Fire system renovation

Client: The school for the deaf and school for the blind fremont
Date: Dec 2021-present
Approximate construction value: $145k
Location: CA, US

The school for the deaf and school for the blind has 26 student housing dormitory buildings on campus. The california dept. of education is planning to upgrade each of the buildings that were originally constructed in 1977. GHD was contracted to serve as the project fire protection engineer to develop project bid drawings and project specifications related to modifications to the existing fire sprinkler systems within each of the buildings based upon the architectural changes within each building due to the envisioned building renovation scope of work. The challenge that the project design team faced was uncertainty as to whether the authority having jurisdiction would allow the existing fire sprinkler systems to continue to serve the buildings or would the project be required to upgrade the fire sprinkler systems to comply with system installation standards? To complicate matters, as-built fire sprinkler system contractor detailed documentation was limited and as such there were significant concerns about whether the project design team would be allowed to base system design modifications on the limited system pipe routing documentation. With these challenges and need to engage a subject matter expert in fire protection engineering and building/fire code application, the project architectural design team and the california department of general services (DGS) contracted GHD to collaborate with the authorities having jurisdiction and to establish an agreed upon fire sprinkler system basis of design approach based upon the envisioned student housing dormitory renovation scope of work.

Based upon direction provided during the pre-application meeting with DSA, GHD developed a preliminary fire sprinkler system basis of design / implementation plan that is to serve as the documented agreed upon approach for modifications to the existing building fire sprinkler systems. This basis of design/implementation plan will be included with the fire sprinkler system permitting drawings when submitted to DSA for review as this document outlines the agreements for a tailored design approach and establishes the basis for allowing much of the existing fire sprinkler systems, piping support components, system piping/routing are to remain as originally installed and are considered to be exempt from retroactive upgrades to align with current system installation requirements. As a result of GHD’s subject matter expertise and ability to work with DSA in a collaborative manner, the project architectural design team (DGS) now has an established/ agreed upon basis of design with the authority having jurisdiction as to the extent to which the existing building fire sprinkler systems will be allowed to remain unchanged and the extent to which system modifications/new construction portions of the project will need to comply with current system installation standards before moving forward into the project design development and construction documents phases and has reduced the uncertainty related to potential construction costs since the fire sprinkler system scope of work has been defined during the early schematic design phase.