Schools get priority with emergency on-call contracts.The New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. School Construction Authority's (SCA (Single Connector Attachment) An 80-pin plug and socket used to connect peripherals. With a SCSI drive, it rolls three cables (power, data channel and ID configuration) into one connector for fast installation and removal. ) on-call emergency response program is intended to ensure that potentially hazardous conditions affecting the city's educational facilities are remedied as quickly and safely as possible. This "safety first" initiative, involving contracts with several major construction firms, provides a quick response to emergency repair needs citywide. More than 50% of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of City's public school buildings were constructed prior to 1949. While the Department of Education's custodial staff is entrusted with the general maintenance of the facilities, structural maintenance of the city's educational infrastructure had become a daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin task. With on-call contracts now in place, requests for a contractor to stabilize a facade, repair a leaky roof, reestablish power to a building, or provide temporary boiler plants in one of these aging buildings, are the order of the day. To date, Skanska USA Building Inc. has been authorized by the SCA to utilize the emergency response contract to perform work in more than 600 of the 1500 schools within the New York City public school system. Construction management firms are assigned to a specific borough and compensated on a fee basis. The program allows for expeditious ex·pe·di·tious adj. Acting or done with speed and efficiency. See Synonyms at fast1. ex response to various unsafe and emergency conditions within the schools which saves time and money. All construction work is performed on a time and materials labor and materials (time and materials) n. what some builders or repair people contract to provide and be paid for, rather than a fixed price or a percentage of the costs. basis. Emergency contractors have done jobs ranging from $50,000 to $4 million or $5 million. Take, for example, a project assigned to Skanska in 2004 involving replacement of the main electrical service Electrical service, in building wiring, refers to the wiring that connects the electric utility's cables in the street to the building. Specifically, electrical service is the wiring from the street, through the meter and up to the panelboard, but no farther. at a school on Staten Island Staten Island (1990 pop. 378,977), 59 sq mi (160 sq km), SE N.Y., in New York Bay, SW of Manhattan, forming Richmond co. of New York state and the borough of Staten Island of New York City. . The scope of work included shutting down the existing, unstable main electrical feeders and installing new main feeders. To ensure there would be no disruption of the normal operations, a temporary electrical generator was connected to the school's electrical system so the existing main feeders could be taken off line. Under the normal bidding process, this type of repair would have taken a minimum of six months. However, the project was completed in six weeks, saving time and money. Working while school is in session is certainly one of the main challenges that any on-call, emergency contractor will face. Another is never knowing what to expect. If, for example, a school reports an incident of bulging bricks, it may not, in fact, be the bricks that are in danger of failing, but something else entirely. At a public school in the Bronx it was discovered that the structural beams had started to rust, allowing water to come in through the outside walls. In another school in the Bronx, water was penetrating a cavity behind an aging terracotta and masonry facade. By sealing the facade with a special grout Grout A binding or structural agent used in construction and engineering applications. Grout is typically a mixture of hydraulic cement and water, with or without fine aggregate; however, chemical grouts are also produced. , moisture was prevented from entering the classroom. Clearly, the on-call program has succeeded in making New York City schools safer places in which to learn. BY ALTON LEWIS, PROJECT EXECUTIVE, SKANSKA USA BUILDING INC. |
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