Blog

People used to do a lot of funny things to test a car’s quality. They’d kick the wheels. They’d rev the engine.

Well, I guess we could kick the wheels of the two new electric vehicles that joined the Facility Management fleet this week, but we’re more focused on keeping these “clean fuel” vehicles clean.

And don’t worry about the air-conditioning wasting precious battery life. These high-tech babies come with old-school fans built into the driver’s side of the dashboard.

Furthermore, the only way you’d get these vehicles to “rev” is to stand next to one and growl. They are practically silent in operation, producing only a faint Dustbuster-like hum heard from the cabin.

Despite the quirks, we are proud to welcome these energy efficient additions to the Facility Management fleet of service vehicles. And we are grateful to the Clean Fuel Advanced Technology Project (CFAT), which provided a $21,000 grant to procure them. 

Able to carry a 1,100 pound payload and travel about 40 miles on a single charge, the vehicles will be used primarily for landscaping jobs, delivery of project supplies and supervisory tasks by select managers. They also will be on display at various state events for the public to learn more about “clean fuel” technology.

The CFAT grant includes a $9,060 matching contribution from the Department of Administration to cover the approximately $30,176 cost for both vehicles. The CFAT project is sponsored by the N.C. Department of Transportation and administered by the N.C. Solar Center/N.C. State University with support from the Triangle J Council of Governments and Centralina Council of Governments.

I’ve come to the conclusion that folks get steamed up when they arrive in downtown Raleigh via Capital Boulevard. It’s not the traffic, mind you.

It’s their endless curiosity about what we’re doing to improve the old Caswell Steam Station located near the intersection of McDowell and Lane streets. It started with a small spray of steam that escaped from a nearby manhole cover – a minor energy loss that looked dramatic when the mercury plunged.

The project was delayed, for safety reasons, until we could count on mild weather to completely shut down the steam plant and cool the equipment. Today, however, we are in the midst of a major renovation of the Caswell Steam Station, which was constructed in the 1940s to manage heating and cooling through a maze of underground tunnels in the Downtown State Government Complex.

The Caswell operation is part of a larger, four-boiler Central Steam Plant system that went online in 1992 to provide primary heating for most downtown state facilities. Formerly housed in an aging, white painted brick structure, the Caswell works are being relocated to two secure, waterproof concrete vaults that will increase both operational efficiency and worker safety.

The project includes significant infrastructure improvements, including replacement of condensate lines that become fragile over decades of use, and new valve systems that better regulate energy use and are easier to maintain. Proactively upgrading outmoded systems now, instead of when they give out and pose additional risk, is the smart road to long-term safety and energy savings.

Last year, as part of Department of Administration’s Strategic Planning initiative, my team at Facility Management (FM) brainstormed about ways that we could increase efficiency and lower costs. We have lost several positions in recent years due to budget cuts, but the volume of service requests has only increased. It was vital that we find a better way to manage our workload.

It didn’t take long before we agreed that our current work order model, which relied on too much paper forms and phone calls, needed to be modernized. Thanks in large part to our DOA colleagues at Management Information Systems, FM launched the new Customer Work Request (CWR) system on July 27.

Just 10 business days later, we had logged 194 requests for service, everything from replacing light bulbs and basic bathroom maintenance to HVAC repairs or plumbing leaks. The CWR system tracks tasks from start to finish, and ensures that no logged request for service can fall through a virtual crack.

These online requests accounted for about 64 percent of the total 303 service requests received during the period, which we view as a positive response to the new system. This is especially notable given that, to date, just 74 of 266 building coordinators have asked for and received a username and password.

We will continue to encourage building coordinators to transition to CWR with the eventual goal of using the format exclusively for the submission of service orders. We ask that all state agencies join us by switching to the new method as soon as possible. Feel free to use that old-fangled phone on your desk if you have any questions or need help getting started.

Facility Management is dealing with a classic good news/bad news scenario – but in this example, I’m sure most everyone will agree that the good news more than balances the bad.

Starting Friday and continuing through Aug. 17, we will be shutting down the Central Heat Plant, more commonly known as the steam plant, to perform scheduled maintenance. Because of this, about 30 buildings in the Downtown State Government Complex will not have hot water during this time.

While we appreciate that this poses an inconvenience for employees, here’s the good news:  Since we will not be generating steam during that time, buildings will experience cooler temperatures than normal.

Given how hot it has been these last few weeks, this unplanned benefit should bring relief not only to hundreds of office workers, but also to our hard-working Facility Management crew – who have struggled in hot and humid conditions to keep state government workplaces comfortable during the extended heat wave.

It’s a hot job trying to keep state offices cool – or at least, reasonably comfortable – when temperatures and humidity hit and stay near record-breaking levels.

The Division of Facility Management is assigned this daunting task. We have more than a dozen employees dedicated to maintaining the chilled water systems that helps cool 5 million-plus square feet of facilities in the Downtown State Government Complex, as well as respond to service calls from locations where a chiller is not supplying adequate relief.

Much like street crews that try their best to keep roads clear with limited resources during a snow or ice storm, Facility Management is striving to maximize use of a small crew to keep the chillers working at capacity in extreme conditions.  If you think your office is warm, try to imagine how challenging it is for technicians to maintain active systems and make repairs in cramped spaces.

Our crews will remain vigilant as we experience the extreme heat and humidity forecast for this week, as we do in responding to facility maintenance needs throughout the year.

Dale Fields (left) and Alan Benson rewire a 100 horsepower motor that moves cool air to the lobby area of the Museum of History

We all know that neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night will slow the delivery of the U.S. Mail. Same principle applies here at Facility Management in the Department of Administration, where we are responsible for maintaining facilities in the Downtown State Government Complex.

We dispatched workers on Thursday, well in advance of the first flake of snow, to spread brine on sidewalks and steps near all state-owned buildings in the Complex, which should help to minimize the impact of ice. The Department of Transportation gives us a lot of brine and salt, and we’re grateful for that partnership.

While we are equipped to remove a light coating of snow, we have a contractor staging this morning to plow the parking lots and remove heavy snow if needed. We need every parking spot we’ve got, and we’ll work hard to make certain each one is cleared. Additionally, we will rope off the top level of parking decks tonight to keep drivers clear of the ice that is likely to accumulate there.

We actually expect our busy day to be Sunday, when the storm has passed and we’re able to get out and assess conditions. With bitter cold expected Monday morning, we will do our best to ensure that paths are clear and buildings are warm and ready for business.

In fiscal year 2008-09, the Division of Facility Management (FM) was able to divert more than 1,329 tons of office waste from the landfills to recycling markets under the Office Recycling Services Contract.  This year, we anticipate that total will increase as a result of HB1465, which bans the disposal of rigid plastic containers – including beverage bottles – into solid waste facilities in North Carolina.

The ban is effective Oct. 1.  For details on which plastic items must be recycled and which non-recyclable plastics should be disposed of with general trash, click here.

As part of its Recycling Services Contract, FM is providing basic recycling containers for the collection and recycling of plastic in state-owned and -maintained buildings located in the Raleigh/Wake County region. Agencies located elsewhere will need to make their own arrangements.

As a reminder, FM provides for the collection and recycling of the following items:  plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, shredded material, magazines, maps and glossy material. 

For additional tools and information on recycling programs in state government facilities, contact FM Recycling Coordinator Patricia Scurlock at patricia.scurlock@doa.nc.gov.  The N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and  Environmental Assistance provides additional resources and tools for the business, home, state and local government on recycling programs and disposal of banned landfill materials on its website at http://www.p2pays.org.