Not ready for prime time. From the WSJ Meltdowns Hobble NSA Data Center.
The Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the data center’s construction. Chief of Construction Operations, Norbert Suter said, “the cause of the electrical issues was identified by the team, and is currently being corrected by the contractor.” He said the Corps would ensure the center is “completely reliable” before handing it over to the NSA.
Ten meltdowns at a cost of $100,000 each is a small fraction of the total $1.5 billion construction cost. However,
It took six months for investigators to determine the causes of two of the failures. In the months that followed, the contractors employed more than 30 independent experts that conducted 160 tests over 50,000 man-hours, according to project documents.
It will get fixed — the only open questions are 1) is it minor or major 2) how long it will take 3) how much it will cost and 4) who will pay for the fix. At this point the problem is blamed on “poor supervision.” As a huge, fast-track, design build project, it’s reasonable to assume that contingency funds for problems exist. OTOH, pointing a finger at “poor supervision” could be anywhere in the project chain of command: Corps of Engineers (COE), J/V General Contractor (Balfour Beatty, DPR Construction and Big D Construction, the electrical engineering design contractor KlingStubbens, and/or the electrical contractor Truland Group, Inc. (Note: none of the news reports on this project identified the electrical contractor.) Or this identified problem could be symptom of the project as a whole.
First, it’s in Utah. (I shall say no more.)
Second, it’s in Utah. This is, if not unique, an odd project component:
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) awarded a multi-million dollar Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) of Utah. This contract, which has a potential duration of five years and is vital to the overall success of the project, will provide the utilities infrastructure to the Utah Data Center (UDC) project site located at Camp Williams, Utah.
…
MIDA is an independent, nonprofit public corporation created by the state of Utah in 2007 with the purpose to facilitate the development of military land in cooperation with the military installations.
(Note: this is an NSA contract in addition to the COE construction contract. Also, no dollar value has been disclosed for this contract. Generally “indefinite quantity” federal contracts specify a minimum and maximum contract value.)
Third, it’s in Utah. That means that local construction capacity and expertise (almost all building construction has by necessity a large local component) doesn’t exist for a project of this size. (Recall that the $1.5 billion reconstruction of the I-15 reconstruction in SLC as part of the 2002 Olympic preparation required a J/V composed of three out of state contractors.) Thus, Big D construction is the Utah based partner of the the winning J/V.
Fourth, it’s in Utah. The design and construction contractors for the electrical portion are out of state. (Note: the electrical construction appears to have been performed IBEW members.)
If the COE publicly released the contract bids, I can’t find it. (However, it would be highly unusual for the COE to award a contract to the lowest bidder if they were substantially lower than the other bidders. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that Balfour/DPR/Big D offered a unique and lower cost design for the electricals.) The COE refused to identify the other competitors for the project, but the AP managed to confirm that they were:
–A team headed by Whiting-Turner of Baltimore, Md.
–A joint venture of New York-based Turner Construction Co., Kiewit Building Group of Omaha, Neb., and Salt Lake City-based Jacobsen Construction Co., according to Jacobsen executives.
— Skanska USA Building Inc. of Parsippany, N.J., and Okland Construction Co. Inc. of Salt Lake City, executives for both companies confirmed.
— Greeley, Colo.-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. and partners, according to several of the other teams. Hensel Phelps didn’t immediately return calls from the AP.
Each of the J/Vs was headed by large US construction contractors (per ENR). None appear to be inherently any stronger than Balfour Beatty/DPR/Big D for this project. Both KlingStubbens (before Jacobs recent purchase) and Truland were large but perhaps not large enough or the best fit for this job (and unlikely to have previously worked with DPR or Big D.
Or maybe the problem is that it’s in Utah.
