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I had a project at US HEW department of Rad Health. (the folks who tested microwave ovens and such). It was a privately owned building, leased by the government. The DP manager had a new computer and he had IBM spec out the power. GSA said they had to do the work. About 3 weeks into the project they still hadn't done much more than mount the 200a panelboard and rough in the feeder from the main panel.

"we have to go to Gathersburg and check out the truck, pick up our tools, check out materials and get down here. Then we have to set up the job. By then it's lunch. After lunch we work as much as we can but we have to clean up and get back to Gaithersburg in time to check in our stuff and return the truck before quitting time"

(the actual excuse)

The DP manager finally just called the building management who pulled a permit, hired a local EC and was done in ONE DAY.

GSA's people seemed happy they didn't have to come back.

unbelievable!...........................................................................but totally believable.

[This message has been edited by Clydesdale (edited 10-02-2005).]

Guess I'd better defend myself here.

2/5 of the building is brand new, and all wiring is up to code and in most cases well beyond.

1/5 is currently gutted and under remodel.

That leaves 2/5 that is classified as "Legacy" space. True, much of that is REALLY ugly. It was installed in the 40's LONG before there was anything to plug in:

remember - there were NO electric typewriters, NO copiers, NO fax, NO shredders, NO computers. Wiring looked a LOT different back then.

That it has not been updated at all is utter nonsense, I was in here just out of my apprenticeship in the 70's doing upgrades on the switchgear. I have not seen the show, nor do I have a clue who made the statement, but I can say that is not an accurate statement. You can, in fact, find spots that are a nightmare, but they are few and far between as we have remodeled much of the legacy space to accomodate the people displaced from the remodel, while the entire space is not all brand new, it is all safe and pretty much up to code, and the electrical part is fairly easy.

We adhere to State of Virginia rules, but there is no county inspection. The inspections are taken care of by the Construction Management team (dat be me, and another for electrical, but I also do design and review, plus sustainable review)and we have some oversight by Dept. of Defense, not GSA.

BTW, our voltage drop issue is as per Ashrae, and yes, WE load test, AFTER I review the drawings as submitted and check the designers calcs. I'm even the jerk who knows where the farthest outlet is already, and guess where I head first?

IOW iwire, yup, it's a gummint project, but it AIN'T being overseen by da gummint.

goverment...and until the last code change...utility's are exempt from the NEC.
although some agengies are more stringent,i.e the FAA.
bill

So maybe by 2030 they'll be caught up to the 2005 standard?

The last few weeks I've had to take a friend over to hospital a few times, and naturally I've been scrutinizing every part of the electrical system I can see (yeah, I know..... )

This is a new hospital, only been open a couple of years. You can get an idea of the scale involved from the map at the back of this booklet:
http://www.nnuh.nhs.uk/Leaflet.asp?ID=2


While built by outside contractors, with it being a British National Health Service hospital, it's effectively government work.

There seem to be a lot of cracked outlets which have not been replaced, switch and outlet plates sitting skewed because one of the fixing screws is missing, and things like that.