched right through had we not checked. There were 8 500gal propane tanks linked together, that would have burned for a LONG time.

[LawnMastersTx]

Originally Posted by 1idejim

There should be no excuse that a facility the size of UT lack a damage prevention dept.

No work should be sched. without a utility callout and clearance. Same as a one call in public domains.

When not providing locates, infrastructure as-builts and surveys should be performed, maps drawn and logged.

The dept. would also provide inspections.

Contractors should be required to submit pics of their work with each billing.

If everyone works together a more productive experience will be had by all.
Posted via Mobile Device

They are working on updating all the maps on campus and working on the communication between departments. From what I hear it has gotten better lately than before. It is just surprising what contractors try to do, but if you have ever driven on campus, tried to unload equipment, or park - you would understand more

Originally Posted by Weekend cut easymoney

My neighbirs wife is high up at UT in the building, construction dept at UT...I'll ask her the question...i gotta go take a look on campus, they have got some impressive rainwater recycling there on campus...

I can tell y'all why the construction guys keep hitting stuff...they are too busy watchen the girls...surprised anything gets done down there.

The new Belo center has a nice rainwater collection area, but only useful if it ever rains.... On a side note, we do have another building that is just being irrigated with FIN water (AC condensation). We have reclaimed water lines throughout the campus and I hope to be able to attach irrigation systems to it within 5 years.

[txirrigation]

Originally Posted by LawnMastersTx

They are working on updating all the maps on campus and working on the communication between departments. From what I hear it has gotten better lately than before. It is just surprising what contractors try to do, but if you have ever driven on campus, tried to unload equipment, or park - you would understand more



The new Belo center has a nice rainwater collection area, but only useful if it ever rains.... On a side note, we do have another building that is just being irrigated with FIN water (AC condensation). We have reclaimed water lines throughout the campus and I hope to be able to attach irrigation systems to it within 5 years.

FYI, Belo center collects condensate also.