Posts From January, 2019

Project Spotlight: George Washington Bridge Bus Station, New York, NY by Frank DiSalvo

The George Washington Bridge Bus Station (GWBBS) is located in Upper Manhattan and averages more than 20,000 customers per day. This project was an adaptive re-use of the existing GWBBS facility and has a life expectancy of 50 years. The project included consolidated bus operations, direct vertical transportation from the street and subway levels and 120,000 sf of retail space. HEA’s scope of work included all mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems; all of which met the necessary requirements to satisfy the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Sustainable Design Guidelines for Energy Environmental Qualities Credits (EEQ)-2 Building Systems Commissioning.

Q/A with Frank DiSalvo, Senior Project Engineer

When first contracted for this project, what did the client express as the main goal / most pressing need for our services to accomplish?
HEA’s initial commissioning discussions with STV, Inc. began with a minimal outline of coverage, beginning only with the interests of covering the basic major systems of this bus station overhaul back in the early period of March 2010. The progress and relationship began slowly with a need for improvement on the work progress and coordination of system testing.

What was the biggest challenge faced during this project and how was HEA able to navigate through any problems faced due to this challenge?
The project was experiencing unforeseen delays and sluggish progress partway into construction, so one of the many challenges faced was managing onsite commissioning with uncoordinated contractors and project managers. With high scheduling and budget concerns, HEA teamed up with a new project director (DV) and began conducting regular progress and commissioning meetings to get all contractors and subs onboard towards a team goal.

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Spot the Deficiency! Click here for the answer!

Q: Can you spot the flaw here?

A: The condensate drain off the AC unit is aimed to drip directly on the phone network system below.

Did you get it right? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thank you to Phil McCrory for submitting the photo.

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Employee Spotlight: Thomas Loiacono

Meet Thomas Loiacono! He is a Field Engineer at HEA and was recently selected as an Employee of the Month! Here's a quick Q/A with him: Who would you like to swap places with for a day? I would swap places with Elon Musk. What did you... Read More
 

Project Spotlight: 350 Park Avenue, New York, NY by Dan Chavez

HEA was hired by Citadel LLC to provide commissioning services for 350 Park Avenue, a commercial high-rise building in New York, NY. HEA’s scope of work included all mechanical, electrical and fire protection systems including chilled water pumps, VRFs, CRAC units, VAVs, exhaust fans and electrical panels and all emergency power systems including automatic transfer switches, uninterrupted power systems, static transfer switches and the emergency generator. HEA also worked with installing contractors to develop start-up plans and provide guidelines for several pre-functional requirements including point to point testing, flushing & cleaning piping systems, testing adjust & balancing (TAB), pre-testing of sequence of operations and verification of base building provided systems.

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January 10th is National Cut Your Energy Costs Day! Time to Think About an Energy Audit for Your Facility!

Commercial Building Energy Audit

The main purpose of an energy audit, from an economic perspective, is to provide information to the Building Owner that will help them to make energy saving decisions in regards to where and how to best invest money into their building. A proper energy audit report will quantify the effect on operating costs (and reduction of energy) of implementing modifications to a building (such as lighting upgrades, HVAC controls improvements and building envelope improvements). While some improvements may seem obvious choices to implement, it is often not obvious that the life-cycle cost of the improvement is the best economic decision, and would be a more sound investment than using the financial capital elsewhere. A properly executed energy audit is a key component to the operating plan for a well-managed building or portfolio of buildings.

Would you like more information on energy audits? Contact us! info@horizon-engineering.com

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Spot the Deficiency! January 2019

Q: What needs to be fixed?

A: This is a deficiency because the duct is going to run into the pipe. Either the pipe or the duct has to be moved. If this was not caught by the commissioning process, the project would not be able to continue; the ductwork could not be finished until the pipe moved.

Did you get it right? Let us know!

Thank you to Phil McCrory, QCxP, Field Engineer, for capturing this.

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