ancona
Praying Mantis
Back a few years ago, Shuttle Mission STS 124 was the heaviest shuttle ever to be launched in to space, and as a result of that, she was held down longer than any other to achieve the thrust needed to clear the tower and remain upright. The harmonics that occurred lent to the failure of huge areas of refractory brick along the east flame trench wall, causing bricks to be ejected up to a half mile away at near the speed of sound. Enter my firm. We were contacted by Lockheed Martin, pad managers at the time, and asked to drop out of the sky IMMEDIATELY [as in we want you here an hour ago] to begin to effect repairs and remediate sixty tons of asbestos containing bricks and debris.
Naturally we agreed, although cost plus work is usually always welcome at my firm. Anyhow, we worked rotating 24 hour shifts for three weeks to perform extensive repairs and set up the missing brick areas for an application of six inches of refractory cement [Fondue Fyre].
Flash forward to Thursday.
I received an invitation to bid which will see us removing all of the vertical refractory bricks from all surfaces of the entire flame trench [about an acre and a third of brick my friends] and to remove the entire steel and refractory cement flame diverter structure that sits immediately below the Shuttle main engines and boosters to deflect the flame and heat out and away from the space ship. In addition to this, there is a water deluge system that sprays a million gallons of water across the plume to instantly create a plume of dense steam, designed to dampen the insane sound waves generated by millions of pounds of thrust and cool the exhaust a bit. This fucker is comprised of dual feed pipes that lead in to a 7' diameter manifold. From the manifold, the water is piped down to five dozen nozzles which distribute the water evenly across the plume.
My first impression upon cruising through the plans is that this may in fact be a two and a half to three million dollar job, which is nothing to sneeze at. Our portion of that would approach around a million bucks.
In addition to all of that, there is an asbestos containing epoxy adhesive behind the bricks that can only be removed by using our 40,000 psi hydro-blaster using .0012" jewel tips on hornet nozzles at the gun tip.
The RFP details a 190 day window to perform the work, this prepares the trench for the next RFP they intend to issue which covers the application of stainless steel 2" flat mesh as a support grid for 5 - 6" of refractory cement to be applied in place of the brick.
The site visit is Monday and will include only the IDIQ contractors [there are six short-listed contractors, four of whom will participate] and three of them are our regular clients.
FINALLY, a job where we are virtually assured of getting the work, and getting it at a realistic price, instead of "the whores' price" that we have been getting lately.
Wish me luck 'fellas.
:wave:
Naturally we agreed, although cost plus work is usually always welcome at my firm. Anyhow, we worked rotating 24 hour shifts for three weeks to perform extensive repairs and set up the missing brick areas for an application of six inches of refractory cement [Fondue Fyre].
Flash forward to Thursday.
I received an invitation to bid which will see us removing all of the vertical refractory bricks from all surfaces of the entire flame trench [about an acre and a third of brick my friends] and to remove the entire steel and refractory cement flame diverter structure that sits immediately below the Shuttle main engines and boosters to deflect the flame and heat out and away from the space ship. In addition to this, there is a water deluge system that sprays a million gallons of water across the plume to instantly create a plume of dense steam, designed to dampen the insane sound waves generated by millions of pounds of thrust and cool the exhaust a bit. This fucker is comprised of dual feed pipes that lead in to a 7' diameter manifold. From the manifold, the water is piped down to five dozen nozzles which distribute the water evenly across the plume.
My first impression upon cruising through the plans is that this may in fact be a two and a half to three million dollar job, which is nothing to sneeze at. Our portion of that would approach around a million bucks.
In addition to all of that, there is an asbestos containing epoxy adhesive behind the bricks that can only be removed by using our 40,000 psi hydro-blaster using .0012" jewel tips on hornet nozzles at the gun tip.
The RFP details a 190 day window to perform the work, this prepares the trench for the next RFP they intend to issue which covers the application of stainless steel 2" flat mesh as a support grid for 5 - 6" of refractory cement to be applied in place of the brick.
The site visit is Monday and will include only the IDIQ contractors [there are six short-listed contractors, four of whom will participate] and three of them are our regular clients.
FINALLY, a job where we are virtually assured of getting the work, and getting it at a realistic price, instead of "the whores' price" that we have been getting lately.
Wish me luck 'fellas.
:wave:
