You are field manager for the general contractor on amulti-story office building under construction. The project hasrisen all 15 floors above the foundation. The roof is on and theexterior façade of the structure, consisting of alternating blueglass ribbon windows and red granite panels, has “dried in†theproject many weeks ago. On the third, seventh and fifteenth floors,the executive offices located on the corners of the building haveblue glass doors that lead outside to small balconies. Interiorwork (walls, electricity, hvac, water, sewer, sprinker, suspendedceiling, millwork, carpet, etc.) is well under way on several ofthe lower floors. After carefully checking the blueprints, shopdrawings and bulletin drawings completed and approved by Architects& Engineers, the superintendent for the plumbing contractorstops by your office to mention that the design doesn’t seem toprovide for floor drains on the exterior balconies. A quickconversation with the architect reveals that a serious design errorhas occurred. Floor drains and the necessary piping will need to beretrofitted that tie-in to the vertical pipe for the roof drain,located near the center of the building. There is vertical airspace (plenum) available (approx. 2 feet) on each floor between thebottom of the concrete floor slab above and the top of the ceilinggrid that can be used to route the connecting pipes to each balconydrain. However, many specialty contractors have already installedtheir work on several floors in the plenum space. Another problemis the length of connecting piping needed for each balcony drain.Following the minimum slope for the drain pipe allowed by buildingcode, the distance is so great from each balcony to the verticalroof drain in the center of the building that the connecting pipewould be visible below the ceiling grid, which is not acceptable tothe project owner. So, the piping for each balcony drain will haveto be routed at the minimum slope above the ceiling grid partway toan interior column, where a vertical pipe and floor penetrationwill be needed. Each balcony drain pipe will continue in the plenumspace on the floor below in order to reach the roof drain. Thevertical piping next to certain interior columns can be hidden withstuds and drywall. In this manner, each of the retrofitted balconydrains can connect to the vertical roof drain pipe without beingvisible in the interior office space on each floor.
List Five things/actions that you as a Manager could do to keepthe project going and solve the problem as well as what parts andhow could your Schedule be affected:
Another Problem would be Who Pays: Who and Why?
